SALT LAKE CITY — One of my favorite things about Fringe Festivals like the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival is the opportunity they provide for artists to do what they love largely because they love it. You can feel that love of theatre in the performances of The Open Syrup: Oops, We Did it Again!. Written by local playwright Élise Hanson who pulls double duty as the beleaguered owner of The Open Syrup, the events center around a hotel with an unlikely potpourri of guests. The script seems to have been built on a foundation of “yes-and.” Time portals? Sure! Fairy tale characters? Add them in. A femme fatale in search of fatale? Absolutely. The results are a bit uneven and not all the jokes land, but there’s such joy from the performances that it’s still a fun enough fringe adventure, if only to appreciate the opportunity to see each performer have a good time.
The Open Syrup is a haven of the quirky. Joining Hanson’s Rhonda Saint-Cuthbert is handyman Bradley Burgoyne (Jesse Curran) and the younger Bradley Burgoyne (Jaron Jones), both of whom seemed to have studied at the Dick Van Dyke school of accents. Bombshell Zoomy Gallumph (Cami Rozanas) superhero sidekick in-waiting Brian (Owen Pead), gumshoe Franklin Alloquacious Quip (Jeffrey Owen), Little Bo-Peep (Tami Noble) and Aware Wolf (Beth Anne Martin), with Chloe Hanson as younger Rhonda, Blayne Wiley as Ned Pilorious Winchester, and Angela Wright-Stevens as Tabitha J. Whistler rounding out the cast.
I found the plot a touch tricky to follow, though I do wonder if that could be because I’m coming into the story of this zany hotel and its assorted occupants mid-stream. There were many moments that left me feeling confused about what exactly was going on. What I did gather felt descended from Monty Python sketches, where the primary connection between scenes was the location and the center conflict mostly anchored in the exasperation of Hanson’s Rhonda. The individual wants of each character served as side quests to a main through line that I didn’t pick up on. The ensemble has some fun moments to work with. I found Rozanas’s performance of Zoomy Gallumph to be particularly enjoyable. Her physical comedy was delightful and she elevated each scene she was in with her commitment to Zoomy’s determination to become a real femme fatale. Jaron Jones as younger Bradley is a natural performer and felt completely at home on stage. He was always on. I wasn’t always sure why Bradley was doing what he was doing, but Jones’ enthusiasm and charismatic energy was undeniable, and I hope he continues performing. Owen’s performance was also fun to watch and he played well to the traditional detective tropes.
Most Fringe shows face limited budget, space, and resources. It’s common for shows to have minimal changeover between one act and the next, mere feet of space in which to store sets and costumes, and whatever budget the cast themselves can scrounge together to advertise and produce the show. It’s a tough situation that requires audiences to fill in extra blanks compared to more traditional theatre settings. That said, I do wish that the team of The Open Syrup could have found a bit more in terms of set dressing and props for their actors to work with. It was common throughout to find actors staged in a line, and some options for stage business may have helped add some additional dynamics and opportunities for physical comedy to the show. This would have been particularly beneficial for Rhonda, whose perpetual stress about the state of the hotel may have made more sense if there was a task or set of tasks she was trying to accomplish that kept getting interrupted. Simple props like a computer, cell phone or a table with some magazines on it would have been lovely additions that remain aware of time and space restrictions.
Ultimately, The Open Syrup: Oops We Did It Again! is a quirky experience, with lots of jokes that landed well with the audience, who seemed in on more of the jokes than I was. It doesn’t always make sense, but I’m not sure that was really the goal of the production in the first place. The show seems to be primarily an indulgent act of theatrical fun, and targeted toward past and present hotel guests and the love of the unconventional for its own sake.
These reviews are made possible by a grant from the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks program.
