Fringe|Famous

Red Resurrected

I love Isabel Nelson and her Ensemble. There. I said it. You veteran Fringers out there will remember this group from last year’s Ballad of the Pale Fisherman, wherein she boggled FF’s mind with her charming tale based on the Selkie myth. Well, they’ve done it again. This haunting story of a lost and lonely young woman seeking herself in the woods is inspired by Red Riding Hood, Appalachian music, La Loba, and the myth of Demeter and Persephone. It’s a lot to think about, and few of us are going to consciously assimilate the possible range of those influences in a first watch. They tell you about these influences in the program, though, and then ask you to “forget all that and enjoy a new story”; you should just stop sorting it out and take their advice. You’ll instantly find the Red Riding story, and certainly the dark and earthy music of Appalachia speaks—in fact, I could almost hear the wind and trickling mountain streams in the dreamlike movement of the ensemble as they swirl around their storytellers. Red’s journey is not unlike Persephone’s, in that she finds a mysterious mother figure in the woods; her journey is not unlike many young women, in that she gains terrible understanding and must decide what to do with it. Go see this—it’s beautiful, it’s wise, and it’s worth it.

-Mimi-