"Frozen," The Chance Theater, Anaheim, CA

There’s no middle ground in Bryony Lavery’s harrowing Frozen at the Chance Theater.

Under Oanh Nguyen’s keen direction, illuminated with three jarring performances, staged on a stark set that belies the moral complexities of the roots of evil, this in-your-face production forces us to decide whether a murderer should be held accountable for his actions or if the act results from forces beyond his control.

Set mostly in England for twenty years beginning in 1980, it’s a compelling, riveting script: strong characters kaleidoscopically thrown into an unimaginable situation.

Lavery nicely contrasts between hot and cold; between victim and perpetrator: emotional, physical, and moral. She sets up a seemingly detached, rational person, a doctor cum mediator, who concludes that the perpetrator is not responsible for his actions.

Try telling that to Nancy Shirley (Karen Webster) who cannot get on with her life after the disappearance of her teenage daughter. She’s beside herself with grief: her gestures are erratic; her facial expressions are emphatic; and her voice is strained with anxiety.

She clings to a flame-flicker of hope while she’s frozen in the moment of her daughter’s disappearance; she can’t let go; she cleans her room, rearranges her things, in the hope that she would appear back on the front doorstep. Impassioned, she speaks out on behalf of missing children for an organization called FLAME, a label that also describes her state of mind.

Eventually the murderer, a serial killer, as it happens, is caught. Ralph Wantage (Jonathon Lamer) is apprehended and thrown in prison. His violence (and tatoos) belie the apparent coolness of his heinous deeds: he plans his crimes with method and precision; he parks his van nearby while he awaits a window of opportunity. He knows that time is on his side. Initially Lavery leads us to believe that he is guilty of premeditated assault and murder.

Then things cloud up.

Enter Agnetha Gottmundsdottir (Jennifer Ruckman), a New York doctor who travels to London to study the physical causes of evil. She’s just suffered her own loss: a married colleague with whom she had a fling had just been killed in an auto accident.

Clinically she believes that there are physical roots to evil and thus no victim-accountability although she doesn’t apply that line of thought to the death of her colleague; her grief rivals that of Nancy.

Excellent performances ensure that the confrontations – Nancy versus Ralph, Nancy versus Agnetha, and Agnetha versus Ralph –take your breath away.

Initially Lamer made Ralph so smug that you wanted to throttle him. Watch what happens when remorse read guilt sets in.

To the end Webster kept Nancy dignified and hopeful, which made the conclusion all the more sweet.

Agnetha was the most complex role and Ruckman nailed it; rational, as a doctor; impassioned, as a lover; and off the chart bonkers when the two roles crossed in that final exchange with Ralph.

Performances are 4 pm, Saturday, 6 pm, Sunday. The play runs until June 17. Tickets are $22-25. The Theater is located at 5552 E. La Palma Avenue, Anaheim. For more information call (714) 777-3033 or visit www.chancetheater.com/