The Focus is on Females, Farce, and Fringe in 'Death and Murder...'

by Cassiopeia Guthrie, May 20

The San Diego International Fringe Festival has opened, featuring 48 artists and performing groups at eight venues across San Diego from Balboa Park to Liberty Station, and Barrio Logan to Lincoln Park. The fringe movement hearkens back to 1947 Edinburgh, when 8 artist groups showed up at a theater festival and performed on the fringes without permission or invite. This audacious attitude lives today in fringe events around the world, each of them censorship-free.

Notably, this year’s offerings include a bold original work by Riot Productions, Death and Murder and Poison and Scene, written by award-winning writer Sarah Alida LeClair. The female-centric production, inspired by the author’s experience in A Perfect Crime, is a farcical murder mystery play about the production of a murder mystery play, and explores sheer will and how base instincts can guide behaviors in the most outlandish of ways.

Death and Murder and Poison and Scene’s characters are extreme, yet recognizable. Intense and protective stage manager Alice (Cory Lynn) is calling the pre-show for a (terrible) new work. Helming the production is Taylor (Delia Mejia), a spoiled playwright who is determined to see her production go viral, and has pressed four performers into service to do that dirty work. There’s leading lady Catherine (LeClair), partially distracted by her showmance with charismatic costar, Michael (Brendan MacNeil), partially engaged in passive refusal to perform the offensive script with fidelity. Dramatic lead David (Timothy Benson) takes his work and relationships seriously, and cannot understand why his cast mates do not, turning to snacks backstage as a respite. Then there’s Emily (Katee Drysdale), a method actor so dedicated to her craft that she hasn’t slept at length, leaving her teetering on the precipice of focus and strung out. What could go wrong?

LeClair has written a quick and witty script with many moving parts, an array of weapons, and the hilarity of a show that must go on, but absolutely should not, and she steps into the role of Catherine with confidence and trust that her team will embody the many real and peculiar behaviors that the story explore. They do so with verve. While all performers shine, audiences will be particularly drawn to Emily and Alice, who embody what the script describes as “a real Silence of the Lambs energy” and prove that “art is never safe.” 

Audiences can see Death and Murder and Poison and Scene or its 48 Fringe counterparts through May 25. The full line up is available online at sdfringe.org.