"Magic Girl" by Emily Michaels King at Red Eye Theater

One year after multi-hyphenate #TCTheater artist Emily Michaels King's stunning solo piece Star Keeper, which I called "her greatest work yet," she returns to her 2019 Minnesota Fringe show Magic Girl, the show that she says "started it all." In some ways Magic Girl is a more innocent show than Star Keeper; she merely alludes to the childhood trauma that the latter show dives deep into. But we still see the bright bubbly child learn to hide her light in response to the darkness of the world, until she comes back again at the end. The show is funny, heart-breaking, relatable, and joyful, and will make you want to hug your inner child. As with all of Emily's work, the show is very thoughtfully constructed, very detailed, very carefully choreographed not just in the movement and dance but also in the structure of the show, including sound and lights (the former by Emily herself, the latter by Karin Olsen). The night I attended, there was a technical issue that stopped the show for several minutes near its conclusion, but when it resolved, she very gracefully brought us back to where we were and picked up where she left off. As an audience member, you feel safe in her hands, as she is in ours. Emily is truly a one-of-a-kind performer, so raw and vulnerable and honest and fearless. There's really no one like her. Just three more performances remain at Red Eye Theater!

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Magic Girl"

Day: 3

Show: 10

Title: Magic Girl

Category: DANCE / DANCE - MODERN / PHYSICAL THEATER / SOLO SHOW

By: Emily Michaels King

Created by: Emily Michaels King

Location: Crane Theater

Summary: A very personal solo performance told through dance, spoken work, and sound and lighting effects.

Highlights: Friends, I don't think I've ever seen a more fearless, vulnerable, honest, personal, and emotionally raw performance than this. In what she notes in the shiny program is the performance that is most her, Emily Michaels King bares her heart, soul, and body. What more can you ask from an artist? It's also super weird and out there, in a Maureen Johnson performance art kind of way, and I didn't understand half of what she was doing. But what I did understand was the raw emotion of the stories she told about her life and of the movement accompanying the very specifically chosen sounds and music (from Paul Simon to the Spice Girls). In fact when it suddenly started pouring, I wasn't sure if the sound of the rain on the roof was part of the show or real, that's how much under her spell I was. Emily uses microphones and hand-held lights for startling effects as she references several traumatic events in her childhood and adult life, without saying exactly what they were. This "ode to Rainbow Brite" is really an ode to to her child self, and the child in all of us - the purest truest part of ourselves before life has had a chance shape, hide, and destroy it.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.