Through a combination of virtuoso manipulation, beautiful music, theatrical illusion and artistic insight, the original vignettes presented in “Simple Gifts” explore a range of emotions with characters and actions that are lifelike and convincing.

Veteran artist Joseph Cashore has been designing, building and performing with his special marionettes for more than 30 years.

Performances are at 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 15-17, with 2 p.m. matinees on March 16 and 17 in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Tickets are $35 general, $17.50 for students and children, available at www.mondaviarts.org or 530-754-2787.

“I see Sabrina all around me, in all that is good, in her beautiful smile, her laugh, her devotion to others, but mostly her compassion.”

— Terese Atallah, Sabrina’s sister, in a letter read by her husband Carlos Atallah

“My family and I often think of their last hours. …In some way, we feel that if we can walk with them in our minds, they will not have had to face their deaths alone.”

— Andrea Gonsalves Rosenstein, Sabrina’s sister

“I miss the big-brother advice he never had the chance to give. I regret not having been given the chance to see the look on his face the first time he held his niece and nephew.”

— Carrie Riggins Mack, John’s sister, in a letter read by her cousin Beth Gabor

“It was our 22nd wedding anniversary on that Dec. 20, 1980. Since then we do not celebrate the day nor can we change it. We acknowledge our John on that day.”

— Kate Riggins, John’s mother

“I would be remiss not to mention the length of time that has passed before the trial actually started. The question I ask myself, was it necessary to continuously delay and delay and delay the proceedings, and to whose benefit was that for?”

— Ginger Swigart, Sabrina’s aunt

“When calling John’s parents on their anniversary or Christmas day or John’s birthday, we no longer knew what to say. …(O)ne whose child has suffered the most horrific death can never by wished a Merry Christmas without a false ring to it.”

— Judy Gabor, Riggins family cousin

“Throughout the 32 years since their murders I have been tortured by ‘what if’ questions — what if John and Sabrina had lived, married and raised a family? … The contributions they could have made to society were immense, but tragically they will never be known due to the crimes of Richard Hirschfield.”

— Robert Riggins, John’s brother

“We will never know the gifts that John and Sabrina would have given society, but we do know Hirschfield’s contributions: humiliation, pain and death. It is altogether fitting and proper that this evil man be sentenced to death for what he has done. I can only hope the state will expedite his execution.”

— Dick Riggins, John’s father

“If he is executed, I would like to be there. If I am dead, I hope a family member will attend. Sabrina deserves whatever justice we can provide in this life. I have faith that God will provide the rest.”

— George Gonsalves Jr., Sabrina’s father, in a letter read by his son Stephen Gonsalves

“Promised Land”

Four stars

Starring: Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski, Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook, Titus Welliver, Lucas Black

Rating: R, for profanity

No doubt Damon has been waiting for just the right property, and he certainly got it with “Promised Land.” Once again under director Gus Van Sant’s capable guidance, this captivating drama gets its juice from well-crafted characters, tart dialogue, a solid ensemble cast and a hot-button scenario ripped from real-world headlines.

Damon shares scripting duties with John Krasinski, a rising film star making good on the promise he has shown for so many years, on television’s “The Office.” He and Damon have deftly adapted a story by Dave Eggers, who burst on the scene a few years ago, with scripts for “Away We Go” and “Where the Wild Things Are.”

Good screenplays get their power from many elements. It’s not enough to craft piquant one-liners; they must be true to a well-constructed plot. (They also must be delivered well by actors who understand how to maximize the impact of crisply timed dialogue, and that’s where we credit Van Sant.) The characters themselves must be interesting, efficiently sketched and cleverly integrated with all the other players on stage. We must care about them, either as good guys or bad guys.

Damon and Krasinski never err. Even casual exchanges of dialogue have consequences; watch for the payoff on a passing reference to a little girl selling lemonade outside a high school gymnasium.

Damon and Frances McDormand star as Steve Butler and Sue Thomason, seasoned corporate “handlers” for a multi-billion-dollar energy titan dubbed Global Crosspower Solutions. Steve and Sue are sent into distressed small towns in order to persuade cash-strapped residents to lease the drilling rights of their farms.

Steve and Sue have built a reputation for sealing deals rapidly, and with contracts far less expensive — which is to say, less generous to townsfolk — than other Global teams. The pitch is a well-honed blend of smooth talk, vague promises and the occasional bribe, of necessity.  They make a great team: Steve is a sympathetic former farm boy who watched his own home town dry up and blow away when the only local industry closed; Sue is a dedicated soccer mom who advocates the value of the superior schools that can be built with the leasing payments.

Left unspoken — but certainly known to these advance scouts, and equally obvious to us — is the fact that ground never will be broken on such schools, because every cent will be devoured by the financial institutions propping up everybody’s over-mortgaged farmland.

