Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Quantum Theater never fails to amaze with big bold productions that generate more questions than answers.

The latest is radio island a play by Liza Birkenmeier. Billed as a gothic thriller with an interpersonal twist, the show is staged at Rockwell Park in North Point Breeze. Rockwell Park is a mixed use development.

radio island is the debut show of new creative director Katie Brook. She’s produced before for Quantum, but she’s filling mighty big shoes.

The play centers around mother and adult daughter, Paula and Ellen, in the family home. Paula is recovering from a medical ailment and Ellen has returned home to care for her. Ellen is ill at ease, conflicted between familial duty and her outside life. She’s wound up tightly.

Paula is rather unlikeable, yammering on every single thought that goes through her head without any filter. She means well, she loves her daughter. But her incessant chatter serves to try to connect with listeners while verbally reinforcing the protective wall around her home.

Paula is portrayed by Helena Ruoti who stepped in at the last minute when the original actor had an emergency. We were notified ahead of the curtain that “one character” might be on book (on script) but they never told us which character. Ruoti deftly wheeled about with the pages tucked unobtrusively. I was curious which character was a fill-in, Ruoti gave a great performance even with her limited preparation. She’s that mother we all know, find annoying, but also feel a little pity in our hearts.

I could definitely see the call-back to her performance in Downstairs in 2020.

Ellen is a hostage negotiator, a career she pursued after fleeing the unspoken trauma of the family’s past. Her girlfriend seemingly pops in for a visit to help, but serves no discernible role. Demanding Ellen affirm her love in the midst of all of this is exactly why they don’t fit together. The actors were a studied contrast with the willowy Melinda Nanovsky looming over the more petite Siovhan Christensen. Nanovsky was underused, as proof of how many walls surrounded Ellen’s heart, not a fleshed out role.

Ellen takes on a job negotiating a kidnapped naval crew in the midst of this. At first an escape, this soon becomes the anchor that helps Ellen remember her humanity and desire to connect with others.

The stage was an uncomfortable choice – inaccessible, sometimes unviewable. Our views were blocked by the rotating partial walls, reminding us of the layers of secrets and partial views anyone has. The slow moving circle did reveal all, sort of.

Lurking in the dark is Ellen’s adoptive father and Paula’s husband, a violent man whose presence looms large when bad things happen. Unprocessed trauma proves dangerous for both women.

I found the hostage negotiator with a traumatic past a little too familiar – see any significant procedural television show. The ending of the crisis negotiation was predictable, but necessary to connect Ellen to her self. She’s a wounded hero trope.

Maybe it is my trauma filtering the experience of the show, but I didn’t connect with Ellen. It seemed ridiculous for her to take on such a delicate task at that particular moment. It certainly didn’t feel like a responsible or healthy choice. Somali pirates, really? And it goes wrong. Because unexamined trauma often does

It was me, not the play. The theatricality sometimes doesn’t land well because of the audience member’s own experiences. That’s okay. My experience with this play has given me a lot to chew on in the ensuing days.

I don’t know a thing about directing, lighting, or sword fighting. I’m just my honest self describing what resonates with me, and what doesn’t. I am firmly in camp middlebrow when it comes to all art. My aim is to get you to see for yourself.

I couldn’t buy in to the premis, the haunting atmosphere, or the subplot. So I was stuck staring at the house and the island and wondering about the radio and quite lost. The ending felt anti-climatic possibly because my trauma felt worse. And that’s a terrible feeling. It was a classic case of ‘sensory underload” – I couldn’t see the setting well, it was a very dark space, and the radio static was unnerving. So I dissociated. Sort of like Ellen.

Nonetheless, I encourage you to see this staging for yourself. Paula is a classic Boomer generation wife and mother who subverts stereotypes by leaning into them. It is a great role and worth seeing. Ruoti owes me a Q&A from 2020, but I’ll never tell.

The play runs through November 15, 2026.