My overall impression
I’m normally not a big fan of one person shows. Most of them are just self-indulgent pity parties in which an actor whines onstage for an hour about how terrible their life is, seeking validation from the audience. So it was with some reluctance that I allowed a friend to talk me into seeing “Schachner vs. Schachner” at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
I went in expecting the usual, but was almost immediately and very pleasantly surprised to realize that Abby Schachner’s tight, fast-paced forty minute solo outing avoids all of the usual pitfalls of the form. This isn’t a one person “show.” This is a real play that happens to have a cast of one. (One and a half if you count a moment or two of improv interaction with a voice from the booth.)
While the show is obviously centered on Schachner, it isn’t all about her. Rather, she gradually weaves the incredibly unusual but also very true story of her parents, Sheldon and Maudette, and how events of her childhood are still resonating with her to this day. I won’t give away what happens between the parents, except to say that Schachner was raised by a couple of much larger than life people.
She could have easily gone right down the route of self-indulgent psychotherapy, but Schachner avoids that trap while also mocking the convention. Instead, using a boxing match metaphor, she replays events in her parents’ lives through the double lens of how she saw them as a seven year-old and how she finally learned to perceive them — and accept them — as an adult.
The end result is very funny, very touching, and absolutely worth seeing.
I can honestly say that this is the best Fringe show I’ve seen this year. Sunday may or may not be the last performance (the Fringe would be really missing out in not extending), so do everything you can to see it. You won’t be sorry you did.
