Seven Snakes

At its best, this sci-fi spaghetti Western set in a postapocalyptic future is some of the finest genre theater you’ll find—funny, visually striking, unexpected. For such a small space, the Mammals’ Ravenswood loft features a deep and dynamic playing area that’s used superbly. The large cast is well suited to the style, particularly Erin Elizabeth Orr as the forlorn young lover known as the Girl and Matt Kahler as the Colonel, a sort of Donald Rumsfeld–meets–Foghorn Leghorn villain. Throw in live music, guns, gruesome facial disfigurements and just about the best-ever birds-and-bees speech, and you’ve got the fixins for fine Western freakout.

Unfortunately for the Mammals—here following up Fisher’s equally bracing, equally scattered “Noir Triptych”—a great meal is not made just by procuring the finest ingredients. After a strong first act delivers a sympathetic heroine, a mysterious stranger and a host of wildly entertaining supporting roles, Seven Snakes spins out of control into a shrieking, unfocused scream-fest of bloody spectacle. Some of this retains the visually dynamic and well-played gruesome aspects of what came before. But once the Girl’s story is subsumed into a nonstop mishmash of stylish shoot-outs and cringe-inducing torture scenes, the ending lands with a thud. Seven Snakes is ultimately a likable mess, but fans of genre theater should keep their eyes on the Mammals.

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