CRITIC’S PICK
Have you ever experienced creativity in someone that amazes you? That was my experience at new Cincy Fringe participant Zach Dorn’s live-action, multimedia comic book extravaganza Let’s Prank Call Each Other.
From the moment the audience enters the house, Dorn is completely in character. We are greeted by a frazzled artist whizzing around the stage, fiddling with wires, muttering to himself and collecting items for the show that have been scattered throughout the house.
It’s this manic energy that acts like a thread throughout the performance, and Dorn’s ability to sustain it with complete and utter control is a massive part of the performance’s success. There’s something astounding about watching an actor know his staging so well that he can master making the performance appear incidental as he acts it out. It’s a kind of improv-esque performance that only works because Dorn is so completely calculated and in control the entire time.
Let’s Prank Call Each Other is a digitally-manipulated puppet show that incorporates projections, audio tracks, cardboard cutouts, video games and storytelling all at once. Dorn’s hand-drawn sets combine intricate paper cutouts with 3-D models and intense close-ups of the artist as he speaks to the audience directly into a digital camera that then projects the footage on stage. It’s the kind of performance that has to be experienced to truly comprehend.
Told in a series of vignettes, Let’s Prank Call Each Other weaves each medium together to create a touching and truly unique performance that feels as if it’s magically unfolding for the very first time. These short stories from Dorn’s life are utterly ordinary, but the frenetic energy Dorn brings to each tale, combined with the wonder he inspires with intricate puppetry, is transformative.
And, as Dorn reminds his audience several times, he’s 30, a critical point by society’s standards that demands a certain polish and maturity shown by individuals.
But through his meticulously mastered chaos, Dorn asserts that you can be a mixture of a frenzied artist who plays with puppets and, at the same time, be a dedicated professional who has taken the time and the work to grow into their passion. There is no right way to be a grown-up.
The Cincinnati Fringe Festival runs through June 15. Find showtimes, tickets and more info here. Check out more reviews from our CityBeat team here. For a comprehensive list click here.
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 5, 2019.