I always expect Performance Gallery to provide Cincy Fringe audiences with “something completely different.” The company has been a contributor to every Cincy Fringe since year one (back in 2003), but it’s never the same thing twice. And it’s always kind of trippy — especially this year, collaborating with Solasta Theatre Lab, which identifies itself as “a physical theatre/puppet theatre company working to spark a creative metamorphosis in the community.” Continuum comes across as a mind-bending, self-conscious avalanche of images, messages and humor.
This livestreamed production takes the form of a travel through space and time (“spime” in the production’s vernacular) using the Zoom platform. A Tour Guide (Erin Carr, with glittering face makeup) greets arrivals and asks them to prepare for a journey to parts unknown. We see a “required safety video,” featuring several familiar Performance Gallery regulars (Derek Snow, Jodie Linver — and puppeteer Aretta Baumgardner) who offer warnings to “Be Careful” about dozens of goofy things as we prepare for take-off on an “amazing, preeminent spacecraft.” We briefly meet an AI assistant, BOB, who’s really of almost no help. Things begin to go awry, and we are asked to respond to a poll as to what might be the cause: The winner (with 53% of responses) was due to a “Lack of on-board martinis.”
The Tour Guide pretty much loses control of things as we enter a bizarre world where sock puppets warn us to get out because “It knows you’re here.” We encounter a strange three-headed monster and then one that plays the ukulele and sings a nonsense tune. Then we’re offered the opportunity to explore one of several break-out rooms, a feature many will recognize from Zoom meetings: On this adventure these include “Spatium Temporist,” “Shadow Paradox,” “Continuum-Go-Round,” and the “Blormhole.”
As a voice from a tree tells us, “What we see depends mainly on what we look for,” and that’s pretty much how it feels to flip around between these rooms — trolls, more sock puppets, weird close-ups, a weird guy doing the dishes, a woman with a wig made of toilet-paper rolls — it’s a surreal trip along the undefinable continuum.
With about 10 minutes left everyone is invited to get a sock, make your own puppet and join in a sing-along. The credits roll and we’re given a link to a YouTube video of outtakes from the “safety video.”
It’s a lot of fun and foolishness. Clearly many pieces of this are not performed live for the livestream, but the clever use of the Zoom platform makes this a unique and oddly familiar contribution to the 2021 Cincy Fringe. Don’t look for profound meaning: Just have a good time as you travel the Continuum.
The Cincinnati Fringe Festival takes place June 4-19. For more information, show descriptions, a schedule and tickets, visit cincyfringe.com.
This article appears in Jun 1 – Jul 6, 2021.
