A winning pirate, professor … and Dorothy Parker
Today’s Orlando Fringe Festival reviews include “Deadpan Jan: My Life Is Not a Sex Party Or Is It?,” “Field Zoology 101,” “Let Me See Your Booty: The Return of Sharktooth Sam,” “My Body of Work” and “Wit & Wrath: The Life & Times of Dorothy Parker” (highly recommended).
“Wit & Wrath: The Life & Times of Dorothy Parker” (Blue venue, 60 minutes, highly recommended) has played to sold-out audiences at the New Orleans Fringe Festival (2014) and the DC Capital Fringe (2017), and after seeing it, I can easily see why.
Claudia Baumgarten’s script takes advantage of the brilliant literary canon created by Dorothy Parker’s career that began when she joined the editorial staff of Vogue magazine in 1916 and made her the voice of the flapper era. Carefully selected and brilliantly woven together, Parker’s writings are used to tell the story of her fascinating life.
Baumgarten’s one-woman show is wellcrafted, deeply researched and performed with the panache suitable for one of the quickest wits ever published. Parker’s poetry, reviews, and social commentary are exquisitely quotable and exhibit why witty rhetorical devices such as sarcasm, satire and euphemism — delivered with a martini in her gloved hand, and perfect vintage dress and hat — are just as funny today as they were 100 years ago.
SharkTooth Sam (Thom Mesrobian) returns to the Fringe with more pirate adventures in “Let Me See Your Booty” (Silver venue, 60 minutes). Mesrobian is joined onstage by Sarah Lockard, who is enchanting in her role as his enthusiastic and ingenuous first mate, Barefoot Billy.
The original score (written by Mesrobian, and arranged, performed and produced by Ben Shepler) contains five original sea shanties, which are cleverly written to tell tales and encourage a few singalongs with the audience.
This is a great one for youngsters, full of positive messages from the tall tales of the high seas. However, adults will get plenty of chuckles too, from the cleverly incorporated humor that floats high enough above the water, that little ones can’t reach.
The bell rings, and class begins: It’s “Field Zoology 101” (Yellow venue, 60 minutes). No prerequisites are needed to “enroll” in this silly but seriously presented class, taught by Dr. Gooseberry (Shawn O’Hara).
O’Hara keeps the class engaged with the aid of seemingly elementary, but actually quite clever, transparencies on an overhead projector. Some of the humor wasn’t to my taste, yet I found myself laughing nonetheless at O’Hara’s diligent delivery. The show finishes with questions from the class — questions that Dr. Gooseberry is sure to answer with his quick wit.
Holly M. Brinkman’s one-woman show, “MyBody ofWork” (Green venue, 60 minutes) almost feels like two separate shows. The first is a riveting account of Brinkman’s grandparents’ experiences living in Nazi-occupied Holland during World War II, and the second is her personal stories of diet, a quest for self-love and the ability to “feel [one’s] feelings.”
The two stories are segued by stripping away layers of comfort, and clothing… the stripping is both literal and metaphorical. Dance and movement are used to express emotional turmoil, as well as Brinkman’s new-found love of burlesque, which closes out the show.
“DeadpanJan: My Life
Holly M. Brinkman stars in“My Body of Work”at the Orlando Fringe Festival. CHRISTACHE VIAORLANDO FRINGE
Is Not a Sex Party or Is It?” (Pink venue, 60 minutes) delivers what the title promises. Jan Gudaitis is a comedian from Indiana who performs her comedy routine just as a proper introvert should: awkwardly, with some timing issues, and, as the title indicates, deadpan.
I’ve been reviewing
Fringe shows for some years now, and never have I heard “intercourse” and “ejaculate” so many times in one show. Gudaitis plays on the shock factor, and throws some zingers, or rather, rolls them like a bowling ball down an alley: Though she doesn’t always get a strike, she certainly knocks down at least a few pins.
ORLANDO FRINGE FESTIVAL
Where: Shows at Loch Haven Park are in colorcoded venues; off-campus locations are identified by name.
When: Through May 29 Cost: $10 button required for ticketed shows, then individual performance tickets are no more than $15. Schedule, tickets and more info: OrlandoFringe.org
Read more Orlando Fringe Festival reviews: OrlandoSentinel.com/fringe