BlueSky post: MN Fringe show #12: The Wickie - just delightfully goofy, well-executed clowning from beginning to end as a beleaguered lighthouse keeper battles the ocean that stole his left shoe; great crowd engagement and world building, so inventive and funny; 5 stars
One of the many charms of Richie Whitehead’s “clownesque physical comedy” show “The Wickie” is that it is genuinely a collaboration between the actor and the audience. It’s not a full-on audience participation show - there are plenty of stretches of time where we’re just sitting back and watching Whitehead do his very funny thing. But every now and again, various audience members are asked to be part of this tale of a lighthouse keeper with a strange accent who is at war with the sea for taking his left shoe, and his quest to get it back. Along the way, of course, he also creates his entire world for us to see, working with little more than an A-frame ladder, a couple of work lights on very long extension cords, a rag, a tree branch, a smoking pipe, a very fake bushy gray beard, and an empty plastic water bottle.
This collaboration gets started right up front when, after the shouting at the ocean (where the audience is seated), the Wickie (aka, a lighthouse keeper), spies a message in a bottle floating “under the sea” which then becomes “under the sea-t” (as in, look under your seats folks, there might be a bottle with a message in it to throw at me). Once found, the former plastic water bottle, now empty with a piece of paper inside instead, gets tossed onto the stage, and the Wickie reacts as if this is the last thing he was expecting to happen, even though he orchestrated it.
The ocean sends a couple of these mocking messages from different segments of the audience, but finally the Wickie has had enough and he won’t read another. So he throws it back out into the audience. But then Whitehead gestures none too subtly to have it thrown back at him, as if the ocean is insisting on speaking with him, despite the Wickie’s resistance. This bit continues for a couple of cycles, but then Whitehead wants to move on so he has to convey - without saying it - that no, he really means it this time, don’t throw it back to him. At our performance, the audience couldn’t let the bit go, because it just got funnier and funnier, so finally the Wickie had to signal by pointing to his wrist, where there was no watch, that it was really time to move on, he’s only got an hour. Another laugh, and on we go.
Whitehead is also great with kids. My friend’s young son Arthur, sitting with our group, engaged the Wickie when the audience was asked a question (perhaps how many steps he had to climb to reach the top of his lighthouse), and Whitehead came back to him a couple more times throughout the show. When doing his window cleaning pantomime at the top of the lighthouse, Whitehead made the squeaking sound of his cleaning rag, which masked a lot of profanity the Wickie would have otherwise said. Then he asked Arthur to introduce himself but he kept making the rag squeak just as Arthur was trying to say his name, and had to ask him to repeat it, another funny bit of timing. After several attempts, Arthur had had enough and managed to quickly blurt out his entire first, middle and last name. And that settled that.
Later still, when pretending to walk around in the dark, even though the lights were up, and naming things as he “ran into them, unseeing,” touching them with the end of his long smoking pipe (“Stage,” “Ladder,” “Curtain”), Whitehead came out into the audience and after asking permission (“May I touch your knee?”) tapped a couple of audience members’ legs in the row behind us with his pipe (“Audience member, audience member”), then stopped at our row and reached over to where he knew the kid would be, couldn’t quite reach with the pipe, so he stage whispered to reach out and touch the pipe, and when the boy did, the Wickie pulled back in surprise and said, “Arthur?!” Every audience is different, of course, but Whitehead really knows how to engage all ages in his clowning quest.
Great physical comedy gags abound, like fake-climbing the many stairs to the top of the lighthouse, or fake running through the forest as random tree branches grab at his clothing prompting a minor striptease number (still family friendly, no worries). There’s also fun effects work, like a running gag communicating with several other lighthouse keepers by Morse Code, or a fluorescent make-up bit that reveals a ghost character that comes and goes in conversation with him under black light. Anyone who had the pleasure of seeing his Fringe preview will recognize the sequence where he uses a red work light, contortions of his body, and a bit of running around the stage with the light clicked off, to present himself popping in and out of the dark in order to tell the story of a shipwreck, more hilarious than foreboding. The fake accent itself is an example of commitment to the bit - he’s created the weird way this guy talks and he sticks to it. The audience around me translated a bit faster than I did. Initially when he was shouting at the ocean, I thought he was berating a friend named Shawn - but it was actually “OH-SHONN” not “Oh, Shawn!”
“The Wickie” is an impressively constructed clowning show. Just one guy on stage, but Whitehead establishes his story, builds out a whole world around it (populated with other characters, seen and unseen) one amusing sequence at a time, bringing it all home at the end in ways that are still funny and unexpected. If you want a change of pace and need a giggle, "The Wickie" is a great show to see. Another of the best visiting artists in the festival this year.
5 Stars - Very Highly Recommended
Here’s some handy links to coverage of 5 Star and 4.5 Star Shows I've Seen (VERY Highly Recommend), 4 Star and 3.5 Star Shows I've Seen (Highly Recommended), Other Shows I've Seen (3 Stars or Less), as well as my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, and all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.
As I’m sure many artists are, I find myself struggling with the idea of
just “taking time off” (what a luxury) and submerging myself in a whole
lot of theater for 11 days while the world is on fire so… I’m going to
put some phrases and links down here (and at the end of each post going
forward) and if you find yourself compelled to explore one or more of
them, so much the better. There’s a lot going on, and it can be easy to
get overwhelmed and tune out, but as Congresswoman Sarah McBride
recently said, “If everybody shows a little courage, nobody needs to be a
hero.” I freely admit this list and these links are hardly
exhaustive. It's just something to get started. Do what you can, where
you can, however you can. Let’s help one another get through this.
Contacting your elected officials about the issues that matter to you (and protesting as necessary)
Starvation in the Gaza Strip
Immigration raids around the United States
Ukraine fighting off invasion by Russia
Trans rights
Climate change action
Housing shortage and the unhoused
Reproductive Rights
Voting rights, and running for office
The courts, from the Supreme Court on down to the local level
Don’t forget to laugh - even gallows humor is still humor
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