Pack Animals at Fringe

Posted on by Thor

Scantily Glad Theatre from Victoria, BC, presented Pack Animals at this year’s Orlando Fringe. The premise it pretty straight forward. Two girl scouts get lost in the woods. One is a scout with plenty of merit badges (Holly Brinkman) who was confident she could navigate their way out with her trusty compass, while the other with just a few scattered badges had never camped in her life. The huge stage seemed cavernous for this intimate production.

When the inexperienced camper (S.E. Grummett) had to go to the bathroom she asked her fried for her guide book. She didn’t need the book to learn something new, but instead ripped out several pages to wipe. When done, she handed off the book and a trowel to a lucky audience member. The songs in the show were light-hearted, lyrical, and quite funny.

One guy in the front row of the audience kept interrupting the girls to let them know that they weren’t doing things right. After a few of these interruptions, it became clear that he was a plant. I think that during the run of the show they recruited various male Fringe artists to take on the role of the heckler. He became a focus for their searing and funny feminist sarcasm.

Puppetry was used to define the attributes of various forest creatures. The creatures all seemed to have the habits and attitudes of annoying guys. A much bigger forest creature, the bear, caused some chaos, but the campers survived. Overall this was a fun hour of wacky gay theater with just a dash of nudity.

Scum: A Manifesto at Fringe

Posted on by Thor

Scantily Glad Theatre from Saskatchewan Canada presented, Scum: A Manifesto which is a two woman show that takes a look inside the mind of Valerie Solanas, the mother of radical feminism and the woman who shot Andy Warhol. The premise is simple, Men are Scum who should be eliminated from the earth. Being male, I suppose I agree. Since these woman turned from men they needed to turn to each other for physical intimacy. They never quite pulled it off.

The Andy Warhol connection was visualized by a projection of Marylin Monroe‘s silkscreen print on the back wall of the theater. I imagine the corn Flakes boxes were synonymous with Warhol’s use of common day commercial items in his art. He was better known for soup cans one which did appear on a t-shirt. There were lots of on stage costume changes. One woman had street smarts and Valerie’s accent but she was sure any creative idea she had would be stolen. The other woman was a true radical wanting to kill all men. They were cut from the same bolt of cloth. Scenes revolved around everyday event like brushing their teeth and getting dressed. A bottle of booze was handed out to a woman in the audience and she ultimately finished it off by the end of the show.

I didn’t quite know what to make of the show since “my kind” being male and an artist, was under attack. There were a few funny moments and I laughed uncomfortably since I might be finished off at any moment.