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With endearing whimsy, Rodin Alcerro and Pablo Guillén, two talented physical-theater performers (and partners in real life), take a tickled District Fringe audience on a clown travelogue in mime. Imaginatively evoking a journey together by air, sea, and land on a bare black stage with but a few props, they intend literally only the imperative verb that’s their show’s title, GO. All else in their abstract excursion is a fanciful and delightful trip.
The two players meet, perhaps by chance — or maybe they already know each other, it’s not clear. We are left to puzzle out who they are, where they are, and why; they could as well be two folks en route in wide-eyed wonder to somewhere for no reason. Guillén wears an airline pilot jacket accented with bright red socks; Alcerro wears baggy slacks and a magenta kerchief around his neck. They’ll put on bulbous red clown noses in a bit.
“Teatro,” intones Alcerro to the audience in Spanish, one of only two words spoken in the show.
Lively vignettes from their virtual voyage follow: Wielding a black-and-white umbrella, they become airborne as pretend gusts of wind thrust them this way and that, their dancerly synchronicity on eloquent display. Then, opening a crinkly gray plastic tarp, they turn it into the ocean and appear to sail upon it, at one point almost going under. Later, as Rodin holds a color painting of a locomotive and we hear the loud sound of a train passing by, the two traverse the stage as though on a choo-choo. We are even treated to Alcerro’s mimed upchuck from motion sickness.
Using that prop plastic tarp again, the two huddle under it and become, aided by a demonic mask, a massive, mysterious, malevolent puppet. I’m not sure how the devil this figured into the two travelers’ journey, but it sure was a wowza effect.
The show is well served by Hailey LaRoe’s lighting design, which lends the aforementioned monster a ghastly green hue. And the sound design by Brandon Cook underscores with lovely resonance two especially touching passages, one with Ravelle’s “Bolero” and another with “Moon River.”
“Theater,” intones Alcerro to the audience in English, the other word spoken in the show.
Enjoyable sight gags are sufficient to prompt scattered chuckles, but comedy per se seems not the piece’s pursuit. Rather, we seem to be invited to accompany two charming chums on a venture whose point becomes clear only near the end in their tender mutual regard: One pounds the other’s chest in the rhythm of a heartbeat, then the other exactly reciprocates.
Though this show’s plot may be perplexing, its story not fully developed dramaturgically, there’s no doubt these two players have an appealing pulse together. And you should GO.
GO
A wordless tale of two clowns by Rodin Alcerro and Pablo Guillén
Running Time: 50 minutes
Dates and Times:
- Sunday, July 13, 2:00p
- Thursday, July 17, 7:30p
- Wednesday, July 23, 8:15p
- Thursday, July 24, 9:15p
- Sunday, July 27, 1:45p
Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: GO
Genre: Physical theater, clown
Written and performed by Rodin Alcerro and Pablo Guillén.
The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.