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Tanya O’Debra as Emily Dickinson.
SHUT UP, EMILY DICKINSON presented by Tanya O’Debra as part of the 2013 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. You can read the show description here.
Tanya O’Debra, the playwright and performer in last year’s sold-out hit, RADIO STAR, returns as the title character in her new show, SHUT UP, EMILY DICKINSON.
Before the famous Grey Gardens recluses of Big Edie and Little Edie, there was Emily and Lavinia Dickinson. Little is know about Emily’s life, as her sister burned most of Emily’s letters after the poet’s death (as requested).
Loosely using what is known about Dickinson from her surviving papers, the audience is transported inside Emily’s mind for a “pseudo-historical, quasi-biographical psycho-romance about America’s most annoying poetess.”
What we get is a funny, smartly-written piece that falls squarely into the theater of the absurd. Time has no meaning as Emily wanders around her bedroom, with the ever-present Master conversely wooing and tormenting her.
O’Debra is laugh-out-loud funny in her portrayal of Dickinson. She is supported onstage only by the talented Gregg Bellon. He supplies the voice of the offbeat Master and controls the multimedia for the show.
While SHUT UP may not have the broad appeal of last year’s show, it is a fun entry that falls on the fringe-ier side of the festival.
Click here for a complete list of show times, local media coverage and other reviews for SHUT UP, EMILY DICKINSON.
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