Charming adventures and a bit of blood: Orlando Fringe Festival reviews
Today’s Orlando Fringe Festival reviews include “Ha Ha Davinci,” “Manor of Death,” “The Old Man and the Old Moon,” “Suture Bowl” and “Who Mothered the Corpse.”
“The Old Man and the Old Moon” (Teal venue at 54 W. Church St., 75 minutes) charms with a vibe that combines Broadway’s “Once” and “Peter and the Starcatcher” with Disney-Pixar’s “Finding Nemo.” A young cast — several of whom worked on a high-school production of the same show — tells the story of why the moon waxes and wanes as a whimsical Old World tale of adventure.
A ladder, chairs, a bucket: The props are rudimentary, which adds to the charm. The performers provide their own musical accompaniment, which adds to the impressiveness. Director Nicholas Wainwright plays to his young actors’ strengths — Aryan Cheruvattah’s Old Man and Dominic Pineda in multiple roles are particularly engaging — though Wainwright’s staging doesn’t always account for unmiked singers trying to be heard over the instruments.
Also with whimsical charm: “Ha Ha Da Vinci” (The Abbey, 60 minutes). Phina Pipia mixes music (appealing), magic (entertaining), interpretive dance (just the right amount), a dash of opera (impressive) and even shadow puppetry (the weakest segment) in an imaginative tale of a woman, a time machine and a tuba.
If the mix doesn’t always create dramatic momentum in the deliberately surreal story, no worries: This is a celebration of the arts, and Pipia has the charisma and smarts to pull it off.
With a couple of cast members missing, “Who Mothered the Corpse” (Purple venue at 54 W. Church St., 60 minutes) was unable to put its best foot forward. The script by Zero the Writer is intriguing as it literally divides a woman into the roles society — make that male-dominated society — has proscribed for her: from a source of nourishment to an object of sexual pleasure.
The story is dominated by a quartet of monologues in which four women in an unenlightened land of another age claim to be the mother of a dead girl. (Alexis Bentley as a suspected witch makes the best impression.)
Substitute actors aside, the show needs work in its pacing and in the art of making a monologue come alive. The effectively gruesome ending could use a final punch, too.
Speaking of gruesome — but with an entirely different tone — “Suture Bowl” (Blue venue, 60 minutes) craftily scores in both the comedy and horror genres. An example: When there’s a forced-circumcision challenge, it gives new meaning to the filming directive to “Cut!”
The premise: Doctors are competing on a reality TV show, but it quickly becomes clear all is not as it seems. And playwright Irene L. Pynn’s mystery kept me guessing.
The show skewers TV-competition shows with smart if not unexpected jokes, but things really take a wild turn as the fear factor increases. Director Robert Cunha paces the laughs well, though his three main contestants yell a bit too much. Overall, though, the acting is believable for the unbelievable situation, and an overbearing host (Kate Perry) and her put-upon assistant (Lee Markham) make a lot of comic hay.
Finally, in “Manor of Death,” (Brown venue, 60 minutes) I wanted murder sooner. Nothing against the actor whose character meets an untimely end, but the motives are established so quickly that things then lag until whodunit time.
A woman is celebrating her birthday with her best friend, her daughter, her daughter’s secret girlfriend, the butler and a family acquaintance no one likes. We don’t learn enough about the characters to look for false leads, so the show relies on audience participation and ginning up laughs to maintaining momentum. It’s relatively effective, but neither the comedy nor the mystery proves especially memorable.
Orlando Fringe Festival
Where: Shows at Loch Haven Park are in color-coded venues; off-campus locations are identified by name
When: Through May 29
Cost: $10 button required for ticketed shows, then individual performance tickets are no more than $15
Schedule, tickets and more info: OrlandoFringe.org
Email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com.
