The Rage Fairy (review)

 

Spoilers ahoy!

Okay, let us  begin with the title.  The Rage Fairy (by Antonia Czinger, who also directed) suggests to me fantasy, and some dark themes.  It also sounds amusing in some way.

What is it like?  All that and more!  More than anything else, this show reminded me of a modern Alice in Wonderland written by a woman sans any dainty Victorian restraint!  Done, it must be said, with considerable skill by all involved!

Holly Anne Mitchell plays the title character, a swirling vortex of neuroses and unrealistic expectations--deeply lonely, prone to over-reacting, all-but-incapable of learning, vastly preferring her fantasy versions of reality to...well, reality.  She is on stage for nearly every one of the ninety minutes which make up the show--and a marathon that proves to be.  She dances, whines, suffers, weeps, laughs in joy and rage, covers the range from seductive to almost-infant which (no coincidence here) makes up the approved roles for women in our current type and style of patriarchy.  But she also has magical powers, as well as being virtually immortal.

This is not a good combination.  It turns out to be a weirdly funny one though, as she decides a Murderer (Isaac Tipton Snyder) she comes across one night is really her soul mate.  He in fact proves to be a serial killer of women who--no surprise--hates yet desires women for sex.  Our heroine believes his excuses about it is all because he never felt love growing up, deciding they are alike!  He agrees she's sexy, and is frightened upon realizing she has powers plus is invulnerable.  But then realizes he can walk all over her and talk her into blaming herself.

Because she is in love, and not even the vengeful ghosts of all his victims (an amazing physical and vocal ensemble performance by Madison Hubler, Lauren Antioch, Ayanda Dube) who wont let our Fairy get any sleep can convince her otherwise.  Tellingly, her Mom (Cassandra Stipes) and Pop (Max Zumstein) don't even try. They just want her to work better at their shop, seeing her as nothing more than an employee.  Once, Mom bewails the fact they didn't make a happy Worker Bee instead of this erratic Rage Fairy, but as Pop points ohut they "didn't have the ingredients."  Honestly lines like that continue to echo inside my head, hours and hours later.

Maybe you can see where this is going?  Amid a surreal dreamscape of the Rage Fairy's world, reflecting our own in perfect distorted clarity, an apocalypse is pretty inevitable.  A Fortune Teller (Megan Colburn) warns about the possibilities.  So too a True Friend (Morgan Lorraine).  To zero avail.

A hilarious feminist version of a Book of Revelations this story is and must be, with a compelling finale where Rage Will Have Its Way, no matter what.

The Rage Fairy plays Saturdays and Sundays 8:30pm until March 13, 2022 at The Sherry Theatre,11052 West Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, CA. 91601.