LOVE Park was never that great. Kinda grimy, masses of concrete sunken into the city with unsafe-feeling corners. A $20 million renovation got rid of the skateboard features and made it more accessible, but now its just an extension of the sidewalk, with no real fountain, a less-attractive statue stand, no shade, and a huge “car park sign”. Rose Luardo and Kate Banford give us an idiosyncratic tour of this visitor-unfriendly space.
To do so, the comic pair create alter-egos of Old Philadelphia Main Line ladies, rich and bored. Though filled with unexpected encounters with a dissaffected skateboarder, a bush, and a key-filled tree, the tour is only slightly more interesting than an official, authorized tour of the site might be (there’s not a lot to work with, even for comedians). The piece gets its appeal from the increasingly outlandish characters and an inventive absurdity that devolves into a game of fetch and walking construction barrels.
[LOVE Park] September 10-18, 2018; fringearts.com/event/unofficial-unauthorized-tour-love-park