I went to several rehearsals for Ironhead. Ironhead is a fun quirky play about a group of friends who get sucked into a vortex after rippinq an original Ironhead instruction manual. The protagonist, who later plays Ironhead, Josh Geoghagan, just had a child with his wife and he felt playing video games was a waste of time. The friends find themselves inside the video game battling for their lives. Their objective is to find the Evil Lord of Evil Darkness and kill him.
The group of friends battles foe after foe. A particularly memorable scene happened on the Island of Cat People. Here everyone was offered cat nip as a diplomatic sign of friendship. Soon everyone is writhing on the floor together in a state of ecstasy. After rehearsing this scene, Sarah Lockhard said, “I couldn’t find an opening.” The unintended double meaning had everyone in the room laughing to the point of tears. This scene alone is worth the price of admission.
This action packed play was written by Marcie Schwalm and directed by Christian Kelly. The rehersals were held at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Theater on International Drive. When I arrived, the actors were standing in a circle. An actor would shout out another actors name and then the two actors would change places by crossing inside the circle. The pace picked up until the director asked them to just use eye contact to initiate the exchange. In another exercise the actors walked freely on the stage using peripheral vision to avoid running into one another. At one rehearsal Sarah Lockhard and Josh Geohagen arrived late because her car overheated. After an acting warm up the director asked an actor what he was thinking of. The actor said, “I was wondering when my turn would come. ” The director turned to Sarah, in tears she said, “I was thinking about my car.” That girl couldn’t lie if she tried.
Bottom line, this Fringe play was a fun filled romp.
