[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Carla Delaney’s The Peacock and the Crab, produced as part of the Soaring Solo’s Solo Stars Series at The Zephyr Theatre.
You can catch her show at the Soaring Solo’s Stars Encore on Sunday, January 11 at 4:30PM.
Tickets: https://www.soaringsolostudios.com/solo-events/stars-encore-of-the-peacock-and-the-crab/
The Peacock and the Crab is the third solo show Carla Delaney has written and performed. A triumphant trifecta. Although I am very hopeful, she is already working on a fourth show! A professional children’s author, voice-over artist and actor, she holds a unique place in the universe of solo artists. Carla uses her incredible vocal talents to give the characters in the worlds she creates not only life but soul. It’s easy to fall in love with all of them and especially the peacock and the crab!
Each of her brilliant and highly entertaining shows has been totally different and The Peacock and The Crab pushes her talents to entertain even further. The play centers around a children’s author with writer’s block. While searching for a cure, she visits a spa for a massage and somehow finds herself in a glass isolation tank suspended above the ocean. An earthquake hits, and she is unceremoniously flushed into the water below, but instead of drowning, she finds a couple of buddies to help her figure out why she is there, why she’s not dead, and what in the world will happen next.
It’s a wonderful concept for a show. Surreal, childlike but not childish and full of extremely useful and deeply human observations that are very easily applied to one’s own life. I actually took notes… It’s a journey of course, but the crab and the peacock, who share Carla’s lifeboat, are so beautiful and strange and obviously pulled from Carla’s own psyche that the show feels less like a series of trials and labors and more like a deep exploration of a life. These two gorgeously drawn companions guide her. They reveal more about human nature than a human character probably could. Seeing ourselves through another creature’s eyes is pretty sobering. I know I catch my cats judging me all the time. But fortunately for Carla, the crab and the peacock are much more understanding.
Carla Delaney is a master character actor. She uses her voice as well as her body to create hilarious and heartwarming moments between three vastly different creatures. They learn to trust and explore their own neuroses, and by the end of the play, we understand how they all fit together into one imperfect soul.
Carla’s shows are always self exploratory, but Carla herself is so fascinating and highly perceptive that it never feels indulgent. We are along for the ride and fully invested in whatever is happening from moment one. That’s hard enough to do with a team onstage. However, with one actor and one story to tell, it’s almost impossible. Carla Delaney succeeds where many fail with seeming effortlessness. She becomes the story she tells completely, and it is a joy to watch! Bravo!
To find out more about Carla Delaney and The Peacock and the Crab, go to Carla’s website: https://voicesbycarla.weebly.com/