Lisa Jarrett, artist

"Super engrossing and imaginative."

Jeff Alessandrelli, founder of Fonograph Press

“It seems silly and absurd because it is. But then it gets downright moving as you realize the story-behind-the-story is fabulous.

Evo Terra, editor of The End, an audio fiction directory

“I don’t even like radio plays but this is amazing!”

Amber White, stage manager, “Hamilton”

“Wildly entertaining. Please make more.”

Sebastian Jones, screenwriter, producer

“Think of it as a less horrific Widow’s Bay, with compelling characters behaving in believable ways…. [T]he limited series grapples with big questions about belief, faith, small-town living, and finding one’s place in the world while never failing to feel like a comforting warm blanket and cup of cocoa.”

Jeff Van Dreason, editor EarWax Magazine

“The dialogue is so gripping, it pulled me right in!”

Samantha Wall, artist

“A perfect listen while trekking through the snow.”

Ethan, a mail carrier in Ohio

“I listened to it twice it’s so good.”

Whitney Nye, artist

Review from Oregon Arts Watch, by Linda Ferguson:

“What did you do after your wife became a moose?” Myrna, a depressed mail carrier in a fictional Alaskan town asks her boss, Carl.

No, this isn’t an episode of the ’90s TV series Northern Exposure: It’s The Cold Plunge, writer/director/sound designer Sunny Bleckinger’s four-act radio play, which went live this January.

In the play, residents of the remote town practice a religion that involves diving into a frozen lake in order to transform into moose. What at first appears to be solely an absurdist mystery gradually becomes a sensitive, comedic questioning of religious ideologies and sexuality, while also taking a look at how society sees its elders.

With a rich soundscape, Bleckinger, along with sound engineer Callie Day and mixer Jeff Stuart Saltzman, immerses listeners in the spellbinding world of the story. Not only do we hear the buzz of conversation and the clink of cutlery in Mischa’s Pancake House, but a mailbox door creaks, a bag of mail lands with a thud in the snow, and a trombone and tuba plaintively play “It Had To Be You” (performed by Chris Shuttleworth).

The writing, too, is so detailed that listeners can fully picture everything from a server’s snug polyester pants to the little red chickens on the checked curtains that hang in the pancake house. In his script, Bleckinger even peppers his descriptions with poetic language, such as when the narrator (Kurt Conroyd) tells us the sound of a moose holds “rich overtones that almost change the color of the air.”

And then there’s the cast, which includes premier Portland actors Sammy Rat Rios, Bruce Burkhartsmeier, Diane Kondrat, and Claire Rigsby, along with newcomer Finley Vleer, and Bleckinger as a priest who struggles to swear with the proper panache.

It’s a fun, almost sneaky treat to hear these fine actors in your own home or wherever you happen to be listening. Sammy Rat Rios, who onstage is often a satisfyingly fierce presence, is especially appealing as Myrna. Scaling down her bold voice for radio, Rat Rios subtly creates the character of a depressed woman nearing 40 who has a special system for sorting mail. Instead of letting a machine do the work, she reaches into a bag and feels for the letters she believes people particularly need to receive. She’s also drawn to touching warm things, such as an envelope that was heated by an overactive radiator, or a pool of syrup on her plate.

Claire Rigsby, too, is captivating as Petal, a veteran mail carrier from a warmer climate who’s befuddled by the oddball characters, including Fish (Vleer), a former hockey player. Then there’s Burkhartsmeier and Kondrat, who are funny and sexy as an older pair who share a mutual attraction for each other as well as a touching tenderness.

With the current boom in audio books and podcasts, The Cold Plunge has come along at a perfect time. Each act is about 36-45 minutes long, and I found them all to be equally engrossing, whether I was folding clothes, stirring soup, or sitting in front of my laptop, mesmerized by this story of quirky characters fumbling through life and the Alaskan snow. While nothing can replace the magic of experiencing a live show with a theater full of other audience members, Bleckinger and his crew have created a compelling play that links listeners and artists, cocooning us in a uniquely intimate experience.