Falcon Theatre is starting their 2025-2026 off with a proverbial (and apropos) “bang” via its production of The Secretary by Kyle John Schmidt. Described as “an offbeat comedy about safety, love, and guns”, it tells the tale of a small-town gun company whose goal is to empower women to protect themselves with guns named after women who used a firearm themselves to save a life.
The Production Team
Director and Scenic Designer Claire LaNicca puts together a rather cohesive set. The entire play takes place in the office of Ruby, the owner of the gun company. Beautiful little touches like a chair with jeweled accents and a very small-town-meets-corporate aesthetic with the shelves and other furniture work well on the Falcon stage. Cheers to Set Construction by fellow Scenic Designer Ted Weil, Clint Ibele, and Katie Ruwe (who also Stage Manages and executes Lighting and Sound.)
The live action on stage is punctuated by video vignettes expertly crafted by Ms. LaNicca and Dillon Goettke (with Special Thanks citing Highland High School Theater & Audio/Video Department). These were a particular hit with the Opening Saturday crowd.
The Performing Artists
From the all-female six-person ensemble, two provided some particularly dynamic performances. Angela Alexander Nalley plays farmer-turned-secretary Lorrie, a role unlike one audiences may have seen her tackle. Ms. Nalley is committed to the role in every way possible, from her hair and makeup to her gait and her cadence in speech. While the entirety of her performance is larger than life, she is keenly aware of keeping in the peaks and valleys to make her character more human in the midst of caricature.
As Ruby, the gun company’s owner and town magnate, Raia Jane Hirsch is nothing short of perfection. She embodies the ideal combination of small-town big fish and all the dilemmas which accompany such a role. Ms. Hirsch’s delivery is sharp and her movements are comfortable, yet deliberate. It is very easy to see through her portrayal that we’d all like a Ruby on our side.
The Sweet and Lowdown
The production suffers some hiccups: sluggish pacing, an unnecessary hair accessory, and actors who are not the correct stage age to fit their characters, to name a few. Most of all, I wish Ms. LaNicca had pushed the “absurdist” harder with her direction. The play needs to be all in or all out with its depiction and this iteration is very wishy-washy. It is hard to know when to laugh and when to be still because it isn’t clear which parts are dark humour and which parts are to be taken seriously. But the messages are present and should be heard.
Like current events, there are truths and there are lies. Either way, gun control is anything but a black-and-white issue, regardless of what the extremists say. This show will make you take a pause and a think, two things which can often be overlooked when all we hear are words over top of one another.
Tickets to The Secretary
The Secretary presented by Falcon Theatre runs now through October 4th. Purchase tickets here.
