Christine Dunford (Photo by Michael Becker)
Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
Hollywood Fringe Festival at Theatre of NOTE
Through June 25
RECOMMENDED
Christine Dunford (Photo by Daniela Kashayara)
The Palisades and Eaton fires of January 2025 caused over sixty billion dollars in damage, killed 31 people, and was the most expensive fire in American history. And more than a year afterwards, many of those who were affected are still trying to piece their lives back together. One of these people is Christine Dunford,
In her captivating solo show, Dunford stitches together humor, grief and anger to recount her experience dealing with this tragedy and her post disaster life. She begins by showing some harrowing photo stills from that day: billows of smoke pouring out of buildings; mountains consumed by flames; an endless line of cars on the highway; a man desperately trying to save his home with water from a garden hose.
“I was on the phone with an actor friend of mine,” Dunford recalls, “telling him my big plans for January.” Then she smelled the smoke.
A frantic dash to evacuate ensued where Dunford recalls gathering all the essentials: mementos, meds, provisions for the dogs, clothing. And then it was on the road with “thirty thousand other people,” on PCH choked with cars and smoke and chaos, where policemen did their best to manage the traffic. But the ordeal was just starting. Dunford recounts with humor and irritation the struggle to find housing; the procession of Airbnbs; the “asshole” in Long Beach who tried to gouge them; and dealing with various governmental agencies, which in many instances, only added to the frustration and upheaval.
But Dunford reserves her most lacerating snark for the insurance companies and their “friends” (as she calls them). These are the adjustors whom she collectively refers to as ” The Fuckery,” which she spells out on a chalkboard in big, bold letters. She recalls adjustors more concerned about people “checking into fancy hotels” than aiding the policyholders; those same adjustors claiming that it was only “smoke damage” to her home; the near endless ritual of “delay, deny, defend,” and — words she spits out with disgust — “policy holders as profit centers.”
Dunford uses her skills as an actress to robustly animate her narrative. And as harrowing as it is, she ends it with a nod to the people she encountered who genuinely cared and helped by saying, with tears in her eyes, “This is who we are.”
Theatre of Note, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood. Part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival for tickets go to: running time, one hour. https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/search?mode=all_events&search_terms=burn%20scar
