By Erin Randolph erin@dmcityview.com

StageWest has never had a problem picking timely, heavy, thought-provoking plays to be a part of its theater season. Earlier in its season, the popular local theater company brought "Angels in America: The Millennium Approaches" to the Stoner Studio Theater stage. Now the theater company has picked another heavy topic, pedophilia, in its latest production, Bryony Lavery's Tony Award-nominated "Frozen." The Midwest premiere of "Frozen" will be at the Civic Center's Stoner Studio Theater on Friday and the play will run Wednesdays through Sundays through Jan. 22.

"Frozen" addresses our attitudes about crime and punishment. But more specifically, it deals with the treatment of child-abusing serial killers. In it, the lives of three different people are intertwined due to the disappearance of an English girl, Rhona, who vanished on the way to her grandmother's house. And all three, in effect, are "frozen" in some way: Nancy, Rhona's grief-stricken mother, is stuck in the time period of her disappearance; Ralph, a loner institutionalized for his inappropriate behavior with children, is stuck in the time period where his mind got screwed up; and Agnetha, an American psychologist conducting research for her thesis, "Serial Killing: A Forgivable Act?," is frozen with guilt due to a personal situation.

"I am giving a speech and explaining my findings of how child abuse and how mental - it doesn't even have to be physical - child abuse does have an effect on the brain," says Kim Grimaldi, who is playing Agnetha in the play. "My belief is that the more we learn about this the more we learn that there is a physical reason that these people are acting the way they do. This goes to the real moral issue, that you have these people, and if you can physically prove they have done this act because of a brain injury, is it a crime of evil or is it a crime of illness?"

And just as the issues addressed in "Frozen" are, for the most part, left for the audience to draw its own conclusion, the characters in the play must come to some conclusion, as well, and Agnetha's is one she struggles with, Grimaldi says.

"My belief as the doctor is that ultimately science at some point will be able to prove that this behavior is a physical behavior, that they did not make a conscious choice," she says. "However, I recognize the dilemma and I'm not really at peace with it. Although I can be sympathetic in a scientific way, morally I'm torn with that."

The subject matter is a horrible, depressing reality, Grimaldi says. But it's one that can't be ignored. And "Frozen" is definitely a play for people who are open to new ideas.

"It's for people who like to think, who like to be challenged, who like theater that makes them think," Grimaldi says. "It's for the people who understand the value of the impact theater can have on making you think and broadening and giving you a perspective."

The scenic designer, Jamie Leo, says "Frozen" is one of the most beautiful plays he's seen in years. Leo is a theater artist in New York City, and is flying to Des Moines for a week to oversee the implementation of his design. He's originally from Northwood, close to the Minnesota border, and is a graduate of the University of Iowa. And now that he lives in New York, he still keeps a barometer reading on the theater scene in Iowa, and he decided he wanted to be involved with "Frozen" despite the imposition.

"There's a lot I like about the play," Leo says. "But what excites me the most is what I love about it. What I love about it is that it's sublime. It's almost religious to me the amount of humanism, its commitment to delving into the human psyche and taking us into the consequences of these peoples' choices." CV

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