Fielding Edlow (Photo by Andrew Max Levy)
Reviewed by Katie Buenneke
Hudson Theatres
Through June 29
Fielding Edlow was married for 13 years to a character actor, whom she later realized was gaslighting her for the duration of their relationship. You’d be forgiven for thinking her solo performance, Gaslighting is My Love Language, is about that marriage, since that’s how it’s framed, but it’s more of a hybrid stand-up/therapy session for Edlow, as she tells the audience about the most important relationships in her life, with her ex-husband, daughter, and parents.
At the performance I attended, Edlow seemed very nervous, rattling off jokes at a breakneck pace, so determined to get to each punchline that she accidentally raced through the set-up, and then blew past the punchline into the next moment before the audience could really process what she had just said. This, combined with a bunch of pop culture references I didn’t understand, left me feeling adrift, even as she made direct eye contact with me in the audience.
Edlow has a sharp tongue, but it often veers more into cruel than witty, particularly when she describes the way her 12-year-old daughter dresses: “Sorry to be the one to say this but she’s a little bit hooker-y.” Edlow digresses as a means to segue into describing Edlow’s own teenage sexual history, but while lacerating oneself before an audience in the name of comedy is one thing, sexualizing one’s tween in front of strangers is another.
The show, which is directed by Ashley Ward, feels like perhaps an earlier (or future) draft is structured around Edlow’s discomfort with being truly perceived by those who love her, but it’s hard to find that throughline behind the muddled joke deliveries and the show’s abrupt ending. Often, the show feels more like a group of ideas and jokes, loosely connected, than a coherent narrative.
The Hudson Theatres, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; through June 29. Check the website for schedule. hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10388. Running time: 55 minutes with no intermission.
