The Book of Briarshire
Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Good Shows at the Hollywood Fringe Festival
Through June 30
In a medieval kingdom, young warrior Ylva (Kelly Moore) has been tasked by the King (Celeste Pechous) to slay a dragon. Ylva is happy to have a chance to show off her battle skills and be like her long-missing warrior father, but isn’t expecting to be accompanied by her sister Skittles (Emily Bolcik), who wants to participate in a beauty pageant. As the sisters proceed upon their adventure, encountering elves and unicorns and cobblers, they get ever closer to solving the mystery of their broken family.
Moore is appropriately serious as aspiring heroine Ylva, and effectively plays the “straight man” to all the goofiness around her. Bolcik is delightful as the charmingly discursive Skittles, a loopy optimist who lives to break out her recorder and perform a rap routine with her sister. Pechous gets a lot of comedic mileage from the selfish, braying King, and Marina Mastros is charming as the literal personification of Magic, flitting about in a gauzy cape strung with colored lights.
Moore’s writing is consistently funny, and the ensemble is talented and clearly having a good time. Colleen Doyle’s direction skillfully amplifies the silliness of the show, especially in an energetic fight/chase toward the end. The only problem with The Book of Briarshire is its structure — it was originally done as a series of shorter pieces as part of Sacred Fools’ Serial Killers show and this production simply puts those pieces together. In its current form, the story feels compressed in a confusing way, and would benefit from expanding out the story and spending more time with the characters.
The Broadwater Second Stage, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; Sun., 6/16, 11 a.m.; Sun., 6/23, 10:30 p.m.; Sat., 6/29, 5 p.m.; Sun., 6/30, 12 p.m.; through Jun. 30. https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6131. Running time: approximately 50 minutes, with no intermission.
