Theater review: Raspberry Fizz at
Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in Addison
PegasusNews.com - Thursday,
March 8, 2012 - by Mary L. Clark of
John Garcia's
The Column
In the continuing saga of the Out of the Loop
Fringe Festival, I journeyed back over to
Addison Theatre Center to see
two individual theatre's one-acts. A gusty, cloudy evening made for perfect play
watching in their Studio Theatre.
First up was
Audacity Theatre Lab and what
was described as "A Sweet New Play" by local playwright and founder of Audacity,
Brad McEntire. Entitled
Raspberry
Fizz (playing once more on March 9), a sweet play it was, set
in 1949, when Truman was president and minimum wage was going up to 75 cents an
hour. Dubble Bubble was the gum of choice, that fizzy soda was only 5 cents, and
the worst thing you would ever say to someone was "Go suck an egg!"
A
mysterious street corner barker sits in front of a record player and a taped up
box. At intervals, he puts the needle on the record and tells passersby to
witness "the expected, the unsuspected." Reciting short tales of unusual events,
oddities, like those in the back of sensation rags, the barker then returns to
his stool and paper.
Ellison has come to that same corner for the last
five days, in particular to the stoop where high school friend Samantha has
been, with an important question to ask her. But the "cat's got his tongue" and
he just can't muster up the courage. Talking about what they want to be when
they grow up, "Sam" teases "Ellie," calls him a sap and a square, and generally
they both pass the time. Samantha is a flirt who gets poor Ellison to buy her
things. As he leaves to purchase gum, he passes the barker, asks him what he's
up to, and the con begins. In what McEntire describes as "a heart-warming
exploration of expectations and the potentialities of the unmapped future tied
up in ... an encounter between two young adolescents in small town America,
Raspberry Fizz reminds us of an innocence we'll never see
again.
All three actors used their talents to take the audience to that
more innocent time -- when dreams were made on the steps of a stoop instead of
playing the lottery or getting on a reality TV show. Your future or fortunes
could change for just a nickel.
Shane Beeson played the barker with the
friendly yet smarmy personality a good con artist needs. Both older than their
characters, Natalie Young and Jeff Swearingen played that bygone era's youth
with sincerity. Not trying to fake younger, they instead relied on the emotions
of great potential all Americans felt coming out of World War II. Young was all
smart-alecky, gum chewing, and kidding around as Sam. Swearingen made use of his
natural clown/comic facial and body gestures to portray put upon Ellison as a
true sad sack.
A thoughtful conception piece, a fun trip down a memory
lane I traveled a bit of, and a sweet slice-of-life, coming-of-age play made
Raspberry Fizz a tiny wonderment.
