FRINGE REVIEW: Hackles

Beautifully staged by Mason Rosenthal with humor and grace in an ethereal all-white room.

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FRINGE REVIEW: Hackles

POSTED: Sunday, September 9, 2012, 1:00 PM

Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!

SHOW: Hackles

GROUP: The Groundswell Players

GENRE: Theater

ATTENDED: Sat., Sept. 8, 8 pm

CLOSES: Sept. 16

BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: How awkward it is to forget that Death is in the room. Then one evening, she takes your arm, walks you to the top of the stairs and shoves you. Join a new incarnation of The Groundswell Players, fresh from a year at Pig Iron’s School for Advanced Performance, as they hold Death’s feet to the fire.

WE THINK: I remember the “wow” of seeing Pig Iron’s first show at Swarthmore College years ago, and felt it again at Hackles, produced by their students. This improvisationally developed piece follows teenage misfit Cynthia (Martha Stuckey) as she copes with dating goony Greg (Scott Sheppard) and caring for her paranoid blind dad (Nick Gillette). Everything changes when she witnesses death, and sees a beautiful lady (Alice Yorke) seemingly taking away souls. Could she be her late mother? Cynthia takes a magical journey to the other side. Beautifully staged by Mason Rosenthal with humor and grace in an ethereal all-white room.

—Mark Cofta

Posted by Mark Cofta @ 1:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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