This year Lee is again embracing the existential work of New York playwright Will Eno, who also authored Thom Pain, a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Price in drama. Title and Deed, which made its Off-Broadway debut in 2012, focuses on an oddly haunted man who describes himself as a foreigner, a newcomer to our country (or perhaps our plane of existence), a “celebrant” and a “homesick orphan fuck.” Not wholly familiar with our language, this stranger strings words together like bedraggled tinsel garlands on Samuel Beckett’s Christmas tree. The result is a prose that’s not easily understood but always appreciated.
It’s tough to imagine any Orlando performer more suited to the monologue than Lee, whose nearly unbearable intensity – almost too much to bear for him as well as us – will again make him a contender for a Fringe award. Though the material demands patience, Lee (who also directs) brings it fully alive as if he were inventing the sometimes absurdist, sometimes stream-of-consciousness script on the spot.
“Don’t walk out on me,” Lee asks the audience in one of the play’s many meta-theatrical moments. “Don’t hate me.”
Don’t worry, David. There’s no chance of that.
Title and Deed
Margaret Nolan/Kangagirl Productions, Winter Park, FL
13 & Up – Mature Themes
60 Minutes
Yellow Venue
Friday, May 18, 2018 @ 6:30 PM
Sunday, May 20, 2018 @ 4:00 PM
Tuesday, May 20, 2018 @ 8:00 PM
Thursday, May 24, 2018 @ 5:15 PM
Friday, May 25, 2018 @ 9:00 PM
Saturday, May 26, 2018 @ 5:30 PM
Sunday, May 27, 2018 @ 11:30 AM
Check out ALL of our Fringe 2018 reviews at orlandoweekly.com/fringe2018
This article appears in May 9-15, 2018.