Review: THE REVIEW, THEN EVE AND MORE at The Orlando Fringe Festival
Week two of the festival carries on with lawyers, Biblical transformation, bare honesty, and a firecracker First Lady.
THE REVIEW (Peach)
Written by Martin Dockery
Directed by Vanessa Quesnelle
At the top of THE REVIEW, Andrew Broaddus and Martin Dockery enter the stage as two lawyers conducting a contentious performance review. They’re seated center stage within a rectangle of LED lights, and they rarely move from their chairs for the entirety of the hour. Therein lies the magic of THE REVIEW: you won’t even notice. Dockery’s script is so meticulously crafted, composed with such wit, and written with such naturalistic cadence in mind that it is almost impossible to tear your attention away. As you can imagine, there’s much more to the conversation than a performance review—a possible infidelity, family legacy, and technology—but Dockery’s language has a fluidity to it that is lightning-fast yet easy to follow. It helps that Broaddus and Dockery have a natural chemistry to their animosity; they speak to, at, and over one another with such fastidious rhythm that the rapport between the actors is obvious, even if the characters have it out for one another. As the lawyers’ game of cat-and-mouse expands and escalates, Dockery’s script masterfully turns the tide one way and then doubles back as the men cordially struggle for power through professional conduct and conversation that peels back ever so carefully. The precision of every artist involved here is mesmerizing to behold. It’s a breathtaking hour of theatre—and you’ll undoubtedly want more where it came from.
THEN, EVE (Renaissance Theatre Company)
Written, Staged, and Performed by Billie Jane
Among the glitz and glamor of the Disco Boots set at the Renaissance Theatre Company, Billie Jane stands immaculate in white linen as the first woman, telling a story that you think you know the ending to; and while you might know about the apple, you certainly don’t know what happens before. Eve, enjoying the splendor of the newly created world, encounters scores of animals (and lots of beetles) to name; but when her Best Friend Caterpillar makes the transition to Butterfly, Eve’s worldview crumbles, and a whole new life opens up before her. To say more would be to spoil the show. While the massive stage may have otherwise swallowed a one-woman show, Jane makes excellent use of it; an essential victory for her, given the broad width of the space. (One wishes for a tad more of a technical element here: there’s no music, sound design, or use of the massive screens on stage.) Jane’s script is based upon a fascinating conceit. Some editing could be worthwhile—it occasionally takes the scenic route to get to the point, and some sections feel artificially extended for runtime. While these things may be true, THEN, EVE is still a defiant shout in the face of transgender persecution. It’s an incredibly daring and surprisingly apt choice to utilize source material so often associated with that bigotry to tell this story. In her exploration of disillusionment with a higher power, Jane uncovers a crisis of faith that everyone can identify with at one point or another. Despite the announcement of the intended moral, it’s still easy to take away much more than that from the beatific conclusion.
DOLLEY. F***ING. MADISON. (Ten10 Brewing)
New Generation Theatrical
Written and Directed by Michael Knight
While it’s not the Battle of Gettysburg or the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the 1814 Burning of Washington was an exclamation mark on the War of 1812 as it neared its conclusion. While President James Madison was in Maryland, his wife, Dolley, was in the White House, attempting to gather important historical artifacts and safely get them out before the British arrived. At Ten10 Brewing, we’re brought into the White House on that very night, with a firecracker starring performance by Hannah McGinley Lemasters as the gregarious North Carolinian First Lady sporting a twang to rival any banjo. DOLLEY F***ING MADISON is a speculative look into what may have happened when British soldiers came knocking. While Lemasters commands much of the stage (and much of the script), this is still very much an ensemble piece with Vanessa Sotomayor as her housemaid, Pearl, and Robie Phillips (a capable swing performance on Thursday night) and Brandon Roberts as British soldiers come to desecrate the capital. The research done in the writing of the script must have been a large undertaking; it is quick, it is funny, and it is whip-smart. Dolley stops the soldiers from burning the house down and congenially invites them to dine; this is, as she tells us, her job—to host parties so that things can actually get done. Over some fine Kentucky bourbon, the conversation swings from British versus American, to men versus women, to monarchy versus democracy; and as the “ideological prattle” carries on, the hard-drawn lines between the Americans and the Brits are softened, providing some very impressive character growth for a single hour and ending with a particularly heated conclusion. Over 200 years after the events depicted, DOLLEY F***ING MADISON serves as a hilarious but historic look at what simple diplomacy—and more women in positions of power—could do for the world at large.
PRIVATE PARTS: THE SECRETS WE KEEP (Ten10 Brewing)
Written and Performed by Joanna Rannelli
Dramaturgy and Direction by Kerry Ipema
Upon entry for PRIVATE PARTS: THE SECRETS WE KEEP, Joanna Rannelli is not backstage, or even waiting in the wings—she’s right there, welcoming audience members in for the show. (We chatted briefly about what part of Canada she’s from.) This affable, personal introduction to the star of the show is perfectly in line with how the rest of the hour goes: no pretense, no veneer. As PRIVATE PARTS begins, it seems as though it’s about to veer into stand-up comedy territory. But this illusion is quickly dissipated when Rannelli gets into the concept of secrets, asking the audience how many are keeping a secret for someone else, or how many are keeping a persona secret that they’d keep at any cost. (No surprise, most people are hiding something of the sort.) But her point isn’t just about secrets that we keep from other people. What about secrets that our bodies keep from us? Or secrets that we keep from ourselves? Or secrets that we will never gain access to? Do we even want to know some of them? There’s a motherlode there, and Rannelli makes us consider all of this within ourselves as she lays her own secrets—and the search for revelations—in a raw, understated hour. There’s no yelling or screaming at the injustices of her life; just illustrative reenactments, tearful analysis, and an honest disposition. Secret? It’s no surprise that this show already has a litany of accolades—it’s earned them.
THE ORLANDO FRINGE FESTIVAL is celebrating its 35th anniversary and runs now through May 25. Show tickets (and Fringe Buttons, required for entry) are available at the multiple box offices on site or at the website below.
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