Chloé Ziner and Jessica Gabriel’s twisted twist on Alice in Wonderland is this Fringe’s pre-eminent puppet show about polymorphous perversity, and possibly the kinkiest cartoon I’ve seen since Fritz the Cat. The dialogue-light storyline follows an anthropomorphic canvas who tires of being molested by her chauvinistic artist’s phallic paintbrush. She filches his tool and is flushed down the toilet to a Henry Darger-esque dream world, where she has orgies with sentient toothbrushes. The narrator – a grotesque giant mouth projected onto nude flesh – questions what the show’s message really is: either something about subverting patriarchal expectations around sexuality, or simply that everybody’s effed.
If your kids loved Caws & Effect, the family-friendly 2017 offering from Vancouver’s Mind of a Snail Puppet Co., think thrice before bringing them to this year’s show. While this production also uses overhead projectors to create ingenious real-time animations, its sex-positive, queer-friendly content isn’t intended for children or prudish adults. The pacing is a bit leisurely for my taste, and the show’s acid-trip ending goes on for too long after the plot wraps up. But if you can get over your gag reflex, this smutty shadow play will make you howl with “did they really do that?” disbelief.
Multiple Organism
Mind of a Snail Puppet Co.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
18 & Up – Mature Themes, Nudity, Sexual Content
60 Minutes
Silver Venue
Friday, May 18th 8:30pm
Saturday, May 19th 4:20pm
Sunday, May 20th 10:15pm
Tuesday, May 22nd 10:30pm
Thursday, May 24th 10:45pm
Saturday, May 26th 7:00pm
Sunday, May 27th 6:15pm
Check out ALL of our Fringe 2018 reviews at orlandoweekly.com/fringe2018
This article appears in May 16-22, 2018.