My overall impression
Fierce Backbone wasn’t shy last year at another Fringe debut: seven (eight?) shows in multiple different venues. For a producing company created “to support the work our membership is inspired to create,” that first leap showed its audiences a wide range of new plays. It was a bold move that paid off from this audience member’s point-of-view: I’m game to try most anything they produce.
Their latest offering is The Beating by Mona Deutsch Miller.
It’s a bit flamenco, a bit spoken word plus outtakes from “Law & Order.” For good or bad, it’s about the tediously long process of being chosen for and subsequently serving on a jury, and Deutsch Miller captures the process perfectly. The piece does not offer much beyond our first glances into each character. The movement-based sequences will likely tighten after previews, and a strong sound design could help the pacing. There just weren’t deep enough twists and turns into our main characters – the jury – to warrant the length.
