Someone to Watch Over Me is nothing but a pure DC fairytale. That is the simple way to describe the plot of this politically charged new drama of the Federal Theatre Project as part of the Capital Fringe Festival.
It was rather slow to start, but after the plot picked up it was simply one of those shows that a DC audience could possibly get behind. Aerith Gainsborough (Stefanie Garcia) decides not to vote in the election because she is so fed up with the idea of politics and how convoluted of a system it is she gets inspired to create a website, “We The People,” to inspire Americans to contact their Congressmen to speak up about what they think is wrong or write in the area. With the support of her friends Barret (Thony Mena) and Cloud (Paul Thomas Truitt) and her lover Yuffie (Genna Davidson), the website becomes an instant success.
This causes major issues for Utah Congressman Sephiroth (Paul J. McLane) and the President of the United States (Paul Thomas Truitt). The major plot twist at the end of end of the show is clearly the only way Aerith’s popularity and intelligence can be made useful to the government.
The overall sentiment of the show is that our government system is very inefficient, and something needs to be done to correct that. That is a very easy idea to support, but this play still has a great amount of work that needs to be done on presenting that message in a more attractive way by writer and Director Kevin Finkelstein.
Some of the characters could be refined more, specifically the Barret and Cloud. They were clearly the comic reliefs of the show but the “bros” sexual innuendos were not so funny after a while. Also, the plot transitions of the show could use some more development. Currently they consist of asides by different fictional, but obvious references to familiar media outlets of today, sharing their coverage of the “We the People” scandal. However, they seem repetitive to the action that just occurred in the previous scene.
Although, Someone to Watch Over Me in theory is a dream come true for many politically active Americans, the dream could use some refinement, but if there is any place to experiment with theatre, the Capital Fringe Festival is an excellent place to do so.
Running Time: 60 minutes.
Someone to Watch Over Me plays through July 27th at the Goethe Institut – Gallery 812 7th Street NW, in Washington, DC.. For performances and tickets visit their Capital Fringe page.
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2013 Capital Fringe Show Preview: ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ by Kevin Finkelstein.
