April suffers a cat's emotional state, in which pleasure yields to panic and scratching. She demands independence while crying for company. Into Scales comes Denise Savage, who is starved both physically and spiritually and whose voice is the petrified squeal of a pig that senses slaughter. She's all nerves, staying clear of corners, and she pines for music to soothe her. Shanley's world becomes an explosive menagerie.
Savage is haunted by both life's waste and the hell of hope.
The bleary-eyed April likens life to a struggle between a corpse and an animal. Savage chastises Murk, pointing out that the plants he is watering are dead. There are times when the energy is full-on, though one of Shanley's occasional paranoid silences, as called for in the stage directions, would add texture. There are also important lines that are forsaken for effect, but this is rare. Sean Skvarka as Murk and Chris Harder as Tony make excellent opposites.