Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: Sunday
Following are reviews of the shows Spanko! A Tex Mex Commedia, performed at the Magnetic Theatre; The Miraculously Inventive Machine of Charlie Mean, performed at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts; and The Pride of Pripryat: Tales from the Chernobyl Disaster, performed at The Block Off Biltmore, all presented at the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival on January 26, 2020.
Spanko! A Tex Mex Commedia by Skyler Goff
In an age where most new plays feature small casts for the sake of simplicity and economy, it was thrilling to see nine actors rush the stage at the top of Spanko! A Tex Mex Commedia and begin singing — what else? — the ballad of Spanko.
From the getgo, it’s clear that this show takes the legacy of commedia dell’arte seriously. And not just because of the large cast, the live instruments and singing. This show has got all the stock characters right out of a theater history textbook: Pantalone, the old miser; Il Dottore, the idiot doctor; Arlecchino, the Fool; and on and on.
Spanko received my top vote for Fringe Audience Favorite, which is like the Best Show category (Fringiest is the other category and it is very competitive). The reason is that out of the myriad performances I saw this weekend, Spanko had the clearest and most specific artistic vision and was the most effective at executing it.
Every aspect of Spanko — the writing, the music, the casting, the costumes and masks — were pitch perfect. Really, it’s all there in the title — a spoof of a spaghetti Western told using commedia tropes.
Even the titular character is as straightforward as can be — he goes by Spanko because he’s a masked serial spanker, of course. In fact, booty love runs deep throughout this show. You don’t have to be Freud to make certain assumptions about the creators’ predilections.
Of course, bawdy humor has been a part of commedia since its heyday in Italy in the 16th century. Spanko modernizes this to hilarious effect, most clearly in its song “Everything Goes” a celebration of all things kinky. The sex-positive vibe runs through the show, and a sexual odyssey lies at the heart of the play’s rollocking conclusion.
Fringe is a place where new works can be a little messy, a little rough around the edges. I love when a line gets dropped or a light cue goes wrong because it reminds me that I’m watching live theatre. That being said, there is also a huge amount of pleasure in seeing a tight piece of dramatic machinery that works exactly as it was intended to.
Spanko had an objective and it followed through flawlessly. The screaming laughter coming from the packed house in the Magnetic Theatre confirmed the roaring success. —Michael Poandl
Spanko photo, above, courtesy of Asheville Fringe Arts Festival.
(Review continues below the next photo.)
A scene from The Miraculously Inventive Machine of Charlie Mean; photo courtesy of Toybox Theatre
The Miraculously Inventive Machine of
Charlie Mean by Toybox Theatre
Even casual participants in Asheville’s performing arts scene are surely aware of Toybox, America’s Most Famous Cartoon Witch™️. Clad in all black, with white makeup and an impossibly broad grin, Toybox (Keith Shubert) is always a joy to watch.
I was surprised when I showed up to Toybox’s Fringe show, The Miraculously Inventive Machine of Charlie Mean, and there was a crowd of small children clamoring to get inside. After all, the last Toybox act I caught involved a story about one time when he drank his own urine while brutally hungover — quality content, for sure, but not exactly suited for a young audience.
But no, in fact, even though this was still Keith Shubert performing under the auspices of his Toybox Theatre, Charlie Mean does not feature the Toybox character, i.e., the “cartoon witch.” Instead, we have Professor Phineas B. Fumble — a mad scientist type with a lab coat and wild white hair.
Professor Fumble has a passion for science and is well suited to tell the tale of Charlie Mean, a lonely outcast with an oversized head and a passion for making inventions. The story is sweet and goofy and has a good message — all the hallmarks of a stellar children’s show.
The puppets are amazing. Everything’s constructed out of white cardboard but seems really solid and professional.
This being Toybox, there’s still definitely a lot of Invader Zim-style creepiness in the aesthetic. But the kids didn’t seem bothered. In fact, they were completely engrossed — and the parents seemed happy, too.
In an age when it’s so easy to plop kids in front of an iPad, entertaining live theater for kids is like solid gold. There may not have been any imbibing of urine, but Charlie Mean is a hoot of a show, nonetheless. —Michael Poandl
(Review continues below the next photo.)
The Perspective Collective, courtesy of The Perspective Collective
The Pride of Pripryat: Tales from the Chernobyl Disaster
by The Perspective Collective
This opera shares six vignettes of the citizens of Pripryat at different stages of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster by composer Sunny Knable and librettist Jim Knable.
The cast of Rachel Basescu, Erin Brittain, and Grant Mech deliver powerful performances embodying 15 separate citizens — from chief architect of the city, Maria Protsenko, to soldiers, teachers, and nameless bickering babushkas.
As the reality of the meltdown emerges, the score (played by pianist Patrick Fink) evolves from flourishes of civic pride to increasingly staccato solos of self preservation, loss, and hope. In the wake of failed reactors and a flawed government response, the people of Pripryat must find their own way forward.
This testament to the resilience of community was certainly not a disaster. —Greg Benge
(The above show was performed Saturday and Sunday and was reviewed at the Saturday show.)
To learn more about the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival, visit the festival’s website.
AshevilleStages.com also reviewed select Fringe Arts Festival shows from Friday and Saturday.
