FLYING STANDBY

Tonya Meek’s bittersweet comedy, “Flying Standby”, reveals how the determination to escape her alcoholic mother carried her through a turbulent ride of addiction, lost love, and a final desperate flight toward reconciliation. Please extinguish all smoking materials and prepare for take off.

“Flying Standby” is a great metaphor to build a show around, and Tonya Meeks’ autobiographical solo show is at its best when we see the scattered Meeks, suitcase in hand, caught in that “will I or won’t I and where?” place. In relating her complicated relationship with her whack job of a mother—by portraying her, in many cases—she gives an appealing, raw performance that’s full of love, truth, and humor rather than self-pity. (Back Stage)