"The birds are shining, the sun's chirping..."
Love Me Or Die!
Savage Umbrella
A classic tale of deception and the theater, loosely based on the opera Pagliacci. Guitars, juggling, singing, heart-break, intrigue, death and fried chicken. Part homage. Totally rock and roll.
These Fringers were already #1 on my Top 10 list, and nothing I saw here dissuaded me.
A man is thinking of throwing over his current beloved for another object of desire. He is surrounded by some kind of bizarre interpretive dance chorus in T-shirts who give him unsolicited advice, and sing backup as he extols the virtues of scrapping an old love and starting over. (Yeah, right, buddy. Good luck with that. This is based on an opera, after all.)
The cardboard bluebird on a stick, operated by a completely visible actor, "flying" by, was a cameo that nearly stole the show. This was especially true when the one-sided, two-dimensional bird crossed the stage in the opposite direction, but couldn't turn to face the other way. So it was essentially "flying" backwards.
I enjoy low-tech cheese when it's deliberate.
I also enjoy having my expectations thwarted. When the lead in the scene began to belt out that "happy little bluebirds" ending excerpt of "Over The Rainbow," and the ladies next to me almost started to hum along to the familiar tune, he (and they) were cut off by the sudden appearance of yet another character. Just a fan there to voice their admiration at the most inopportune time. (And they got it all done within the yellow light 2-1/2 minute warning period.)
Love it.
I also enjoy a good Gabriel Garcia Marquez reference - as you'll see in the video below, the play within a play is called "Love In The Time Of Chicken"
Hee.
Can't wait.
My previous write-up
Their website - savageumbrella.com
Their show page
The Fringe's YouTube page should have the Fringe-For-All clip up in the coming days, so check back there. Meanwhile, we have...
Their bouncy musical video trailer...
and another behind the scenes video
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