A Wounded Fawn
The goddesses of retribution summoned by victims to avenge them, the Erinyes – sisters Tisiphone, Alecto and Megaera – are up for sale with fierce competition between the bidders, the bronze sculpture eventually going to Helen for $150,000; back at home afterwards, she takes off her heels and breaks out the champagne, about to begin celebrating when an unexpected caller interrupts.
Finally over the relationship which dominated and traumatised her, museum art expert Meredith is about to take a chance on a guy she met at a gallery opening, spending the weekend with Bruce at his place in the forest; suitably impressed by his taste in art she sees one object of particular interest, a bronze sculpture she recognises as one whose provenance she authenticated prior to being sold at auction…
The survivor of an abusive relationship, Meredith (Jakob’s Wife’s Sarah Lind) is a sensible, capable, educated and intelligent woman, her thesis titled Deconstructing the Myth of the Muse and the Erasure of Female Artists, yet with the road to the darkened woods lined with literal red flags, why does she knowingly isolate herself with a man she’s only met, reliant on him for food, shelter, transport and even safety?
Consciously theatrical, with flowing scarlet script announcing the act breaks, A Wounded Fawn is a Greek tragedy set in the world of art and those who are wealthy enough to live and die within it, the initially charming Bruce (Blood Relatives’ Josh Ruben) undeniably handsome but increasingly patronising and controlling as dinner progresses and Meredith realises she is trapped with a man who she no longer trusts.
Directed by Travis Stevens from a script co-written with Nathan Faudree, like Meredith who downplays good sense because she thinks she is smarter than her instincts, A Wounded Fawn is intellectual rather than emotional, Bruce and Meredith – and his earlier victims Kate and Leonora (Malin Barr and Katie Kuang) – playing archetypes in an eternal struggle in which he believes he is superior, driven and protected by an entity he has named the Red Owl, shrouded in illuminated smoke and demanding obedience.
A slow-moving drama inviting analysis and intended to be savoured, filmed with an eye on the seventies, which is to say circa 70AD, the effects are pleasingly simple as befits the dramatic roots with images projected on billowing drapes and masked figures presenting the fury of the woken Erinyes, confronting Bruce and questioning him on his actions as he pleads and bargains with primal forces of wrath he has invoked but cannot control.
A Wounded Fawn will be available on Shudder from Thursday 1st December
