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Review: Oceana at the Vortex [Theatre]
May 9 - June 6 2009
Vortex Theatre (2307 Manor Road)
Thursdays - Sundays 8pm, $30-$25 Priority Seating, $20-$15 General Admission, $10 Starving Artists Thursdays & Sundays, 2-for-1 admission with donation of 2 non-perishable food items for SafePlace
[info] | [tickets]
Okay, okay, no it’s not, though it does take place under the sea and features plenty of graceful and limber dancing, including some aerial work. And the costumes! The costumes! Really nice shiny, stretchy, shimmery job on the costumes!
Bonnie Cullum (writer/director) and Content Love Knowles (original music and lyrics) have joined forces to create one shell of a show. (Confession - performances about the ocean lend themselves so well to the urge to pun that it’s nearly impossible to clam up. For instance, this musical features plenty o’ Merman, though no Ethel.)
Cullum and Knowles have done a great job here, beginning with box office check-in, when patrons are handed “tickets” in the form of actual seashells. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that, upon entering the theater, you don’t have to wait long for the festivities to begin. As with last year’s award-winning production of Troades, Oceana often features lots of actors onstage at once while managing to avoid feeling chaotic, except when chaos is intentionally called for. That’s no easy feat, given the small space in which they have to work— that they’ve turned the tiny stage into the full, big deep blue sea is commendable.
Gulf Girl (played by Betsy McCann) is minding her own sand-castle-building business at the beach one sunny day when fate intervenes and she is swept away to play protagonist in a sort of Alice in Wondersea. Escorted on her incredible journey by three mermen and a mermaid, she visits all sorts of mythical creatures, from Lakhimi (Kira Parra), the Hindu Goddess of Wealth, to the oft-misunderstood Olokun (Gabriel Maldonado), a character rooted in Haitian and West African lore. Katherine Craft does a wonderful turn as Aoife the Selkie, a shape-shifting half-woman/half-seal based on Scottish and Icelandic mythology. Karina Dominguez in the role of Pele, is another standout performer, super hot in her role as Volcano Goddess.
And through it all, the Sirens (Kimberly Pruitt, Jennifer Coy, Brenna Pritchard) beautifully belt out Knowles’ witty, narrative lyrics, advising unheeded caution to Gulf Girl. You really must sea Oceana for yourself and put your flippers together because really, this proves it— there’s no business like roe business.
Oceana runs through June 6th at the Vortex.
