Review: WILD HORSES at CATF

Wild Horses is a charming, energetic coming of age story of teenage rebellion and romance in the 1970's expertly performed in a solo show by Kate Udall. Written by Allison Gregory and in the National New Play Network premiere, a single unnamed woman recounts a single summer from her teenage years when she and her friends experiment with sex, drinking and finding freedom, among typical teenage highs and heartbreaks within their families and social circles. The central theme tying the summer of memories together is the horses kept in terrible conditions on a nearby ranch and the woman and her friends' attempts to set the horses free.

Kate Udall gives a standout performance in this solo show. She makes her character extremely charismatic and free spirited from the first second of her performance. Her reenactments of her memories of teenage mischief are endearing and she strikes a perfectly melodramatic blend of both recounting heightened teenage drama and wryly and wittily looking back on it with her current day mature hindsight. The section about a teenage sexual encounter (or at least an attempt) while on a water bed was hysterical.

As it is a one woman show featuring multiple characters in the story, Udall becomes a master of character voices, with a unique and instantly identifiable character voice and mannerism for over fifteen characters. Her impressions and impersonations were extremely varied and dynamic, and Udall is quite the flexible performer, both literally and figuratively. Her physical exertions are very impressive and high energy, and her multiple onstage hair stylings and hair flipping are almost worth the price of admission alone.

A sweet story idea used in direction is that each area of the stage represents a different memory or location for Udall. She clearly recounts memories in her house in one corner, memories at the ranch in one corner, memories at school or her friend's house in another, etc.

The single performer show is assisted by multiple realistic sound effects and an impressive single unit set. When reenacting specific memories, subtle and fitting sound effects were used in sharp conjunction with Udall's psychical movements. The set featured a psychedelic 1970's van on the stage floor, which also was incorporated into the action, serving in the story as both a rooftop, a horse and of course, an actual car when the Woman describes several failed teenage joy rides. The van also doubles as a concession stand during the pre show period and audience members can enjoy refreshments during the performance.

A unique staging choice to make the show more relaxed and personal was the extreme audience inclusion. Udall is frequently placed in the audience, sitting on the theater steps, on the edge of an audience members' seat or talking directly to members of the audience and making eye contact. Roughly a dozen audience members get the chance to sit at tables on the stage floor and Udall deftly weaves her way in between and through the featured audience members on stage as she recounts the story, sometimes asking audience members to hold her purse or using them as an imaginary prop. The imaginative effect really set the informal, relaxed mood for the show. However, audience members not wishing to be a part of the performance and those who do not want to sit onstage can request traditional seats at the box office.

Unlike many of the dark dramas typically found at CATF, Wild Horses is a free spirited and moving collection of memories more likely to invoke nostalgia and humor rather than heartbreak. Wild Horses continues to run as one of the six plays in rotating repertory at the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Wild Horses performances occur in CCA 112 on the campus of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. The final performance occurs July 30 at 4:30 PM. For more information about the show schedule, the 2016 season or to order tickets, please visit www.catf.org.

Photo Credit: CATF Media Gallery

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