During 3 months in 1965, a 16 year-old girl was tortured and killed in the Indiana home of the Menckl family. Down There explores how this could have happened and what it might have felt like to the perpetrators as well as the victim.

Casey Kindens and her sister Joyce were boarded at Pat Menckl's house while their parents went to find work. Mr. and Mrs. Kindens knew nothing of the Menckls, and the sole connection was that Casey had played in the park with Pat's niece Paula once or twice. After a few weeks, when the $20-per-month boarding fee failed to arrive, Casey and Joyce were denied meals and beaten with a board. In an attempt to protect her polio-afflicted sister from further beatings, Casey took all the blame for future offenses, both real and imagined. The abuse escalated to the point where Casey was receiving daily life-threatening beatings, cigarette burns and scalding baths. Neighborhood teenagers joined in the torture, which was overseen by the sickly, phenobarbitol-addicted Pat.

After the words "I am a prostitute and proud of it" were carved into Casey's stomach, Pat realized that if anyone saw the girl's condition they all would "get in trouble." Pat forced Casey to write a letter to her parents, explaining that she had caused her injuries by going with a "gang of boys in the middle of the night." Following a final attempt at escape, Casey was dragged back into the home and beaten to death.

At no time during any of these events did Casey's sister attempt to alert anyone nor did any visiting neighbor contact the police when they heard Casey screaming for her life. How could a diverse group of people of various ages—who went to school, interacted with others, had their own families, ate snacks and played—return daily to a basement and torture a girl to death? And: Why didn't Casey run away? What was in her personal condition that allowed her to understand her abuse as something normal?

Based on the real-life 1965 torture murder of Sylvia Likens, Down There is a new play from Axis Company, written and directed by Randy Sharp (based on an original script by Randy Sharp & Michael Gump).


photos: Dixie Sheridan (click to enlarge)





Featuring Laurie Kilmartin, Jim Sterling, George Demas, Britt Genelin, David Crabb, Brian Barnhart, Regina Betancourt and Lynn Mancinelli

Assistant Director, Marc Palmieri; Stage Manager, Edward Terhune; Dramaturgy, Marc Palmieri, Christopher Swift

Lighting Designer, David Zeffren; Sound Designer, Steve Fontaine; Costume Designer, Elisa Santiago; Set Construction, Chad Yarborough; Photography, Dixie Sheridan; Website & Graphic Design, Ethan Crenson




read the full review




read the full review




read the full review