With the abundant amount of shows offered throughout the Fringe Festival, it's hard to put your finger on which performance you actually like best. So much good acting, so many creative story lines – how can you choose? Well, here's an easy way to help you decide – Absolute Flight: A Reality Show with Wings.
Absolute Flight, written by Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich and directed by Rosemary Andress, is clearly one of the standout performances of this year's Fringe Festival. Its concept is simple and endearing; its acting is superb. Absolute Flight takes on the latest phenomenon of our society – reality television – and gives an inside peek into what really goes on behind the scenes and how the power of editing can cruelly be used in the favor of good television and ratings.
Absolute Flight opens with six people on a reality show competing for the chance to jump out of an airplane with wings to experience "absolute flight" for approximately six minutes. Due to a last minute production change, a new director is brought on board literally hours before the live finale with the task of bulking up the show and turning the finale into something actually worth watching. The new director (Jay Riedl) is never seen and only heard from a production booth above and cracks a tough whip. She touts a sophisticated British accent along with a no-mess attitude that is clearly reminiscent of the host from the short-lived television game show, The Weakest Link. She impatiently listens to each contestant's story to develop sound bytes for the live finale's opening and effortlessly "zaps" the contestants with an electrical shock if they don't cooperate. It's this tongue and cheek approach to reality television that is as smart as it is humorous.
As contestants tell their stories, you can finally understand why they all want a chance to jump out of a plane and fly in the first place. When you first hear that "flying" is the prize as opposed to the typical large cash sum, your mind immediately wonders why anyone would even sign up for this. However, through the excellent writing of award-winning playwright Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich, you soon realize why this at first seemingly bizarre prize is a truly desired opportunity to transform the winner's life.
Each contestant has their own endearing and plausible story. From a crippled Iraqi war veteran to a single mom living in the boiler room of an apartment complex to a fourth stage cancer patient, everyone's reasons for wanting to jump starts to makes sense. However, the cruel and humiliating thing is that after contestants pour their hearts out, the director cuts these reasons down to the bare minimum in order stretch them further than they were ever intended to go. The recent war hero is now forced to enthusiastically say "I'm a hero in the war on terror and a sex starved cripple," for the mere reason to make people tune in.
Jenny, played by Effie Johnson, represents the scapegoat of the contestants as all the other competitors gang up on her since they believe she is an automatic lock to win. The other competitors engage in cruel mental warfare with Jenny to make her over think decisions and second-guess her every instinct. What Absolute Flight clearly brings into the forefront is how easily people can lose sight of what's important in exchange for the chance of fame and a prize. The contestants literally have to choose between certain death and eternal celebrity. Blumenthal-Ehrlich's writing coupled with the entire ensemble's acting portrays just how far people will compromise themselves and their morals if they are determined enough to do so. You learn that reality television doesn't necessarily mean the production itself is real.
