My overall impression
The Hollywood Fringe offered me a new experience—watch LIVE THEATRE BLOG: MILK FROM STONE at 8am in my kitchen with Prague Castle and the eternal angst of Franz Kafka glowing in the background.
Billed as a microphone, an actor and an audience, MILK FROM STONE is so much more. Why join the Peace Corp and travel the world when you can savor such a poignant and powerful play and the dazzling work of the irascible, always charming and likable Deven Simonson.
Coeurage Theatre Company Resident Playwright Eric Czuleger spins the timely in-your-face tale of searching for self, sanity and life’s meaning through a series of guilt-ridden vs guilty-pleasure adventures in Albania and world’s far beyond this Roman/Ottoman/Macedonian inspired Eastern bloc country that is now a parliamentary democracy and home to 2.8 million citizens.
In the hands of Mr. Simonson and the fascinating pacing and lovely touches of producing director Sara Perry, MILK FROM STONE offers the joyful immediacy this theatre critic has longed for and seldom discovered over two decades of reviewing Southern California theatre.
Beg to watch these LIVE THEATRE BLOGS—MILK FROM STONE is much funnier and more profound than Downton Abbey, more satisfying than SOUTH PARK and every bit as good as curling up with a treasured novel or exquisite travel guide.
Deven Simonson is the guy you want to invite to sip beers and then sit back and revel in what amounts to a delicious rap-prose attack on the senses and an adventure in intricate story-telling. Playwright Czuleger’s daily diaries are Simonson’s guide but the actor makes the stories his own while the audience serve as eager tourists demanding to know the details, struggling to feel the moment, hoping to fear the unknown and yearning to embrace the catharsis that comes with all.
What a great playwright/actor/directing team—a huge plus for the American Theatre and an exciting and surprising bonus for Hollywood Fringe Festival audiences.
