DEAR DIARY LOL (AntiGravity Theatre): 2017 Fringe review

dear diary lol antigravity
L to R: Gina Murdock, Megan Thibodeaux, Sarah Knittel, Jenna Strusowski, Alicia Crosby, and Francesca Montanile Lyons in Dear Diary LOL. Photo by Timothy O’Donnell.

Who would want to read their middle school diaries? The members of AntiGravity Theatre Project, that’s who. DEAR DIARY LOL draws entirely from the text of real life diaries of five girls (Alicia Crosby, Naomi Inoshita, Sarah Knittel, Francesca Montanile Lyons, and Megan Thinodeaux) aged 12-15 in the late 1990s/ early 2000s. The diaries are hilariously reenacted by Crosby, Knittel, Thinodeaux, and Jenna Strusowski, dressed in recreations of middle school garb from turn of the millennia. Pink everywhere; music by Nelly, Pink, 50 Cent, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and James Blunt; dial up connections; LOLs aplenty. Lyons directs.

The text is deliciously naive, sincere, and honest, delivered with joyful reference. Knittel powers through with hilarious passion; Strusowski with brassy freshness. Michael T. Williams plays the love interest, Brian. At that age, we’re on a voyage of self-discovery, experiencing for the first time puberty, attraction, desire, and stirrings of independence. Yet each quotidian entry screams: “I’m the only one who feels this way!”

[The Maas Building, 1325 N. Randolph Street] September 21-23, 2017fringearts.com/event/dear-diary-lol/

 

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