An actor comes onstage clad in nothing more than a pinafore, red speedos and mismatched socks. “I have a boyfriend," he blurts out after staring at the audience for a long while.
So begins Meatball Séance.
From there, solo performer John Michael describes his attempt at keeping a new boyfriend by performing a séance so this new beau can meet his dead mother — and get her approval.
Meatball Séance lives up to its reputation. Over the course of the show, there are not one but two séances — as well as boyfriends. Meatballs are created to conjure up the ghost of Michael’s mom using her own recipe.
If this all sounds like a weird experience, it is, especially because John Michael likes to draw heavily on audience members to participate — selecting them to be his boyfriend, his mother, a boyhood version of himself and a chanting Greek chorus. Michael has a gift of manic energy — his audience doesn’t know what he is going to do next. While a bit unnerving at times, it made for an engaged audience who followed along with his story closely.
I must confess that I am a bit puzzled by this play, since its architecture of grief is a bit hard to see behind Michael’s erratic behavior. Of course, that might be the point — his mania may mask a deep grief that he doesn’t allow himself to express.
As a performer himself, Michael keeps up high energy throughout the show and interacts well with his chosen audience members. I especially enjoyed the interactions between himself and the audience member he chose to be his first boyfriend — the pair worked well together. He also had some great one-liners, like “impossible fantasies are the only fantasies I have. If they are possible, then you should go ahead and fucking do them.”
If you liked the zany antics Puppets Should Speak, another Fringe performance, you're likely to enjoy Michael's show, too.
I won't say if the last meatball séance was successful or not — of if his love life works out — but I'll give you this: The play ends with the line "Mother loves you."
The Cincinnati Fringe Festival runs through June 15. Find showtimes, tickets and more info here. Check out more reviews from our CityBeat team here.