Left unspoken, as well, is the fact that the natural gas which Global desires — the resource repeatedly championed by Steve and Sue as “clean energy” — will be extracted from the shale rock beneath everybody’s farm via hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” (a word they’re careful to avoid).

The story begins as Steve and Sue land in McKinley, a small farmland community in a never-specified state. (Van Sant shot the film in western Pennsylvania.) That detail doesn’t matter; the American heartland — and the West Coast — are laden with such towns. The Global raiders expect a slam-dunk like all the others; McKinley is economically distressed, its many farmers clinging by their fingernails to property that has been in their families for generations.

But something unexpected happens this time: a stirring of pride, wariness … and bad timing. Local high school science teacher Frank Yates (Hal Holbrook) leads the resistance, and he finds it easy to stall the Global engine; fracking has become the evil term du jour, and the Internet is laden with well-documented stories of farmland turned poisonous by the chemical brew employed during the process. Global’s behavior, so smoothly kept under the radar until now, is being dragged into unforgiving sunlight like a vampire hauled from its coffin.

Although Steve and Sue already have numerous signatures on contracts, having preyed on local anxiety, this apparent victory morphs into a mirage when Yates encourages his McKinley neighbors to delay their collective decision, pending a vote. In three weeks.

Needless to say, Global isn’t happy about the delay. To make matters even worse, another newcomer blows into town: Dustin Noble (Krasinski), a slick environmental activist bearing ghastly photos of dead cows and stories of tainted water supplies.

What shapes into a massive battle for McKinley’s soul unfolds subtly, almost delicately, via small encounters. We get the first skirmish quickly, as Steve and Sue stock up on “local duds” at a general store displaying a sign that advertises “Gas, Groceries, Guns and Guitars.” We can’t help chuckling, more so as McDormand’s tart-tongued Sue mocks the place; we share her sense of superiority.

The chuckles die seconds later, once we meet the store’s owner — Titus Welliver, as Rob — an obviously intelligent, if pragmatic fellow who isn’t about to tolerate smugness from big-city invaders. And yet Rob isn’t “the enemy,” particularly when he takes a shine to Sue. Welliver’s carefully nuanced Rob is but the first of the many McKinley citizens who defy expectations: ours, and Steve’s.

Holbrook’s Frank Yates is another example. Although clearly hostile to Global’s slick steamroller approach, he doesn’t blame Steve and Sue per se; indeed, he could use the money as much as anybody else. Frank merely voices the doubts that need to be raised: Is the tantalizing short-term offer of cash in hand worth the long-term risk of seeing one’s heritage destroyed … individually, locally and nationally?

Corporations are notorious for having no soul; any appeals to conscience must be made to foot-soldiers such as Steve and Sue.

Holbrook delivers a finely shaded performance worthy of a Norman Rockwell painting, but with a modern twist: Frank Yates isn’t merely a veteran farm owner, he’s also a highly respected former scientist filling his retirement years as a school teacher. We ache upon hearing his own personal “solution” to the Hobson’s Choice being offered by Global.

McDormand’s dry delivery is a hoot, her critical sidelong glances to die for. We’re never quite sure whether Sue actually has a heart; she clearly plays a role in public, surrounding by McKinley residents, yet she also keeps in loving touch with her son, via Skype, when concealed behind the closed door of her motel room. The truth undoubtedly resides in her view that, at the end of each day, what she and Steve do is a job. Just a job.

Krasinski’s Dustin is a force of nature: a seductive, silver-tongued emissary who hearkens back to the glib, glad-handing antics of Robert Preston, in “The Music Man.” Despite being an outgunned underdog, Dustin instinctively understands how best to reach these people, thanks to a cocksure attitude that infuriates Steve more with each passing day.

Although the nominal star, Damon generously shares the spotlight with all his fellow actors. His handling of Steve is another in a recent line of ethically challenged businessmen in the mold of George Clooney’s Ryan Bingham, from 2009’s “Up in the Air”: guys who, push come to shove, may not be quite as callous as they’d like to believe.

Damon has numerous standout scenes, both kind and ruthless. Best of the latter comes during a brutally frank conversation with a local civic leader (Ken Strunk) who seeks financial “incentive” to persuade his town to accept Global’s offer. Alternatively, Damon turns playful during his flirtatious encounters with DeWitt’s Alice, their verbal sparring genuinely cute.

“I’m not a bad guy,” he tells her repeatedly, and we begin to wonder who he’s trying to persuade.

Its merits as a well-crafted drama notwithstanding, this film has become a lightning rod for its unapologetically critical assault on fracking. Pundits and even some critics are “reviewing” only the message, with a predictable divide between red and blue states, liberals and conservatives.

