Squishing the Patriarchy of Orlando Florida presented The Sting of Revenge: A Prequel of Sorts, at this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival. I had sketched The Bugged Lady at a previous Fringe where she told a tale of revenge against a professor who abused her trust. That show was in a teaching lab at Leu Gardens which was perfect to present her creepy crawly arachnids.
Sandi Lynn wrote and starred in the play which was directed by her son Clark Levi. She played the part of the Bugged Lady and Robin Olson played the peppy high-school acquaintance.
The Bugged Lady ran into her old high school acquaintance, and they sat down for a coffee and a chance to catch up. The friend loved her high school days as a cheer leader, but the bugged lady only found her true passion when she started studying bugs as an undergraduate. She excelled at researching and understanding the power of venom.
The conversation turned to a boy in high school who got a girl pregnant and she had to drop out of school to have the child alone. The cheer leader wasn’t aware of this story and it turns out she ended up marrying the boy, who over time grew resentful and abusive. When the bugged lady learned of the abuse she began to convince her high school acquaintance that she had a deadly solution. The lights would flair a bright red and everything grew still as the bugged lady realized that her help was predestined.
The bugged lady had a clear box in her bag that had a scorpion inside. She took the box out and gently shook the container which resulted in the scorpion raising its poisonous tail. As she discussed her proposition, she walked the scorpion around the room so the people in the front row seats could get a very close look and feel rather uneasy.
I was disappointed to learn that this would be the final showing of the bugged lady. There is a visceral pleasure in having a middle-aged woman get away with murder, but it would be nice if an intelligent female detective could get close to discovering the venomous secret.
Robin Olson won a Critics’ Choice Award for Individual Performance in Drama for her portrayal of the emotionally distraught woman in the play. From where I was seated, I mostly saw the back of her head, but her performance as she weighed right and wrong was very convincing. Is murder the best solution to an abusive relationship? That is a hard sell. Maybe I only think that because I am a guy.
As I worked on this sketch, I ran out of water for my watercolors. I had to spit on my palette to add the final washes. This resulted in some rather sickly and rough washes. Maybe this messiness was meant to be for a show about planning a perfect murder.