:: The Sugar Syndrome
Written by Lucy Prebble
Directed by Eric Little
Designed by John Armstrong, Eric Little and Jason Little
Performed by Terry Meddows, Mary Schnitzler, Magan Wiles* and Anthony Wininger
(*member of Actors Equity Association)

The Tin Ceiling Theater
April 2006

Kevin Kline Award Nomination for Best Leading Actress – Magan Wiles

Best Stage Production – Riverfront Times “Best of 2006”
“What a mesmerizing evening of theater this was, on every count. For starters, how many 22-year-olds write plays as exhilarating and immediate as Lucy Prebble’s THE SUGAR SYNDROME? The story concerns the quirky relationship between Dani, a bulimic teenager straight out of the hospital, and Tim, a middle aged pedophile straight out of prison. In the lead roles, Magan Wiles and Terry Meddows made for a riveting odd couple: She was a centipede with the shivers; he was stillness personified. They received solid support from Mary Schnitzler as Dani’s confused mother and Anthony Winninger as Dani’s Internet boyfriend. In mounting the Midwest premiere of a show that apparently none of our larger theaters had any interest in, Eric Little’s shoestring Echo Theatre Company validated its relevance – and the relevance of all theaters willing to take risks. If any single play in the past year demanded seeing, it was this authentically raw drama rooted in the here and now.”

Named one of the Top Ten Theater Moments of 2006
-Riverfront Times

“THE SUGAR SYNDROME’S exhilarating, surprising ride jars the viewer into a remembrance of just how gripping, fun and immediate theater can be. Few excursions into loneliness are as fully realized, and as authentically here-and-now, as THE SUGAR SYNDROME.”
-Riverfront Times

“THE SUGAR SYNDROME is a surprisingly beautiful story of people who would admittedly be quite awful on their own. Director Eric Little has led his four actors into a place where comedy and tragedy, irony and romance are all perfectly balanced. Terry Meddows is wonderfully tender and deeply unsettling as Tim, a more or less reformed child molester. Mr. Meddows always carries with him the air of a man crushed by life’s most awful cruelties. Even so, he is capable of remaining as bubbly as a glass of champagne. He may well be the only man in town who can play a role like this and still be loveable. Magan Wiles is splendid as the main character Dani, the 17 year old bulimic who befriends him. We follow her from chat-room hookups with awkward likeable Lewis (nicely played by Anthony Wininger) to desolate home-life with Dani’s mother (Mary Schnitzler). Ms. Schnitzler is very good as the abandoned wife who can never seem to jump into the driver’s seat in any of her relationships. As her daughter, Ms. Wiles is (by turns) delightfully snide and mercifully sympathetic. THE SUGAR SYNDROME stands somewhere between Nichols and May and Eugene O’Neill in structure. The mixture is undeniably fascinating.
-KDHX Radio

“ As the young woman, Dani, Magan Wiles radiates energy and intensity like an exploding supernova. Whether in agony or in ecstasy, Wiles excavates every complex corner of this troubling, troubled and daring individual. Brilliance is a given with Terry Meddows. His character, the pederast struggling to control his lusts, burns at a lower intensity than does Wiles character. But burn he does and Meddows catches each flicker of the flame in the sweet, tortured soul. Surely, Mary Schnitzler, is too young to play Magan Wiles’ mother. But Schnitzler makes you believe. And she handles the character with the delicacy it deserves. Anthony Wininger, too, makes sure we see that the chat room date is not a total loser. Even when he turns dangerous, Wininger lets enough of the young man’s pain seep through that we retain a shred of sympathy for him. Echo Theatre Company spins very fine theater from troubled-youth and dysfunctional- family straw.”
-The West End Word

“Magan Wiles dominates the production with a mesmerizing performance as the self-destructive Dani. Eric Little’s direction is solid throughout, establishing the complexities of these characters through meticulous pacing and introspection. Schnitzler, Meddows and Wininger are all strong in their supporting performances, especially Meddows who layers Tim with surprising and effective dimension.”
-Ladue News