By Joe Szek

Thank goodness I stayed for the Q & A after the matinee performance of ‘Lies and Consequences’ because I learned a great deal more about the genesis of the story and how it came to fruition for playwright Carol Libman (to whom I was introduced and also saw that she was selling tickets to the event. What selfless devotion of Mrs. Libman to ensure the production runs smoothly). For this sometimes-controversial and shocking story of ‘What happens when a family secret…is secret no longer’, I believe Q & A’s are extremely important for debriefing of highly sensitive subject material.

The intimate black box venue of The Red Sandcastle Theatre made me face head on what the playwright and director called a healing journey for themselves. This journey was sometimes difficult and uncomfortable for me. Why? Director Jeanette Dagger comments in the Program Notes she “was shocked to discover how many women, at some point in their young lives, have been either sexually harassed or abused…and to discover the variance of the overall effect of these incidents on their futures.” I began to wonder how many of my female friends and/or family members might have faced the same issues and I was completely unaware of what happened. If anything happened to my family and friends, which story is the truth?