Underground Episodes

by Run Boy Run Productions

Review by Emily Fedor

The 2016 Ithaca Fringe Festival opened with a show that has a big personality and a cast to match it. Run Boy Run Productions’ Underground Episodes, came to Ithaca, New York from the City of Brotherly Love. Written and produced by Allen Clark, this play takes audiences on a fully immersive ride via the Philadelphia subway.

The assortment of people one could run into while riding the SEPTA are accurately represented by Clark, a diligent researcher with over 10 years worth of underground adventures himself. The playwright’s background in poetry lent itself beautifully to the script, which was read with a captivating, melodic rhythm.

Each episode shares the story of a different “cellar dweller.” There’s the stumbling drunk who just got fired from his job. A woman frantically handing out flyers in a search for her missing child. Couples celebrating their new found love, and couples mourning the love that’s slipping through their fingers.

Arguably the most moving episode features an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s telling her daughter how she once dreamed of becoming a beautiful dancer. The vision was depicted by the performance of real life ballerina Desire Bush, who painted the ups and downs the woman lived through with elegance and grace in every move.

The only odd thing about this episode was that while the woman did go through the physical motions of telling her story, she did not verbally tell it. Instead, Clark himself relayed the memory, a creative but faintly confusing choice.

Cast members went through multiple quick changes to portray the eclectic mix of lost souls, showcasing an impressive dosage of versatility. They also broke the fourth wall to bring audience members along for the ride. There were moments when the cast slightly overstepped in this regard, but this risky choice helped the cast directly connect with audience members and truly embody the sense that we were all experiencing these moments together.

Underground Episodes presses eyes, minds and hearts to be open to the world and urges a sense of reflection—setting the perfect tone for this year’s Fringe Fest.