Wednesday, July 25, 2012

KC Fringe "Winter House" review by crl

A fine performance. See this show.
Rating: 5

Winter House
KC Fringe Festival

Winter House is an excellent one act play written by Carly Putnam and directed by Lee Conrads. It centers around the relationship between Zoe and James and their relationship.

I can't stand reviews that are spoilers, so I'm only going to give the barest of synopses of the action of the play so you can have the pleasure of watching it unfold. The play bookends the start and dissolution of James (Sam Slosburg)and Zoe's (Rachel Linder) marriage. All of the action takes place in the living room of their home, primarily as their marriage begins and ends, with a clever montage sandwiched between those two scenes.

The staging, acting and dialogue of the play is fluid and feels natural, and the two actors carry off their characters convincingly. This is no small feat as the roles require them to cover a wide range of emotions during the one hour duration of the play. They also have to deliver many lines that express complex ideas about being human, trying to find meaning and our failures to give of ourselves to one another in even our most intimate relationships. Even given these lofty intentions, the actors made me genuinely feel the power and strain in their relationship as they moved from being newlyweds to divorce.

The Fringe Festival has a large number of offerings. After seeing Winter house, I think you'd do well to make time to make it one of your destinations during the Festival.

No comments:

Post a Comment