I speak the truth: the “Sci-Fi” genre of the Fringe seemed really nerdy just two days ago. I found myself going down the list of shows, picking my “must-sees” for each day and avoiding anything that was so tagged. It turns out I was, yet again, a Fringe Idiot. It took my best friend’s insistence that this was a winner before I sighed and slid into line for the Festival’s “Lovecraft snake piece”.
Cut me some slack. I’m just now getting my Fringe legs.
Performed by Amy Schweickhardt and Tim Uren, The Curse of Yig was the magical and horrific tale of the Native American god of snakes, Yig, and his power over the natives and settlers in the Wichita region of the United States. As the story goes, ancient lore promises a fate worse than death to anyone who harms Yig’s children; that person will mutate into a serpentine and dead-eyed creature doomed to suffer eternally.
This is a word-packed hour, and as a result, those long monologues sometimes deliver too fast and by rote. I craved a slower internal pace, if only to grab some of the emotions suffered by Schweickhardt’s characters as they swept by. There’s a great payoff at the end, and the piece only runs about 40 minutes, so there’s plenty of room for taking some breaths. I applaud both actors for their commitment, though — there’s not a dull moment.
The story is fascinating and terribly frightening (I jumped in my seat twice), and it’s a must for anyone who gets the creepy-crawlies at even the thought of driving by a dead baby snake on the interstate. In fact, it might even be a good time for you grizzled folk out there who pick them up in your garden and toss them into the woods without a thought. Better than 3 stars, but not quite 4 — if halves were allowed in this joint, I’d give it 3.5.
Mimi
