The Voice Shop was home to a one-woman show titled In the Blue of Evening. When I walked into the closing performance of this show, I was immediately met with one of the best sets I have ever seen from a Rogue show. The detail of the living room set-up was enough for me to grow in excitement as to what I was about to see. When Amelia Van Brunt took her well-deserved bow I was actually a bit sad to applaud because I truly wanted more.
From her first entrance, Brunt’s makeup and physicality as an elderly, house-ridden lady was on point. We see the effects, first comical then saddening, of dementia come through in various ways during Brunt’s performance. Her unwavering commitment to her animated character allows for some grounded pauses that invite laughs but then plummets to a deafening silence in the tender moments. Brunt’s physical humor is part of the effective staging that allows her to takes us through the day in the life of someone who is battling some serious dementia. Brunt lets the audience know through hilarious facial expressions, an intelligent sound design, and laser-eyed stares when we are supposed to find the condition humorous, and when we are to feel the sympathy. Brunt’s amazingly-paced show makes this tour-de-force performance one for fringe festival audiences to add to their show-seeing lists.
