Review: STORYVILLE RISING Captivates with Stories but Little Plot

It's difficult to see where creator, writer and director of "Storyville Rising", currently playing at Seattle Immersive Theatre, David Crellin was trying to go with his show. I mean, it's certainly a fascinating look, supported by some wonderful performances, into the world of the red light district in New Orleans at the turn of the century and all the seedy undertones it had to offer, but it lacks a through line to pull it all together.

As with any Seattle Immersive show the conceit is that you are no longer in 2017 Seattle but in whatever world they have concocted, in this case late 1800's/early 1900's New Orleans. And they do a fine job setting up said world. you enter you're greeted with the rules of the establishment along with some music from the era, recordings of residents of Storyville and walls decorated with ads from the past. Once inside you're in one of Storyville's infamous brothels as the ladies and gentlemen running the establishment greet you with conversation and libations. Once the show gets going the conversation ceases and we're thrilled with songs, dances, and monologues illuminating us on life here in Storyville. But we're not limited to tales of the brothel as we're also taken to church for a little fire and brimstone and given a look inside the shanty town of Storyville all of which ranges from the amusing to the horrifying.

They warn you from the offset that if you're going to find yourself overly offended or triggered by very frank discussions of sex, religion, and race then you might not want to venture in. I know it's all part of the story and the attitudes of the time but even I had trouble a few times disassociating my feelings toward the topics and my ability to enjoy the performance as they at times went to a quite harsh and dark place. But that's not my qualm with the show in fact that they were able to elicit so much emotion from me can be counted as a win. No, it was the lack of a unifying plot that threw me. It's basically a series of monologues and that's fine but there was some potential to create an overarching story with those monologues that was missed. In fact I specifically noted one moment where I thought, "OK, this is where we get the plot" and then that moment happened and was abandoned creating a lost opportunity. Sure, you could say that's not the kind of show they were going for and that's fine but I think even a minor plot could have prevented the show from feeling like a series of lectures.

The performances we got however were quite well done for the most part. Tom Wisley, Colleen Carey, Tom Stewart, Corey Spruill, and Elena Flory-Barnes each take on multiple roles and multiple monologues with passion and investment. I was especially impressed with Wisley and Carey's powerful lectures from the pulpit the later of the two being the one I was personally affected by. I was also quite impressed with Flory-Barnes haunting recount of an out of hand "assignation" although I'm not sure everyone gets to see that one as our group was especially brought in to hear it. Spruill definitely had the passion and investment in his monologues but fell victim to his own pauses. One of the best acting notes I ever got was to earn your pauses and I'm not sure all of his were earned.

Amber Wolfe as Mamie Lavona delivered some fantastic blues as our chanteuse for the evening and kept the mood from getting too mired down in the bleak. And the burlesque offerings from Boom Boom L'Roux and The Luminous Pariah were both titillating and evocative as we received one that was a more lighthearted routine and another with quite a lot of bite to it.

All told the show makes for a fascinating evening with a riveting look inside this seedy world, it just felt a little inconsistent at times and lacked some cohesion. And so, with my three letter rating system I give "Storyville Rising" from Seattle Immersive Theatre an engaged YAY-. An interesting evening with potential to go beyond.

"Storyville Rising" performs at Seattle Immersive Theatre through February 25th. For tickets or information visit them online at www.seattleimmersivetheatre.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.