Boxing Your Demons
Reviewed by Dana Martin
Crooked Grin Productions at the Hollywood Fringe Festival
Through June 29
Crooked Grin productions has a lot of energy to burn. Their latest creation for the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Boxing Your Demons, is immersive theatre on steroids. Part boxing lesson, part workshop, the production lands few solid punches.
Guy (Matt Soson) and Sheila (Allergra Masters) are having issues. But the fitness guru duo has figured out a sure way to cure your crisis. They want to relieve themselves and others of any and all contradictions in the body, mind, and spirit — while fighting their own demons. Their optimistic assistant Peter (Ryan Jackson) is eager to help even as he suffers from their repeated abuses and humiliations. The play centers around the idea of cognitive dissonance (a conflict in thoughts/ideas/attitudes), and how it affects the lives of both characters as well as the actors portraying them.
The performers ask the audience for several examples of cognitive dissonance, but the idea is introduced with such ferocity at the top that no one really has time to let the info sink in. The experience feels like a workshop where the participants aren’t quite sure what exactly is being workshopped. Throughout the performance, theatergoers are beckoned to their feet several times in order to learn simple boxing footwork, jabs, and exercises which underscore several scenes. Eventually, the audience is divided into three small groups, each of which brainstorms in order to create sound, text or visual art that is blended together to create an improvised performance. The performance culminates in a boxing match between two of the players, while a sobering story (and prime example of cognitive dissonance) is projected. An unexpected right hook.
The immersive nature of the production is satisfactory but ultimately distracts from the narrative. The most interesting part of the play is the scene work between Guy and Sheila after the gloves come off, and the true nature of their relationship is revealed.
Ryan Jackson’s tender and ever optimistic Peter is the play’s touchstone and by far the most sympathetic character. Matt Soson’s Guy is the quintessential hard-bodied, super intense fitness instructor who will do whatever it takes to get you on the right path toward fitness. Allegra Masters’ Sheila is appropriately layered, and she finds a nice balance between absurdity and authenticity. Lighting design by Sohail e. Najafi is fabulous. Najafi uses practical lighting as well as projected images and video to create a compelling and visually stimulating world.
Crooked Grin Productions live streams every performance of Boxing Your Demons. Though being filmed as an audience member is a bit off-putting, I’ll do almost anything for the sake of art. A contradiction I’m willing to live with.
Thymele Arts, 5481 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; Sat., Jun. 29, 6:30 p.m.; though Jun. 29. https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/5980. Running time: approximately 70 minutes with no intermission.
