Muriel Vanderbilt Goes Walking

Written and directed by Dan Shanahan (2004)

Part of Torn Space Theater’s Original Performance Series

Muriel Vanderbilt Goes Walking tells the story of a woman stolen away to her room and forced to listen to the sounds of her husband’s infidelities, which turn to shrieks of pain, as the house becomes a playground for the acting out of sexual and violent fantasies. As Muriel’s beauty and sanity erode, the jealousy she originally felt begins to transform into an unnameable fear. She believes it to be the rain or unexpected guests that are moving about the hallways outside her locked bedroom. Inside the room she begins to live in memories. One of these memories becomes the story of The Juniper Tree, a tale of creation that may have given birth to Muriel’s present confinement.