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'Freakshow' is oddly beautiful
(by Herb Hammer - August 13, 2008)
'Freakshow' is oddly beautiful
You can't help yourself. Once you've been to Convergence-Continuum and have felt part of one of its edgy, often bizarre productions, you go back again. Like it or not, you're bound to see the next offering.
"Freakshow," C-C's latest endeavor, is merely what the title describes: a traveling tent show where folks pay to look at odd beings, beings they would turn away from on the street.
Playwright Carson Kreitzer takes us back to a time when tent shows were the norm. Inside of Miss Kreitzer's tent, we find the dog-faced lady, Aquaboy, a human salamander, gills and all, a tiny pinhead boy locked in a cage, and Amalia, the center of attention.
Amalia, armless and legless, is perched center stage on a pillow atop an ornate table. She's quite beautiful, she tells us this herself.
Mr. Flip, top hat and all, is the barker and owner of this little troupe. Often the villain but more often the hero, he draws us into this tent and into the play's mystifying plot.
There is a plot in this 90-minute, one-act story with which you connect. Everything centers on Amalia, played by Laurel Johnson, who does happen to be beautiful.
You watch and listen to Amalia's mesmerizing monologue, her life story. Sure, she likes sex and manages with great ingenuity to take part. We, of course, never see this. She doesn't seem to mind being perched all day on her pillow. The dog-faced lady meticulously takes care of her. Her lover is the boy who cleans out the elephant stalls. He wants to marry Amalia.
All the while, you wonder about all the things she can't do. Amalia tells you how she overcomes these trivial problems. You also wonder how the trick works. Where are her arms and legs?
But there's trouble in the tent. The dog-faced lady, responding to her sister's letter, plans to leave the show. Aquaboy prepares to run off with a lovely young girl from the country, and Matthew, who desperately wants to marry Amalia, is rejected.
Here's where Miss Kreitzer's play takes its enlightening turn. Amalia tells Matthew no. What could she do lying around for 12 hours waiting for him to return from work? No, no, that is not the life she wants. She's much happier as the human torso being watched all day, sparkling and beautiful.
Mr. Flip has a dilemma on his hands. Though more entertaining than his freaks, he sees everything coming apart. What to do? Let's save this little surprise ending for future audiences.
"Freakshow," though somber and strange, is surprisingly poignant. Oddly enough, Miss Kreitzer makes her freaks seem perfectly normal.
Though much of this oddly contrived play is worthy of praise, some of it doesn't work at all.
The Aquaboy character swimming around in his glass tank doesn't catch your fancy. Neither does the pinhead boy locked in a cage, occasionally humming. Their stories never take off.
But the jovial Mr. Flip, whom we finally realize has saved these people and is quite wonderful, is played by Clyde Simon.
Lucy Bredeson-Smith, with her mouth contraption, excels as the dog-faced lady.
And what more can you say about Laurel Johnson, beautiful, talented and, as Amalia, hypnotizing?
Geoffrey Hoffman directs, keeping this insanity quite serious yet nimble throughout.
Carson Kreitzer has written a play to be seen twice, once for entertainment and once to catch every nuance in her script.
"Freakshow" will continue through Aug. 23 at Convergence-Continuum at West 14th Street and Scranton Road. For tickets, call (216) 687-0074.
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