Review: When Danger Looks Like Rescue

There is a Filipino saying I kept thinking about while watching Vertigo Theatre’s The Lodger: Ang taong gipit, kahit sa patalim kumakapit.

“A person in desperate circumstances will cling even to the blade of a knife”.

It is a saying about what desperation does to judgment. When choices narrow, something dangerous can begin to look like salvation. We may recognize the blade for what it is and still reach for it because, at that moment, it appears to be the only thing within reach. That, more than the question of who is committing the murders, stayed with me after The Lodger.