No question: This is advocacy cinema. That said, I remain impressed by a compelling work of art that entertains while encouraging debate on a topic that, yes, could use a helluva lot more exposure.

— Read more of Derrick Bang’s film criticism at http://derrickbang.blogspot.com. Comment on this review at www.davisenterprise.com

Check it out

What: “Radium Girls”

Where: Pamela Trokanski Performing Arts Center, 2720 Del Rio Place

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $12 general, $10 seniors, $8 students; save $2 online at brownpapertickets.com

Info: Acmetheatre.net

I am continually amazed that Acme Theatre Company, whose young members spend a maximum of three, possibly four years, performing with the group before moving on to college, continue to present some of the most professional theatrical productions around.

The company also continues to present shows that make us laugh and think, and especially leave us with topics to talk about, topics that may have a historical context, but that are relevant even today.

“Radium Girls,” by D.W. Gregory, covers one of those topics. At the dawn of the 20th century, according to program notes, radium was full of glowing promise and represented the bright potential of scientific progress. The Curies were celebrities and radium’s fantastical healing properties were an overnight sensation. Radium-infused toothpaste, hair creams, medicinal waters and make-up were made quickly available to the public.

In 1917, the U.S. Radium Corp. opened a factory in Orange, N.J., and began hiring young women to paint the small, glowing numbers on watch dials. The job paid well and the work was challenging, but appealing, until the dial-painters began experiencing health problems, which were not properly diagnosed.

When studies linked the strange physical conditions — rotting jaw bones, various cancers, necropsy of extremities — to radium, U.S. Radium Corp. covered up the findings and insisted that their plant was “clean” and presented no danger to the workers.

“Radium Girls” follows the case of three young women — Grace (Camila Biaggi), Kathryn (Eden Tomich) and Irene (Margaret Starbuck) — as they first work for the plant and then, one by one, begin to get ill. After Irene’s death, Grace and Kathryn decide to bring a lawsuit against the plant, and the plot is on.

Grace is the longest-lasting and hardest-fighting of the trio and we watch her character grow throughout the play. Her formal education ended at age 15 and she starts as a naive thing who trusts that her employer will take care of her, but she learns a lot along the way and ends up much stronger for it. It is a beautiful performance by Biaggi.

The play, which is staged at the Pamela Trokanski Performing Arts Center on Del Rio Place (a perfect venue for Acme!), is directed by Maddy Ryen and includes eight actors, six of whom play many different roles. There is not a weak performance in the lot.

Will Kingscott is the other actor playing only one role, that of Arthur Roeder, the president of U.S. Radium Corp., torn between his drive to lead his company and to deny any responsibility for the girls’ illnesses, and his deeply embedded desire to be a good guy. We want to hate him, but Kingscott makes us feel the character’s dilemma. In the courtroom, and later at the cemetery, he is so guilt-ridden that he cannot look Grace in the eye.

In addition to playing Irene, Starbuck also appears as Kathryn Wiley, the lawyer whose determination kept the suit active but who, in the end, uses the girls for her own group’s purposes almost as much as their employer does.

Miki Benson and Wil Forkin are perfect as the newspaper reporters hungry for every gruesome detail about the girls’ illnesses and giddy with delight when some new tragedy befalls them. They are too sadly reminiscent of the paparazzi, celebrity reporters and talking heads of today.

Forkin also plays Grace’s long-suffering, devoted boyfriend, Tom, who stands by her through the early days of what ultimately will be her fatal illness.

Antonio De Loera-Brust is both Von Sochocky, the man who originally founded U.S. Radium and who developed the radium paint that is killing the workers, and the attorney who represents the corporation in the lawsuit, who attempts to buy the girls’ silence with a fairly low settlement offer.

In smaller roles are Katy Zaragoza-Smith, Brian Stewart and Matt Fyhrie, all of whom deliver the goods for their many characters.

Kudos also to whoever had the idea of using radiation green to light the back of the stage during scene changes!

Despite the depressing topic, there are some lighter moments that break the tension, but ultimately there can be no happy ending.

Director Ryen has created a tightly woven production that should remind all of us how little practices have changed in the business world today, as far too many corporations still value profits over the welfare of their workers.

One wintry morning, the title character, an uptight academic, sets off to attend a conference in Kelso in the Scottish Borders. As the snow begins to fall, little does she know who or what awaits her there. Inspired by the Border Ballads — and delivered in rhyming couplets, amid devilish encounters and wild karaoke — this show enjoyed a sold-out run at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and is now on a worldwide tour.

Performances are in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at 8 p.m Wednesday, Jan. 23, through Saturday, Jan. 26, with an additional 2 p.m. matinee on Jan. 26. Tickets are $44 general, $22 for students, available at www.mondaviarts or 530-754-2787.