Peace! Love! Fringe!
Forrest Gump's mama was wrong. She said, "Life is like a box of chocolate; you never know what you're going to get." The truth is, you always know what you're going to get with a box of chocolates, so I never could get past that wrong-headed line. Now, if she said, "Life is like the Fringe Festival; you never know what you're going to get," then I would accept that whole-heartedly. Because the Fringe is like a box of Crackerjacks that's all surprises.
The Tampa Fringe Festival is currently in full swing until Sunday, August 7. Utilizing the first floor of the HCC Performing Arts building in Ybor City, we get a myriad of shows from all walks of life, including Cannonball Cabaret, Tithonia: A Lesbian Space Opera, and Vulva Va Voom: Hollywood's Psychic of the Golden Age. There are also family friendly shows like The Everglads, Free Story Time and A Goofy Musical. Just be careful that you don't walk into Vulva Va Voom thinking it's the Goofy Musical.
One of the shows that promises a Fringe oddness is the appropriately entitled STRANGE GIRLS: "Four strange girls. Each stranger than the last. Bent and warped by modern life. How do they survive in a world that doesn't understand them?" Written and performed by some of our finest local actors, it's a lot like "Talking With..." but with a twist or two.
All four extended monologues are captivating, but some are far more gripping than others. Local treasure, Bridget Bean, opens the show as the adopted daughter of Santa, a different kind of Mrs. Claus. She talks to the audience (her elves) and rants against those who turn their backs on Christmas magic. "The world can eat you up," she proclaims. "Even if you're small...Especially if you're small." There's an aggressive sweetness about her, and she has such warmth, even as her story grows darker and darker.
The show ends with the multi-talented Laila Lee as a Tarot-reading gypsy. She tells quite a tale, and her accent is spot-on as her story, like Bean's, grows more and more demented. (You can also see Laila in The Light Bringer at the Fringe this year.)
Dawn Truax gets to show off a fevered paranoia in the third section about a speaker giving a power point on Conspiracy Theories. She's rabid, her eyes going wild, as she tries to make sense of the craziness of this world. "Sweet paranoia, you never disappoint!" she calls out more than once. Every conspiracy theory under the sun--from the gunshots on the grassy knoll to the birthers and truthers and QAnon--is given their moment in the paranoid sun. Truax's character almost drowns in her quaking fears. "Chaos must be given meaning!" she yells. It may be strange, as the title of the show suggests, but it's something more. It's scary. I know, and I'm sure that you know, there are really people out there just like this. To quote the old ad line: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."
Another monologue belongs to young Madison LeVine, an incoming senior at Blake High School. Her scene is, to me, the best of the lot. Written by Ms. Truax, it centers on "Gecko Girl," a young lady who likes reptiles, attends a Repticon festival and harbors a deep secret. Ms. LeVine shows her disdain with a smile. The secret she has is an interesting one, and I wonder how audiences will react to it (I for one made an escape plan if the "secret" came anywhere near me...I counted how far the door was from me to run out if necessary...and no, it thankfully never became necessary). But Ms. LeVine is in prime form, and she tore up the stage, knowing when to go to the highs and the lows, varying her voice. Stellar stuff; this is the one that resonated the most.
The show appropriately ended with the Doors' "People Are Strange." STRANGE GIRLS is strange, but maybe not as strange as you might suspect or want. (Quirky may be a better word.) But it was riveting for the most part, and the conspiracy theories and roomy reptiles are what we remember most afterwards. And when LeVine's Gecko Girl brings out her secret for us to see, I wonder how other audiences will react to it. Will they be brave and stay, or will they model me, and think of fleeing if it comes anywhere near them? See STRANGE GIRLS to find out what your reaction will be.
STRANGE GIRLS plays Saturday, July 30 @ 7:15 PM; Thursday, August 4 @ 8:45 PM; and Saturday, August 6 @ 4:30 PM.
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