Orlando Fringe Festival Finishes Strong with Diverse Theatrical Offerings

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Audiences packed into full houses for the final weekend of the festival featuring wilderness vlogs, an improvised telenovela, an angel getting their wings, and pole dancing trauma.

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MARK VIGEANT: OUT THERE (Yellow Venue)

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Written and Performed by Mark Vigeant

Directed by Joanna Simmons

OUT THERE begins with a YouTube-style introduction to Larry’s (Mark Vigeant) current situation—dropped into the Alaskan wilderness, he’s desperate to prove that the young, rich influencers have nothing on him when it comes to survival grit. The reality? Not so much. Simultaneously performed live and broadcast via phone camera to a screen on stage, Vigeant’s OUT THERE is a hysterical sendup of influencer culture, midlife crises, and trying to construct a legacy that says you were here. The camera work is hilariously messy but also very effective; if Jamie Lloyd ’s Sunset Blvd. were dropped into the middle of the woods, it might look something like this. Audience members holding branches, leaves, and votive candles become dense trees and eager fireflies. While the predetermined punchlines are successful in their own right, Vigeant’s quick-witted work in responding to the live audience interactions is by far the highlight of the show; his YouTuber dude-bro vocal cadence and feigned enthusiasm is so convincing that you’d be hard pressed not to go searching for his channel post-show. With roughly 20 minutes left in the performance on Saturday, the wearable rig for his phone totally fell apart, becoming useless—and without missing a beat, Vigilant had audience members becoming conveniently located trees and branches on which to rest his phone. A punchline montage in the end displays impressively quick editing skills that really drives home just how unique each performance of this show is. You’ll certainly have the time of your life.

SOLOVELA (Blue Venue)

Created and Performed by Diane Jorge

Accompanied by Ralph Krumins

In the vein of unique performances—you will not get a show that is quite so different each time as SOLOVELA, improvised by Diane Jorge, is. Each performance is comprised of two parts: an interview that Jorge conducts with an audience member, followed by a telenovela-style dramatization of the story that audience member tells, performed by Jorge alone. It’s a seemingly simple concept, but it’s deceptively complex; as the details quickly stack up (names, cities, years, relationships, and events) it’s fascinating to see Jorge’s comic genius churning in real time while she asks for more. On Saturday, an audience member told Jorge about moving to Orlando to help with her sister’s baby, how she met her partner at a farmer’s market, and about a messy gay arch nemesis. (“He’s the villain because he’s a bad person, not because he’s gay, don’t cancel me,” Jorge later calls out.) After quickly titling the story El Mercado de Agricultores del Amor” (“The Farmer’s Market of Love”), Jorge was off to the races, flipping between accessories, voices, and locations, playing up pieces of comedy that lesser improvisational artists may not have ever seized upon. What is truly astounding, however, is the long game that Jorge plays—a relatively complex plot twist involving a flashback and villainous motivations had to have been set up early on in the act, and it all tied together neatly. A “commercial break” halfway through and a never-to-be resolved cliffhanger later, Jorge proves to the audience why she brings SOLOVELA to Orlando Fringe with a string of distinctions; she’s really, really good at this.

POEMS FOR GOD (Pink Venue)

Created and Performed by Victoria Watson Sepejak

It’s a rare thing to be invited to throw things on stage, but that’s exactly what kicks off POEMS FOR GOD—Sepejak, in full snow day attire, arms the audience with bean bags of myriad size and waits for them to inevitably be tossed their way. This is not just a fun way to open the house; it also breaks the tension of what to expect and totally erodes the fourth wall between audience and performer, preparing those in the house for what is to come. What follows is a series of seemingly totally unrelated, chaotic, and wildly uncomfortable sketches (or poems, as Sepejak calls them) presented by an angel who is attempting to “save all woman” on Earth. The term “uncomfortable” here is not derogatory or derisive—in fact, it’s high praise. Whether it’s exploring the inner lives of the villagers in the opening number of Beauty and the Beast (“Marie! The baguettes! Hurry up…bitch!”), exposing pedophiles, visiting The Village of Aborted Babies, or an ode to Aveeno body lotion, Sepejak has a brilliant way of forcing skin-crawling discomfort with the audience and absolutely reveling in it, all to side-splitting effect. A great majority of the show involves audience participation, and this reviewer ended up portraying Sepejak’s father, serving as a cautionary tale for hungry kids, and raining body lotion onto Sepejak as they “Flashdance” in a metal chair bathed in red light. POEMS FOR GOD is an anarchic, uproarious hour, but disorganized it is not; Sepejak retains total control all the way through a conclusive feminist Free Willy sequence tinged with It’s a Wonderful Life. This brief tour through Sepejak’s twisted, hilarious mind leaves the audience wandering back into the festival in a hysterical daze—and it is well worth the trip.

ODYSSEA’S FAMILY TREE (Orange Venue)

Project no.19

Directed by Max Pinsky

Upon entering the Orange Venue for ODYSSEA’S FAMILY TREE, a very distinct aesthetic is presented in the ragged imagery; gossamer fabric hangs from a line and drapes over unmoving bodies on stage; it evokes a haunting southern gothic. The plot here is relatively simple: Odyssea discovers what is presumably a family scrapbook of photos and letters, and ghosts of those who wrote them proceed to illustrate what they contain with pole dance. While the plot is not the draw here, it’s still very light on any sort of through line, and is really only supported by blackout narration between pieces; a dark narrative sketches pictures of a violent, consumptive sort of love. The performers are mesmerizing in their acrobatic athleticism—what these folks can do with their bodies is truly remarkable. Their astounding strength and control (along with some clever choreography) result in some dramatic moments and a few striking images. The dancers go round and round set to a series of slow jams that unwind rather than escalate, and therein lies the trouble. A light narrative is fine so long as there is an arc, and that’s missing here. The ghosts of ODYSSEA’S FAMILY TREE tell their stories and rally around Odyssea, but for what purpose? The final images could either evoke a release of the past or a celebration of it—but then again, perhaps the mixed meaning is the point.

THE ORLANDO FRINGE FESTIVAL is celebrating its 35th anniversary and runs now through May 25. Show tickets (and Fringe Buttons, required for entry) are available at the multiple box offices on site or at the website below.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/orlando/article/Reviews-OUT-THERE-SOLOVELA-POEMS-FOR-GOD-and-ODYSSEAS-FAMILY-TREE-at-The-Orlando-Fringe-Festival-20260524)._