Review: DROPPIN' JOHNS at 208Fringe

Fringe is a new theater group performing out of the newly opened Gem Center for the Arts. Their first production is Droppin' Johns by Ilana Lydia, under the direction of Kyle Daniel Barrow.

I'll start honestly with I don't know if I liked it -- but that I also didn't NOT like it. It's tricky. It's an absurdist play of sorts, whose plot isn't a timeline of events, but rather a series of experiences of our main character Cat Girl, played by Zoe Kelly. Is she trapped? In her own mind? Is she reliving events? Is someone controlling her? There are a lot of questions.

After chatting with some of the cast, I've come to the conclusion that the show makes sense afterwards. After you've read it more than once. After you've rehearsed it for weeks. After the actors dissect each part, discuss it, and present their findings.

And that's not a bad thing.

It's a very standard thing.

But with an un-standard script.

So as an audience member, I wondered what kind of reaction I would have upon seeing it a second or a third time.

This production presented the unique opportunity to talk with the director after their matinee performance. I wish I could have gone to see what questions were asked and how they were answered. To have a discussion about what we saw, what other audience members took away, and how it was the same or different than what I experienced.

Cat Girl opens the show and her delivery of lines had the cadence of slam poetry, but it felt insincere, especially considering that as the show progressed, there were beautiful moments of choice, or fear, or success, or defeat.

Supporting cast includes Ian Taylor, Sheila Ann, Noah Moody, Autumn Kersey, Katrina Knight, and Victor Pellegrino. They all successfully played different characters, or ideas, that affect our Cat Girl, both positively and negatively. Each cast member made distinct choices, separating one character from another, and never once was I confused or skeptical of their purpose. Sheila Ann's progression as the Questioning Element was beautiful and subtle, making me feel those thoughts of what society tells us to think versus what we hold to be true -- and how to reconcile the two.

Noah Moody provided a chilling switch between characters. Normally a boisterous force on stage, I liked seeing this thoughtful approach and was intrigued each time he'd enter with a different hat.

Autumn Kersey paid attention. Either off stage (which was in full view of the audience) or on, she was focused and invested. Her characters had jobs to do and they took those seriously. Despite having perhaps fewer lines than others, she in no way felt like a small part.

I felt myself trying to make a plot out of what was presented, but realized, it didn't matter. Shows don't need plots. It was feelings and attempts and success and failure and darkness and light. At the end, the script is literally empty, and it is up to Cat Girl, or Zoe, to tell her story -- the main focus being something everyone can relate to: to help each other out. That despite being wrapped in our own worlds, that we can still open our eyes and see suffering and help. Globally. Locally. On a much smaller scale even.

So, despite not "understanding" the show in a clinical sense, emotionally, I enjoyed it. I would be interested in, with how open form the show is, seeing how it changes with each New Group of people.

If you have an open night, and an open mind, I suggest catching closing weekend of Droppin' Johns, to experience something different, and to support all of the different theatrical opportunities the valley has to offer.

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