In the dark of the Welsbacher Theatre on Thursday night, the sound of old speakers playing “Dead Men Don’t Rape” by Delilah Bon cut through the soft chatter of the audience. “The Angel of Death” had begun.
The School of Performing Arts show follows Alicia, a social worker who grows tired of the injustices of the legal world. When she finally has had enough and quits her job, Damien, an aloof demon, breaks into her house to make good on a deal from her late mother for her to continue her legacy.
Alicia, after being taunted by Damien, relents to his badgering and decides to continue down the path her unhinged mother had been teaching her for years; Not a path of playing with dolls and going to the park, but a path of dissolving bones and cleaning up crime scenes.
“The Angel of Death” tells a harrowing story of rage and the endless cycle of abuse and torment that a child will fall prey to if pushed hard enough.
Written by Amanda Schmalzried, a Wichita State student and the most recent winner of Bela Kiralyfalvi National Student Playwriting Competition, “The Angel of Death” was a byproduct of her own helplessness and rage at the current world around her.
There were many inspirations for the piece, Schmalzried said, such as the rage she felt when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 and The Jane Collective. She was also inspired by her fascination with female serial killers.
“I watched a documentary … (about) the most notorious female serial killer, (and) the reason why she was that way was because she killed a man,” Schmalzried said. “And I thought, ‘That’s really stupid. We can up the ante there.’ And so I said, ‘How (about) if women were really fucking angry and they gave into that anger, how would they kill?’”
With these dark topics being the primary theme of the play, the actors had to find ways to remind themselves that they were not their characters.
Fio Willis, who played Narrator, said that even though they were just reading the stage directions, it was still hard to hear this show performed every night for the few practices they had.
“These are all such wonderful people when you know them in real life, and they’re my friends so hearing wonderful people say horrible things wears on you,” Willis said. “So I think hugging each other after (each practice) and reminding myself and reminding each other that we are not the people that we are reading about (was very important).”
Morgan Holcomb, who played Alicia’s murderous mother, had to learn how to embrace her role before she could learn how to leave the character behind. Holcomb said she was always typecast as a funny side character or mother. So when she was cast as a mother once again, she was severely shocked by how different this character behaved compared to her other roles.
“When I read it fully before we started, I was like, ‘Oh God, this is not the caring, nurturing, ‘I love my kid,’ like I want you to be the best kind of mom I’ve ever played (character),” Holcomb said. “… Reading this and just 180 (degree) flipping, like this is a narcissistic, abusive, rage-filled mother and going into it with Jane (Gabbert) was so incredibly helpful … Finding out that I can do that was so important to me and it stretched me so much as an actor.”
Stevie Longacre, who played Alicia, also struggled to place themselves into their role at first and understand her character’s motive.
“I went back because I was having problems understanding the role and I thought I knew more than I did,” Longacre said. “… I was like, ‘Does she know about the ‘Angel of Death?’ Has she known about this her whole life?’ And with the confirmation of yes, she has known this her whole life, it kind of just frameworked me into being like, ‘Oh, so she’s never gotten to be a child before.’”
Sean Gorman, who played Damien, had a different challenge fitting into his role.
“I have to maintain an aloofness as this character that doesn’t care,” Gorman said. “ … I don’t care about children or any of that, I’m just trying to make a turbo-murdered over here … I spent a lot of time circling the building, listening to music, trying to maintain a level of ‘Okay, I’m a cool, fabulous, sexy demon. I don’t give two shits.’”
Wichita State alumna Jane Gabbert flew from New York to visit family and direct ‘The Angel of Death.’ Before she even touched Kansas’ soil, she and Schmalzried had many phone calls discussing the play and the deeper message behind it.
“(Schmalzried and I) talked a lot about rage, that we all collectively agree that we all have and how frustrating it can be when it’s not looked and realized and when we do have it, where do we put it,” Gabbert said. “I know a lot of women especially — men too, I don’t want to exclude men by any means — but women are feeling a collective rage right now and Amanda and I just immediately clicked because where do we put that collective rage?”
