[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Soft Animal, written and performed by George Aivaliotis (Just For Laughs New Face of Comedy) and directed by Rachel Troy (Winner of Top of Hollywood Fringe 2024), at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2025.
How can the history of man be reduced to an hour-long, one-man show? Only a clown would have the nerve to even attempt such a thing. George Aivaliotis is that clown.
This brilliant and often disturbingly hilarious play takes us on a journey through time and the evolution of life, from the miracle of the amoeba to the calamity of the human idiot.
We begin with a blob onstage. A man completely encased in what might well be an enormous pink duvet cover. He is still at first, then begins to move around, finding his purpose and his foot. What emerges from this pink amoeba, or rather evolves from it, is another stage in our evolution. And the show is this. Watching the phenomenally gifted George Aivaliotis change and change again. He becomes a tree, a dinosaur, a monkey, and eventually a human. He then morphs and morphs again, eventually becoming an idiot king human, then us. Modern-ish man. And then the cycle is complete.
How depressing. All this extraordinary evolution and the enormous sacrifices life has made to get us to this point…and for what? What a let down. I’m not entirely sure we should have come down from the trees if I’m honest. But it does make for an incredible show and George Aivaliotis is wonderfully talented and fiercely entertaining and nuanced, even as he struts around the stage with a tiny prosthetic penis coyly decorated with soft curls. You just have to see it. Trust me. I would hate to leave you with the impression that it’s only for the penis that you should go. But it is hilarious.
The Hollywood Fringe Festival brings us so much talent, so much inventive, curious and provocative work, in the absolute best sense. It is the primordial ooze of new theatre and ideas. So this particular show is in fact more than a metaphor for life. It is a metaphor for the art of creativity itself. From gunk to rubber willy, from silence and slithering, to poignant, profound perfection. Rachel Troy directs. I saw her show Baby last year and absolutely LOVED it. She is effortlessly fabulous.
Soft Animal is utterly brilliant. Funny, ingenious and beautifully performed by George Aivaliotis. I cannot recommend this show enough!!!! Bravo and wow!!!!
Tickets:
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10654?tab=tickets
When:
Previews: Friday, June 6 at 5:00 PM and Tuesday, June 10 at 5:00 PM
Performances:
Friday, June 13 at 11:55 PM
Monday, June 16 at 11:00 PM
Thursday, June 26 at 5:00 PM
Where:
The Broadwater Theatre
6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038
****
Check out more Hollywood Fringe Festival 2025 show reviews>>