Headed by writer Mikey Craighead (who starred in it as well) O’ Save Us St. Sophia was certainly a highlight of the just past 2015 Fringe Festival. As well as Craighead, the cast here included Sophie Parens, Zak Kelley, Julian Thomas, Rebecca Bialostozky, Katy Roth, Emily Ashenden. I mention them all together not because each and every one of their performances are not worth mentioning singularly, but because this ensemble infused the play so completely with their aplomb the entire delicate hour and a half dance (or so) one act couldn’t have worked without each performance being as spot-on as it was.
Smartly directed by Sophia Lana Cohen Smith, who had a lot to contend with considering the “un-reality†of some of the action, as well as a comfortable yet one-set open space at the Robert Moss Theater, Sophia as a play and (as a character) was as much edge-of-your-seat scary, manic, and funny, but always all so tragic.
There’s a lot coming at the audience via Craighead’s non-linear (to say the least) storytelling and his performance. He is at the center of things considering ‘who’ exactly he is and certainly while theater like this would be seen as cutting-edge to some, for others it is right up our alley. The themes though of O’ Save Us St. Sophia are universal, touching for us all no matter our station in life, age or specific experiences.
O’ Save Us St. Sophia is powerful, kinetic, hyper-alive live theater, in what I saw on 8/29 perfectly-acted, written and directed for the Fringe Festival by the Dirty Dishes Theatre Company.
