[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Dear Auntie B., written and performed by Becca Lustgarten and directed by Sally Hughes, runs June 7 – 28 at The Hollywood Fringe.
Dear Auntie B. is a bit of a paradox. A woman alone in her apartment, working on her answers to her weekly advice column. She’s a New Yorker, the type one always imagines New Yorkers to be – smart, smug, intellectual, creative and beautifully dressed. In her apartment, she addresses her audience, much like we did as children when we were totally alone and able to speak with total honesty, our imaginary audience of best friends. As the play unfolds, it’s clear that something is unraveling.
The persistent phone calls in spite of her directions to not be disturbed. The tension that ringing inspires. The emails to be answered become ever so slightly more urgent, their subjects more and more dire. But Auntie B, despite the darkness slowly moving in, struggles to maintain composure, with her acid wit and slightly comical aloofness, all while bursting into neatly specific Broadway song and sipping on nearly neat gin.
Becca Lustgarten has created a beautiful illusion. Dear Auntie B. seems at first to be a fun twist on the New York elite at gentle work. An agony aunt who is, as the story turns, herself in utter agony. All the while coping poorly with her terrible tragedy.
It’s a brilliant play. Perfect for Fringe, darkly funny, sweetly sad, and Becca Lustgarten is absolutely phenomenal as this open wound of a character trying to keep it together under the most awful of circumstances. Not just death, not just a loved one, and, as it turns out, not just an accident.
Dear Auntie B. should definitely be on your Fringe list this year and I expect awards… I love love loved it!!! Bravo!
Tickets:
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10714?tab=tickets
When:
Friday, June 07 at 8:30 PM
Saturday, June 15 at 4:00 PM
Sunday, June 23 at 2:00 PM
Monday, June 24 at 7:30 PM
Friday, June 28 at 10:00 PM
Where:
916 N Formosa Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046