Fringe Mini-Fest
patrons can take in a quietly intense ghost story and a funny standup routine, Matthew J. Palm writes.
Reviews from the Orlando Fringe’s Winter Mini-Fest: ‘Legend of White Woman Creek’
Amid the noise of the Orlando Fringe, “The Legend of White Woman Creek” is an oasis of stillness. That might seem a strange way to describe a song cycle, especially one in which the songs carry such emotional heft. But multiple times during this gem of a show, it felt as though the audience was holding its collective breath.
For the stillness, you see, is not one of peace. It’s quiet that is fraught with emotion.
No one can create a sense of atmosphere like The Coldharts, who brought “Edgar Allan” and “The Unrepentant Necrophile” to past Fringes. And with “White Woman Creek,” the duo of Katie Hartman and Nick Ryan have created a marvelously tingly sense of regret and pain with their usual touch of mystery.
Hartman performs the show solo, telling a tale of the 19th-century American frontier as the ghost of a woman who lived in those hardscrabble times.
The Fringe Factor:
The simple set design, typical of a Fringe show, works to brilliant effect. A ring of flickering candles is all that’s required to set the haunting scene. Curtain Call: Eschewing cheap tricks — except for one very well-placed sudden noise — this is a ghost story that relies on genuine emotion for its thrills.
Where & When: Pink venue, 60 minutes. 7 p.m. today, 9 p.m. Sunday. ‘Mike Delamont: Husky Panda’
Mike Delamont leaves his God (Is a Scottish Drag Queen) character behind for “Husky Panda,” a very funny stand-up routine mostly about his size.
Some of the territory is familiar, but his affable style sells the jokes: “The nursing profession is less sexy than Halloween had led me to believe,” he confides.
Delamont takes things up to the edge of good taste a few times, but his delivery is so smart and his attitude so endearing that you feel it’s OK to laugh.
The Fringe Factor: His “God” shows feel tighter in their execution than “Husky Panda,” which meanders a bit, but I suppose we can’t expect divine perfection when he performs as a mere mortal.
Curtain Call: “Laugh a minute” is a cliché, but in this case accurate: Not a minute went by that Delamont didn’t score a chuckle or two.
Where & When: Orange venue, 60 minutes. 8:45 p.m. today.