Written and directed by Cyndy A. Marion, “Broken Story” follows Jess, played by Jessie Ruane, who’s looking to fill in the missing pieces of an ivestigation of a mob-style murder. The mystery unfolds as the driven New York reporter travels to Los Angeles in pursuit of justice for one of her favorite novelists, Jane Hartman. While investigating Jane’s murder, Jess quickly realizes the novelist’s murder is related to another murder investigation that she has been obsessed with for most of her life.
As Jess starts to uncover the truth, everyone, including Jane’s best friend Darby and her business manager Kip, are suspects. Despite being suspects themselves, they team up with her to unravel the lies and broken stories. Jess (and the audience) uncovers the details about the intertwining cases in real-time scenes and emotional flashbacks. We also meet Jess’s love interest and editor who follows her to the West Coast to persuade her to give up the story. In the beginning, his motives are unclear. Later, in an unexpected turn, we find out why.
The mysteries are intriguing but a little unfinished. As Jess learns more about Jane, the story shifts away from her murder and the emphasis is put on the other case, leaving much to be desired.
While I felt the story was relatively unfinished, the cast’s performance is very strong. Through the acting, I did feel pulled into the twists and turns of the investigations. Against the backdrop of a remarkable large installation of broken pieces, set designer Andis Gjoni really gives us the perfect mood of the play. Broken Story is for those of us who like murder mysteries with unexpected turns. The show is presented by White Horse Theater Company and is running now through November 16 at The Gene Frankel Theatre. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at https://whtc.ticketleap.com/BrokenStory/.
