Gideon's Knot

Karen Peakes & Alice M. Gatling

InterAct Theatre Company, located at 2030 Sansom Streets, is presenting Gideon’s Knot through February 9.  A keenly stimulating two-woman performance, this piece is set in a 5^th grade classroom during a parent-teacher conference.  Scenic Designer Colin McIlvaine has done an excellent job with the depiction of an elementary school classroom.  As the presentation unfolds, stereotypes are nurtured only to be blasted apart.  Niceties dissolve into acrimony and are replaced once again with solicitude.  Playwright Johnna Adams has intimately crafted a tale that gives us a peek into a ten-year old’s psyche as carefully as one can peel an onion, layer by layer.  In the search for answers following the sudden death of a 10 year old student, his mother, Corryn, played by Alice M. Gatling and his teacher Heather, portrayed by Karen Peakes, each reveal many strata to the core of their existence as well.  The acting in this production is superb.  Karen Peakes aptly plays the inexperienced teacher who tries to protect the majority of her pupils from a student she neither understands nor is certain can’t be a threat.  Alice M. Gatling portrays a much stronger personality who is determined to discover the underlying cause of her son’s death.  Drama doesn’t get any better than this. For more information or tickets, call 215-568-8079 or visit online at www.interacttheatre.org