The Flood Thereafter provides a little titillation for everyone; including witchcraft, nudity and adult themes that are as compelling as they are disturbing. Paternal concern and incestuous desires haunt this performance about a mermaid who corrupts a small fishing village with sexual disquiet after a fisherman pulls her from the sea. Twenty years after the fact, all the men that the mermaid seduced are leveled to tears by the sight of their seductress' daughter. Her beauty is so profound that the men are torn between carnal lust and the paralyzing truth that anyone of them might be her father.

Post-modern and poetic, Sarah Berthiaume has weaved an oddly compelling and maddening scenario that is as murky and bold as the wildest fisherman's tale. Much of the play's intent is revealed between the lines and the ta-da moment, when everything suddenly made sense, didn't hit me until hours after the viewing. By then my legs were no longer atrophying from the cramped quarters at the Theater La Chapelle and I was finally free to meditate on the play's meaning without discomfort.