| . | 09/15/2009
Sorority Queen in a Mobile Home
By: Elliot Rush
 The New York International Fringe Festival came to a close recently with 201 shows in 20 venues all vying for an audience’s attention. Typical attention getting vehicles included nudity, the word “gay” in the title or name performers in the cast. One such vehicle that did not conform to those necessities was Sorority Queen in a Mobile Home . This was not your typical Fringe Festival show. What Sorority Queen in a Mobile Home has is a finely crafted script by Michael DiGaetano and Kevin A. Mahoney that makes the jump from poignancy to hilarity to realistic observation of everyday life in the blink of an eye and smooth seamless direction by the creator of Forever Plaid, Stuart Ross. Topping it off were six wonderful, endearing performances worthy of a first class production, which this was.
Subtitled Rashomon on Cement Blocks, Sorority Queen in a Mobile Home starred Kelly Sullivan and Scott Decker as Grace and Dennis, a newly divorced couple who each had one act to tell their side of the story directly to the audience. While performed primarily in monologue, mutual friends, neighbors and acquaintances dropped in from time to time to add their two cents as to why they think the perfect couple split up. Both Sullivan and Decker are attractive, talented performers who can deliver a laugh and then a memory or moment of regret that has the audience hanging on their every word. Gina Milo and Patrick Richwood were a riot playing their best friends, Woody and Trudy, who are totally content with their life of playing “Scattergories” and renting from net flix, and can't understand why that wasn't enough to make Grace and Dennis happy. Both actors turned in fine dramatic performances as well when, at the end of their scenes, they laid down the law and made their friends face the truth as to why the marriage didn't work. Aaron Simon Gross from Broadway's 13 was charming and endearing as an Eagle scout who shares the story of his parents splitting up and Blair Ross crashed onto the set as the real estate agent from hell who says she wants to get the couple back together, but what she really wants is them to sell their Mobile Home and buy a house so the double commission will get her face "'plastered on every bus bench in Bakersfield"
The script by DiGaetano and Mahoney jumps from comedy to drama and back to comedy without missing a beat. Many of the stories their characters tell come directly from our everyday lives, such as how to really eat micro waved food or why frosting from a can is “cake blasphemy.” The direction by Stuart Ross is smart and efficient. He really did a great job of getting his actors to feel their stories and not just deliver them. Sorority Queen in a Mobile Home deserves a long life after the Fringe. Expect it to turn up again. Highly recommend.
Shows in the Fringe Festival all give five performances . Sorority Queen in a Mobile Home
played at The SoHo Playhouse.
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