Review: THE $#!T, FOOL OF GRACE, and COLONIAL CIRCUS at Orlando Fringe Festival
The festival's second weekend kicks off with intestinal trouble, a footloose priest, and imperialist clowns.
THE $#!T (Ten10 Brewing)
Written and Performed by Matti McLean
Directed by Damon Bradley Jang
Who among us has it not happened to: a spectacularly ill-timed and poorly-situated bowel movement traps you more effectively than the bars of a cage ever could. For Matti McLean, this is the framing device that opens THE $#!T at Ten10 Brewing. McLean finds himself navigating a series of ACME-level hijinks as a result of a #2 taken in a hostel room just feet away from his American ex-boyfriend; it’s a real freeze-frame “you’re probably wondering how I got here” situation. In the midst of figuring it all out, McLean retraces the steps that brought him to this point—but not just that day. Through a series of vignettes covering over half of his life, McLean examines his relationships, religious trauma, the triumph of finding his tribe, and his own personal shortcomings. He makes the pointed decision to refer to the audience as “you” when also referring to his ex; it’s conspiratorial and forces a sort of active listening to the stories as if the audience was there. With his endearing Canadian accent, McLean makes excellent use of the space between his words, emphasizing the power of pauses and silence not only for comedic purposes, but for heartbreaking beats as well. Brief mentions of kink and polyamory appear, but the powerful thing about THE $#!T is that, at its core, it’s not about who you love so much as it is about how you love them—and, perhaps even more importantly, how you allow them to love you in return.
FOOL OF GRACE (Ten10 Brewing)
Created and Performed by Andrea Barello
Directed by Dana Merwin
Unusually for a Friday (or likely any time outside of the festival), the thrumming voice of a pipe organ fills Ten10 Brewing’s B-Side as audiences file into the house for FOOL OF GRACE. The premise is simple: we’re here to attend a church service conducted by Father Andrea Barello. As you might imagine, the service is not your father’s Catholic procedural. Or, perhaps more aptly put, it means to be—if it weren’t for the Three-Stooges-esque mishaps and bits that Barello graces the stage with. Barello’s physical comedy is deceptively simple in its presentation (a tick-tack-toe game played during blessings, for example) but is so effective that it had this reviewer in stitches and tears. This is only matched by Barello’s mastery of prop comedy—whether it’s with a music stand that refuses to cooperate, a Darth Vader mug full of holy water, or an altar candle that he is “lighting up”. This one is also for the musical lovers: the Jesus Christ Superstar theme makes a recurring appearance, and “Money” from Cabaret pops up when it’s time for offerings. When it’s time for confession, Barello invites audience members to come forth and confess their sins. While the intention is surely to level the confessions for comedic purposes, Saturday revealed a surprisingly sharp emotional catharsis in the revelations. One audience member admitted the anger they hold with those who fail to move the world forward; another discussed their distancing from the church but their discovery of spirituality. To his credit, Barello met the somber moment—and then cleverly spun the comedy back up to a fever pitch. By the time the audience is left doing the Macarena, one message is surely come from on high: it’s a real blessing to be one of Father Barello’s “little sheep”.
COLONIAL CIRCUS (Pink Venue)
Created and Performed by Two.2.Mango (Sachin Sharma and Shreya Parashar)
COLONIAL CIRCUS starts with an announcement clarifying that the show is not, in fact, a circus—but Sachin Sharma and Shreya Parashar, known as the duo Two.2.Mango, are clowns of exceedingly high calibre. What first seems unapproachably odd (an unintelligible piece of throat-singing accompanied by curious choreography involving a long sheet of fabric) soon becomes engrossingly funny in its quirk. Sharma and Parashar, in clown shorthand, take on the role of white Brits and tell the history of English imperialism and the subsequent colonization of India. The pair do a genius job of making biting social commentary—people (literally) getting screwed by religion, a comic explanation of what white guilt is (and isn’t), and a skin tone chart delineating who’s allowed on the boat in search of spice—and are totally unafraid of the discomfort it incites. In fact, this is where the act thrives. While some of the laughter in the house is perhaps born of that discomfort, a great deal of it surely comes as a response to the audacity of the bits. (And perhaps that discomfort is a good thing for an Orlando theatre audience to experience.) As things escalate, a somber moment suddenly arises in the aftermath of a fire. With the inclusion of what seems to be a primary-sourced letter from the British takeover of India, Sharma and Parashar have done something staggering: by the time your cheeks hurt from laughing so much, your heart will suddenly ache as well. If comedy thrives on the unexpected, COLONIAL CIRCUS has found a rich vein to tap in the material addressed here.
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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