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Second Death of a Mad Wife by Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos

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  • Jillian Blevins:
    25 Aug. 2023
    “ Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos offers us a well-constructed, wildly theatrical puzzle: the perfect kind, not too easy to solve, with just enough clues to keep driving us to figure it out. And of course, once all the pieces slide into place, the picture right there in front of us, it seems so clear all along.

    With echoes of Williams, Dickens, and Doyle (plus a lurid Penny Dreadful or two) SDOAMW will satisfy history and literature lovers; but you needn’t have an interest in Victorian serial killers or the Southern Gothic to be intrigued by this feverish mystery. ”
  • Doug DeVita:
    12 May. 2021
    “ Holy Shit! Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos has written a wonderfully creepy and surreal “Northeastern Southern Gothic Noir,” her wildly theatrical sense of the absurd firing on all cylinders here. And in “FLORENCE “BUNNY” MAYBRICK aka MISS CHANDLER” she has given us a fabulously worthy heiress to all those fabulously eccentric heroines Tennessee Williams (with a slight nod to Giraudoux) made so irresistible to actresses (and actors) as well as audiences; I so want to see this performed! ”
  • Cheryl Bear:
    23 Feb. 2021
    “ A fantastically dark and entertaining mystery as the sinister unfolds! Well done! ”
  • Dana Leslie Goldstein:
    3 Feb. 2020
    “ Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos' "Second Death of a Mad Wife" is one of the most original theater pieces I've ever experienced. The line between truth and fiction is deliberately gauzy, and it's a pleasure to be led through the unreliable memories of Bunny Maybrick, as she relates to her possibly sinister teenage caretaker, her few remaining possessions, and her cats (embodied by alternately funny, judgmental, caring and cruel performers). I would love the opportunity to see this play in what would undoubtedly be a rich and macabre full production. ”
  • Maximillian Gill:
    30 Jan. 2020
    “ A beautifully rendered Gothic mystery that doesn't even actually feel like a mystery until you have become completely immersed in its darkly layered evocations of unseemly deeds and minds pushed just a little too far past the edge. In the reading, I just let the beautiful language wash over me and take me to places richly populated by finely detailed characters. I am sure seeing the visuals come alive would be an entirely different experience, and I dearly hope I have the chance to see a full production. ”
  • Franky D. Gonzalez:
    29 Jan. 2020
    “ Second Death of a Mad Wife lives up to its genre billing as a dark comedy. Bringing together an unreliable narrator and an unreliable listener, Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos creates a ghost story that leaves you questioning what's truth, what's fiction, what's madness, and what's gaslighting. Just as you feel you're coming to a kind of understanding, you're thrown another curveball in this wild ride in the most unexpectedly lush setting you could find for someone living in a squalid shack. Second Death of a Mad Wife is both unique and a delight for those who love the unusual and macbre. ”
  • Molly Wagner:
    28 Jan. 2020
    “ Charming and horrible! This play keeps you on your toes with a cast of delightful and terrible characters and a story so wonderfully strange that I couldn't believe it was based off an actual person! ”
  • Craig Martin:
    24 May. 2019
    “ It was my honor to participate in an early reading of this script and to later see it as a staged reading at Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette. The descriptive language of the setting and movements of the cat chorus, combined with their fleeting yet powerful utterances, leaves me wishing to see this play in full production. It's a dance of visual poetry, mixed with uncomfortable tensions and the voices of dark intent. I marvel at its openness and atmosphere, as well as its disdain for making things clear or simple. Beautiful and scary. ”
  • Steven G. Martin:
    14 May. 2019
    “ I had the pleasure of attending a staged reading of "Second Death of a Mad Wife" May 14, 2019, at Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette in Lafayette, Indiana.

    The script showcases McBurnette-Andronicos' exceptional skills at world building through her research into historic personalities and events; establishing a claustrophobic, uneasy atmosphere; and creating a character-driven mystery that doesn't offer pat answers. I look forward to attending a full production of this play -- it offers a complicated and satisfying night of theatre. ”
  • Ricardo Soltero-Brown:
    27 Jan. 2019
    “ A resplendent language fills a forbidding tale of past performances primed for the present, ready to collect on their dues. McBurnette-Andronicus does a phenomenal job of transporting us to a world now recherché with archaic practices and arcane behaviors, it is a mystery from the get-go - with some unexpected, most welcome one-liners. We are lured in by a cat lady who is much defensive in her exchanges, one reason is her mental state. Tokens throughout hold sinister significance and soon it's as if the mansion itself is unstable, the walls bound to cave in at any moment. Highly theatrical! ”

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