Engaging Character
Kimmy Gatewood displays a palette of personalities
in carefully constructed solo showcase
“Apple
Sister” Kimmy Gatewood (see review
and interview) goes solo at
The PIT with “The Engagement,” a fitting vehicle where she gets to
showcase her versatility with characters in a piece that has a
substantial story arc to put them all into, seen there April 14.
Gatewood wrote the piece so that all the characters she plays are
addressing their comments to her, on the unhappy occasion of being
jilted at the rehearsal dinner before her wedding, so that the audience
is seeing everything as though it is directly from Gatewood’s own point
of view. This proves very effective at drawing you in.
Each character she plays advances the story a little more, building the
humor as the story unfolds, going from a daft friend who doesn’t quite
realize what’s happened to the ghost of her great grandfather, all
trying to console her (with varying degrees of interest) where she’s
retreated to a coatroom at the hall.
Gatewood also throws in a couple apparitions for good measure … first,
the real presence of an ex-boyfriend she’s still into, whose every other
move is expertly scored with the recognizable riff of “Every Little
Thing She Does Is Magic,” to the ghost of Judy Garland, babbling on and
on as Gatewood is backlit to do a dead-on impression.
All in all, Gatewood makes each familial character distinct enough to
avoid the trap of having every one be a slight variation of herself.
That makes “The Engagement” engaging from conception to completion.
“The Engagement” is slated to return to The PIT in June. Check
Jesterjournal.com for more details. |