There Ain’t No More is a solo folk operetta written and performed by Willi Carlisle of Breaker/Fixer Productions from Arkansas. With an exploration of life and celebration of folklore, a dying folksinger reflects on his life during his final performance. He considers his first and last love, his time in the Vietnam War and subsequent activism and his investigation of the folk legends that came before him. He faces his past, legacy and impending death. This is his magnum opus.
Willi Carlisle opens the show at the Art Academy of Cincinnati wearing a sort of grotesque mask as he embodies the severely wizened old folksinger who elucidates to his final audience. He cracks exceptionally quick-witted jokes about the nature of his performance and injects sharply profound observations about his own culture into his opening monologue.
This brand of wit can be exceptionally difficult to pull of, but Carlisle runs on pure charisma and delivers a supremely captivating performance. His charm and herculean commitment sucks the audience into his performance immediately. As the old man, Carlisle almost literally transforms into a future version of himself. Everything from his gravelly voice to his rickety physicality lends a wise integrity to the folksinger.
Carlisle expertly switches between five different instruments, sometimes playing more than one at a time like a modern-day troubadour. He employs amusing tricks and quick fingers that inspire sheer awe. Switching between flashback, commentary and song, the show never feels rushed or incongruous. It’s written with such outstanding language and impeccable cadence that the audience hangs on to each moment, savoring it.
Dry humor and witty self-awareness helps Carlisle turn the cliché of solo performance on its head. He never falls into the traps of flashbacks or bad poetry and stale observations that are exhaustive tropes of the genre. Although Carlisle escapes most of these pitfalls, he is not immune to occasional sharp, sometimes over-the-top and pedantic observations on the Vietnam War and American culture. But he always brings it back to emotion and ties it to a personal connection or perspective that keeps the show centered and prevents it from running away with itself.
Folk music is a hyper-local, uniquely cultural and diminishing art that There Ain’t No More clings to. The show is the folksinger’s last-ditch effort to preserve and contribute to the culture he so deeply admires.
An artist’s greatest fear is to dedicate his or her life to a craft and ultimately leave no impact. This is evident by the fervor of the production’s final 20 minutes, in which Carlisle furiously attempts to outrun death by gaining notoriety and becoming one with the craft he loves. He works himself into an exhaustive frenzy that finally overcomes him; in the end he has broken his own heart.
Hauntingly beautiful and stunningly enchanting, There Ain’t No More is a quest for enlightenment and immortality all at once. This production will stay with audiences long after the performance has ended.
The Cincinnati Fringe Festival runs through June 10. Find showtimes, tickets and more info here.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 6, 2018.
