Boxes at Theatre West

In Boxes, medical student Sigourney Cushing has lost her research grant due to temporary cutbacks, but finds a research position with a doctor with an unusual scientific experiment. Sigourney is not merely smart. She's intuitive and sensitive. She's attractive and sensuous, if not a movie star. She has no money, but she has a boyfriend, Marvin, even if he is something of a commitment-phobe. She is also self-critical, which makes her vulnerable. Her new boss, Dr. Robert Eden, assigns her to record her responses to a series of objects presented in boxes (hence the title). The objects stimulate her intellect and open her to sensual desires and she soon begins to pursue her erotic attraction to Dr. Eden. But Dr. Eden has a stunning colleague, Dr. Kelly Banford, the woman who initially referred Sigourney to her new job, and who is apparently Eden's mistress. It soon becomes evident that Sigourney is being manipulated by Eden and Banford in a sinister scheme that can ultimately lead to no good. Soon, Sigourney will be standing over a body on the floor with a literal smoking gun in her hand. Make no assumptions. The story has more twists, turns and dangerous curves than the Topanga Canyon Highway, and you will not foresee the surprising conclusion.