A Modern Guide To Heroism And Sidekickery

Zoo Charteris (Venue 124)

A tale of superheroes for adults, Michelle Zahner’s one-person play is heavily and ambitiously meta, with the actor portraying both her kind-hearted, all-action costumed hero the Shadow, and her eventual nemesis; the writer who created her in the first place. Zahner’s hero is bright-eyed and helpful, busting baguettes out of audience volunteers’ hands with flying kicks and diving in to save a woman who stands poised to jump at the edge of a rooftop. In one well-worked sequence, she even scales the bank of seating to thwart the evil lighting operator.

Zahner’s performance is warm, getting to the heart of her characters and playing the Shadow’s optimistic altruism against the worldweary cynicism of the villain. There is plenty going on here metaphorically with regard to human emotion – even though there’s so much experimenting with style and form that the narrative is sometimes tricky to follow – and in bringing in the saved woman as a character at the end, her assessment of the real-life heroism of survival is nicely touching.

Until today, 4:50pm.