Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: When Your Love Sets You on Fire

When Your Love Sets You on Fire, from Minnesota-based duo The Winding Sheet Outfit, is a creative telling of the last witch-burning in Ireland. Actually, we are quickly told that is a misnomer, because Bridget Cleary, who was indeed tortured and murdered by her husband in the late 19th century, was not actually suspected of being a witch, but rather a fairy changeling. 

Using a layered combination of music, shadow puppetry, and storytelling, Amber Bjork (who also directed) and her husband, Derek Lee Miller (who also designed the awesome shadow puppets), explain how this dark moment in history came to pass. 

Surprisingly, another element gets woven into this live Zoom piece — the present-day marriage between Amber and Derek and its breakdown under the stresses of quarantine. The story of Bridget Cleary becomes a vehicle for a more urgent and relatable story about how relationships become strained in the COVID era. 

When Your Love Sets You on Fire is a little shaggy, and until the final 15 minutes or so it wasn’t clear to me why Amber and Derek’s marital problems kept intruding on the already-compelling story of Bridget Cleary’s murder. 

For example, there are times when the conflict between the two of them is less dramatic clashing and more annoying bickering. But the core witch-burning story, plus context around Irish history and the mythology of fairies, is interesting enough to buoy the show during these moments when it may otherwise have fallen flat.

Ultimately, there is some truly creative storytelling going on here, and the tale of Bridget Cleary is as fascinating as it is morbid. The clear passion of Amber and Derek for nerding out on Irish history and culture makes the piece consistently engaging — not an easy feat for an hour-long Zoom show.

The 2021 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival runs through Sunday, Jan. 24. For a complete listing of shows, visit ashevillefringe.org

(Photo courtesy of Asheville Fringe)