Maria Irene Fornes’ MUD is one of the those shows that you can imagine being done very poorly or very well.  Luckily the production done at ATA, directed by Dylan Pitanza was excellent.  Chloe Margot as Mae gives a wonderfully sexualized performance as the woman child who wants more (an education, an escape, to be loved), but has probably been used from a very young age as a sexual object by first her father and then her “brother”, Lloyd, both of whom, relied on her to bring most or all the income into the farm, do all the work and satisfy their needs.  Brain Beckerle’s “Lloyd” is man who was forever damaged by being told that he had no brains and no future and feared everything in life.  He has no way to express himself other than violence.  Aiden Castillo’s “Henry” is the ne’re do well who puts on “airs” to portray himself as educated and successful but only manipulated himself into position to destroy the little bit of life that Mae and Lloyd had before he inserted himself into their lives.

Pitzana does a wonderful job moving his characters on stage to maintain our interests and focus and to watch the actions of one or two and the reactions of the other.  We strangely get to watch Lloyd grow intellectually and Henry decline until at the end they are almost equal.  But Lloyd intellectual growth is not accompanied by emotional growth as impulsiveness propels the characters to a tragic end.  The use of music during the scene changes and the actors on stage acting through the changes make the time of the scene change part of the show.

There was only one major flaw in MUD.  The lighting director inexplicably used red LED lighting during the penultimate scene instead of the blue that LED demands to indicate evil and danger.  Hopefully, they’ll learn that LED has changed the meanings of light colors. The traditional incandescent colors no longer work.

A surprisingly masterful job by this young director and young company.