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Hamlet-Mobile
Reviewed by Jessica Salans
Walking Shadow Productions
Through June 28
RECOMMENDED:
For this street-theater performance, you don’t make a reservation. There is nothing to pay. The Hamlet-Mobile reveals it’s performance location and show time, always within the heart of the Fringe, via their Twitter feed (@HamletMobile).
Beyond the eight scenes derived from the characters and dialogue of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there is a broader storyline of the four ensemble actors (Heather Ann Gottlieb, Lizzie Prestel, Hunter Seagroves and J.B. Waterman) paying homage to their deceased troupe leader, Marlon Pine, of whom there is an alter set up in commemoration in the back of their gypsy van. If you only catch a solitary performance (ranging between 10-15 minutes), you are likely to be an audience of one, making direct eye contact with one of the ensemble as they slip from modern day speech into dialogue from the play.
The players are nimble professionals, able to improvise with you if you dare, to answer questions, and play off of your questions and quips without skipping a beat in their storytelling. If you catch Seagroves as the mechanic-gravedigger you may even partake in a Gatorade.
Writer-director Lauren Ludwig, producer Monica Miklas and stage manager, Will Holt, make you feel welcomed, lounging in their sidewalk chairs, clad in grey, sleeveless jumpsuits, looking like blue-collar workers on a dinner break.
Locations via @HamletMobile; through June 28. https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/2453
Afraid of Karma
Reviewed by Jessica Salans
Actors Company @ Let Live Theater
Through June 27
In Harmony Jupiter’s autobiographical, one-woman show, Jupiter’s Kickstarter page, which successfully raised $10,863 for the production, bills the play as a means to help end drunk driving; Jupiter’s sister was killed by a drunk driver in 2006.
It’s shocking to learn of the fatality after an opening number in which Jupiter sings and dances in a tasseled leotard with a reluctant audience member. However it’s more startling to witness Jupiter’s story of loss, addiction and abuse as a fractured, non-linear, messy therapy session.
A third of the play is consumed by Jupiter talking about the how many men she has chased after, another third is made up of original songs sung unenthusiastically by Jupiter and strangely staged by director, Jonathan Baker. The final third is filled with statistical facts, projected on to the back wall, about domestic abuse, anorexia and AIDS.
Jupiter tries to wrap up the bizarre evening by concluding that by being aware of our karma, we can step out of whatever painful cycle we are causing ourselves, creating a pathway toward “psychic healing.” I hope the show is cathartic for Jupiter; for this audience member, it is only bewilderingly sad.
Actors Company @ Let Live Theater, 916 N Formosa Ave., Hlywd.
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/2096
