Mansion of Dust

by Phillip Andrew Bennett Low | 8/1/09 • Note that I arrived nearly a full ten minutes late for this one. I'm reasonably confident that I didn't miss much plot. I'll confess that I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to say about this one, since there honestly doesn't seem to be all that much to it: it's basically a vehicle for their considerable talents (Sara's dance and Joe's physical comedy), as well as their chemistry together (which is charming), as they bumble about in a haunted mansion.

womb with a view is the blog of phillip andrew bennett low, one of seven bloggers covering the minnesota fringe festival and other theater for the daily planet.

I loved loved loved their collaboration last year, Dance of the Whisky Faerie, although that was a meandering show as well; perhaps I found it more enjoyable because the frame story immediately established an episodic structure, whereas this one really kind of felt like stuff happening and then more stuff happening and then some more stuff happens and then it's over. So while it's chock-full of some entertaining moments -- not least of which is a lightning-lit bunny attack -- I couldn't really find the meticulous attention to structure that their last show bore. Enjoyed sitting through it, just found myself moving on with a bit of a befuddled shrug. Phillip Andrew Bennett Low (maximumverbosityonline@gmail.com) is a playwright and poet, storyteller and mime, theater critic and libertarian activist, who lurks ominously in the desert wilds of St. Louis Park, feasting upon the hygienically-prepared flesh of the once-living. His main claim to fame is probably as co-founder of the Rockstar Storytellers, and as founder/producer of Maximum Verbosity, a garage-band-like theater troupe that is in a state of constantly re-defining itself.

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