The Prague Fringe Festival: Day 7 (June 3)

Normalcy Has Been Restored - An earnest and encouraging American company, Safe Mode shows signs of promise with an original work written by director and cast member Kit Bihun. Employing true accounts of frightening experiences in the New York City subway system, the play centers on a meeting of a support group administered by a social worker.  The troupe's energy is infectious and winning, but the discussions and themes are rough and somewhat ill-considered. A forced contentiousness reigns as the group members criticize each other and direct and deflect blame for their various mass transit mishaps. While the range of reactions to being accosted, both on the subway and in the session, cannot be dismissed as implausible (truth is certainly stranger than fiction when it comes to interpersonal relations), the likelihood that any social worker or therapist would issue forth with insults and personal attacks while acting in a professional capacity strains credulity. The chaos that ensues when members of the group finally lose patience with one another is cleverly staged, but the therapeutic context that leads to this conflict feels considerably less well-researched than the accounts of violations and assaults that give the show its animus (Divadlo Na Prádle, June 4-5 at 5).

Sealskin - This dynamic duo from multistory (Bill Buffery and Gill Nathanson) weaves together the past and the present, the fantastic and the real in this tale of familial strife and mythological creatures. The second of two otherwise unrelated shows in the festival to interpret the selkie myth, Sealskin is told (and sung) in rotating scenes of a brother and sister grieving the loss of their father and retelling (and re-enacting) the story of a man who steals the skin of a selkie, thus preventing her from transforming from female form back into a seal, and, in turn, forcing her into his home and bed. Old secrets and fresh speculations about the disappearance of their mother are aired as "Bro" and "Big Sis" share memories and compare notes about the past. What begins as an ethereal juxtaposition of scenes set in the present as one family's history is recounted firsthand, and an ethereal pantomime of supernatural happenstance is eventually unified into a single, overarching narrative that merges fantasy and reality. The bond between the players is palpable, and the portrait of a brother and sister who love as well as frustrate and disappoint one another is pitch-perfect. A simple set is put to admirable use as the pair transitions forward and backward in time. Themes of love and loss, memory and mythmaking, loyalty and abandonment are given deft treatment in this, one of the stronger productions in this year's program (A Studio Rubín, June 4-5 at 8).

Top 5 Fringe picks (of shows currently playing): 1. Horse 2. Poste Restante 3. Dr. Brown 4. Playing With My Heart 5. Sealskin  

James Walling can be reached at
jwalling@praguepost.com