Thawed

Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans who cannot be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future (Wikipedia). Xavier Michelides’ performance in Thawed raises some interesting questions about how the process of resuscitation will occur and what will be the affects on the newly thawed.

In a possible future reality, Xavier becomes Peter, a Disney fanatic who has been invited to a dinner party to meet his hero, the recently thawed Walt Disney. His own father inconveniently dies, for the 5^th time, as he is about to go to the party and Peter is torn between fulfilling his childhood dream and pressure to attend the father’s final funeral as the family cannot afford to freeze him again.

Peter goes to the party and meets a number of people including a humanoid, his boss Mr Parsons, Fred (who has been thawed once) and Walt Disney - all played by Xavier Michelides in a masterful command of vocal and physical changes as the characters discuss and debate.

This performance is more cerebral than laugh out load. Ultimately there is no real resolution but we are left to ponder the moral and ethical questions that cryonics raises.

Shirley Jensen