Pigeon Creek succeeds in breathing life into rarely-performed 17th century story
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company’s burlesque “The Knight of the Burning Pestle“ at Dog Story Theater earns the respect of the audience with vigorous work ethic and hilarious satire from their fearless cast.
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company’s contribution to the yearly Lake Effect Fringe Festival was “The Knight of the Burning Pestle,” a rarely performed burlesque by Bard contemporary Francis Beaumont. Pigeon Creek’s troupe of energetic young actors succeeded in breathing life into the early 17th-century script and provided Saturday night’s audience in Dog Story Theater with a rollicking evening filled with imaginative staging, singing and laughter.
“The Knight of the Burning Pestle” is really a play within a play, or better put, a play around another play. Early on, a raucous grocer (Scott Lange) and his colorful wife (Kathleen Bode) emerge from the audience to interrupt a play entitled “The London Merchant.” In doing so they commandeer the convoluted plot and action onstage to better represent London’s shopkeepers.
What ensues is a hilarious satire on shortsighted middle-class values, particularly those related to love, family, and chivalry. In the process, knights rescue damsels, lovers quarrel, feign death, and then rise as moaning sheet-clad ghosts to haunt the living. Meanwhile warriors are slain and wander about with obviously fake arrows protruding from their heads. In the end, however, as the program notes, “love triumphs and all is right in the world.”
What makes all of this seemingly incongruous nonsense work onstage is the unswerving commitment of this seemingly fearless cast to rendering Beaumont’s verse in a conversational and intelligible manner, as well as their clean execution of physical business, no matter how ridiculous, in the style of the period, with the occasional purposeful anachronistic twist.
Ashley Normand, in a cross-gender dual role is credible as Rafe, the young apprentice. She also embodies the ideals of this chivalric spoof as she boldly mounts an imaginary hobby horse, Monty Python style, and brandishes a blue foam pool noodle sword, sallying forth in the person of the valiant Knight charging to battle.
Katherine Mayberry, as Jasper and Jacqueline Frid, as Luce, portray the star-crossed pair around which the story revolves. The mercurial Mayberry can sue a love interest with sincerity, milk a make-believe death scene for five minutes and then recover in time to enact the threatening giant, Barbarossa. Frid feeds off the over-the-top melodrama of her suitors for comic effect, but is also capable of a serious speech mourning the supposed death of her love interest.
Riley VanEss, through drunken song and revelry, and Kat Hermes, with her curious puppet-doll child, bring zany comic relief to their interludes as the quarreling couple, the Merrythoughts.
The most appealing aspects of this production are the period conventions adopted by Pigeon Creek in presenting their work. Aside from aforementioned cross-gender casting, the company eschews lighting changes or blackouts, utilizes minimal props and set, and seats a prompter onstage. In addition, the program credits the “acting ensemble” with directing the show and other in-house literature notes a rehearsal period consistent with that of a 17th-century English theatre company: eight days. The result is a stripped down performance style and vigorous work ethic that earns the respect of the audience and is unique in Michigan theatre.
About the Festival:
The Lake Effect Fringe Festival seeks to highlight performer-based theatre presented in a non-traditional theatre space.
The Festival continues throughout February with improvisation and a comedy lab on Comedy Outlet Mondays at 7 p.m.
Beginning February 8, 9 and 11 the Brutal Sea will present “Chaos & Entropy,” a multidisciplinary collage by Kimmy Snyder and Declan Maher. The performance contains strong language and is not suitable for children. On February 10 at 8 p.m. Dog Story Theater will host 24 Hour Theatre.
The following weekend, Feb. 16–18, the Festival features “2 Across: A Comedy of Crosswords and Romance” by Jerry Mayer, performed by GEM Theatrics husband and wife duo Gary E. Mitchell and Mary Beth Quillin.
The festival includes a 10 Minute Play Festival on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 22 and 23.
On Feb. 24 and 25, the festival features, an original comedy “Yes, We’re Closed” by the Commedia Troupe, Hole in the Wall Theatre Company.
On Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. the Festival hosts Alternative Acts Performance Piece “I’m So . . .”
On March 1, No Outlet Improv will present the Final Festival Improv Event. The Festival concludes on March 2, 3 & 4 with The University Wits production of “The Last Five Years,” a musical by Jason Robert Brown.
For a full rundown of festival events, times and dates visit the Lake Effect Fringe Festival website.
