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Monday, August 3, 2015

Fringe Festival 2015: "The Clever Artifice of Harriet and Margaret"

Day: 4

Show: 15


Category: Musical Theater

By: Really Spicy Opera

Written by: Leanna Kirchoff

Location: New Century Theatre

Summary: Two women and their inner voices meet for tea and sing about the man they both love, while hiding their true their true thoughts from each other but not from the audience.

Highlights: I saw the improv guys from We Do Every Show do this show, and it's surprising how accurate they were. Harriet and Margaret, along with their inner voices Hetty and Maggie, meet for tea, but it's about so much more than tea. Harriet and Hetty regret not marrying the artist John, who's now married to Margaret and Maggie, who have a secret of their own - money troubles. It's a clever device to see the personification of one's inner voice, and have them sing the inner dialogue that we all have going on in our heads. These four women (Megan O'Leary, Shelley Mihm, Victoria Erickson, Victoria Seiffert Temiz) sound gorgeous singing these modern operatic songs, their unamplified voices filling the New Century Theatre as "Collaborative Pianist" Banchinda Laothai somehow makes a keyboard sounds like a grand piano. It's a beautifully sung clever conversation between the four voices of two people. And it makes me wonder, what should I call my inner voice, and why can't she sing like these four women?