When our bodies betray us and a love-song singalong
Today’s Orlando Fringe Festival reviews include “Artisinal Carcinoma,” “Anatomica: A Comedy about Meat, Bones & the Skin You’re In,” “Heart Ripped Out Twice, and So Can You,” “Marcus Ryan: Eat, Pray, Walk” and “Peevira’s Scareavan Singalong: Love Vamp.”
In “Artisinal Carcinoma”
(Pink venue, 60 minutes), local actor Jennica McCleary shares the challenges and triumphs of her battle against breast cancer through stories and emotionally charged song and dance. The music has a haunting essence, accentuating the raw emotions McCleary is vulnerably sharing.
On a large projector screen, social-media posts and videos are shared, and some grievous milestones are seen, such as losing her hair, receiving treatments and removing the bandages from her breasts. Although her “one-year breast-cancer detour” (as she calls it) evokes sympathy, it also gives rise to admiration and respect. In addition to sharing pain and anguish, McCleary also celebrates her own growth and strength.
Upon entering the theater for “Anatomica: A Comedy about Meat, Bones & the Skin You’re In”
(Blue venue, 60 minutes), one finds a big orange tube with a note inviting the audience to take a listen before the show starts. It’s a bit unusual but, then again, Amica Hunter’s show is a bit unusual.
“Anatomica” starts slow; it takes a good 10 minutes before the wheels start turning. There’s an unusual striptease … I’ll let you be surprised at how far it goes.
Hunter shares details of regular fibromyalgia pains, and some of the challenges of having a skeleton inside the body. It is posited: Might it be easier if we had an exoskeleton or hydrostatic skeleton? And here’s where the show picks up speed and takes us down a delightful rabbit-hole of skeletal discourse.
Biological, philosophical and full of silly costumes and amusing anecdotes, “Anatomica” is both entertaining and thought-provoking. “Marcus Ryan: Eat,
Pray, Walk” (Red venue, 60 minutes) is a one-man comedy show about Ryan’s grueling, yet highly entertaining, Camino de Santiago walk. Ryan may have endured blisters, aching muscles and exhaustion after walking 1,000+ kilometers, but that juicy material, combined with his charismatic storytelling ability, are the stuff of great Fringe shows.
Quick note, for those who are able: Try to arrive a little early. Ryan has a projector that is used throughout his show, and it plays before the venue welcome announcement. You don’t need to see it to follow the show, but it is fun to catch.
I think a Las Vegas drivethrough wedding may be more dignified than the wedding we planned inside “Peevira’s Scareavan Singalong: Love Vamp” (Van in front of the Shakespeare Center, 45 minutes). Dressed in a sparkling white jumpsuit with red scarf, suggestive of the King of Rock & Roll, Peevira (Aj Prats) invites a limited audience into the Scareavan for love-song karaoke and wedding planning.
This is pure silliness and fun, with Prats, a dramatic drag queen, as the ringleader, indicating when we should sing, participate in games, and even read our short script as members of the wedding party. Please note: Because this show takes place in a decorated cargo van, tickets are extremely limited so don’t delay if you wish to RSVP.
Initially, “Heart Ripped Out Twice, and So Can You” (Green venue, 60 minutes) feels silly and campy. Linnea Bond is leading what feels like a glossy time-share sales pitch, with her power-point presentation and plastered-on smile.
However, it’s not timeshares she’s selling, it’s existence — more specifically, human existence. And some of her descriptions make us wonder why we cling to existence as we do. More often than not, she has us laughing at our own ridiculousness.
That is, until she moves into the vicissitudes she faced when major medical procedures became inevitable if she wished to maintain her own existence. The most serious of all is open heart surgery. Bond demonstrates the fear, grief and pain she lived through, and then pluckily returns to finding the humor in the titanic challenges she has faced at such a young age: After all, she’s still hoping we all buy human existence at the end of her sales pitch.
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 More reviews: OrlandoSentinel.com/fringe