Gnomeward Bound – June 2010
- Ingrid Hansen in Gnomeward Bound
This show is exactly why I love small venue theater: you just never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s debatable (which can also be fun) and sometimes if you’re lucky you stumble upon something like Ingrid Hansen’s Gnomeward Bound. It’s performances like this one that prove there is no correlation between budget and value. This one woman show on the intimate Intrepid Club stage at “pay what you can” ticket prices entertained me far more than many $130 nights at the Royal.
Gnomeward Bound is a journey into the mind of 12 year old Gitte (Kitt) Pedersen… actually, that’s probably backwards… it’s more of a window into a journey that Kitt takes into our minds, and into the minds of her friends and family as she tries to make sense of life’s less enjoyable realities. Hansen gives us an incredibly authentic portrayal of a highly intelligent child exploring both life and loss. Unlike other adult-authored children who act more like Disney characters than real kids, Hansen captures an uncomplicated realism in Kitt. Children live in the same world we do. They ask themselves gritty questions and search for real answers, not the candy-coated-half-truths they are offered. And they do it all with humor and imaginations that haven’t yet been tempered by time. Armed with multiple talents, Hansen communicates that to us brilliantly in this performance. And considering just how talented Ingrid Hansen is, it just doesn’t feel right describing this as a “one woman show” without elaborating a bit. I mean, that is an accurate statement… Hansen was the only one on stage (except for the few minutes when she sat an audience member down in her suitcase, then lulled him to sleep with a kinda beautiful but mostly creepy Danish cover of Gary Wright’s Dreamweaver, then proceeded to astral-project into his mind to experience his dreams) but still… the expression doesn’t quite suffice on its own. I think it’s because when we think of a typical performer we imagine someone with one great talent… or maybe two or three in less typical cases… so when I say “one woman show”, you think ok… I can imagine that… I’ve seen those before. But no, you haven’t… not like this. Ingrid Hansen is an exceptional actor, one of the best I’ve seen in quite a while. And I could say the same about her singing, or her other musical talents, or her skill as a puppeteer. She is also just as skilled physically. In this show I saw contortionism, modern dance movement, physical comedy, prop theatrics, and something I’m going to call quick change artistry. So what does that make her… a 9-tuple threat? She is so much more than a typical performer, even a great one. So yeah, imagine a one woman show, but imagine the woman as the top three uno-actors you know squished together to form a single mega-talented 20 foot tall super-performer. Now give that giant a drop of Alice’s “Drink Me” juice …and there you’ll have Ingrid Hansen.
So if everything she does in this show is amazing… which it is… then what about her stands out? What’s her greatest gift? Well, I’ve given it some serious thought and I think I’ve figured it out. Sometimes theater tries to take you to bizarre places and fails. It fails because you just don’t believe it. Hansen takes you to those places in a very believable way. I get shivers when I think back to her deadpan, half sung, euro-tale telling about the little girl in the red shoes. Ingrid Hansen commands the bizarre. She champions it.
I’ve never seen anything like Gnomeward Bound. It made me laugh, it creeped me out, it touched me emotionally, and reminded me that life can be tragic and beautiful at the same time.
Forbløffende Ingrid. I’ll be the first one in line to see your next show. Looking forward to it!
-PP
[...] to see at the Fringe this year. I’m a huge Ingrid Hansen fan. In my June review of Hansen’s Gnomeward Bound, I signed off with “Forbløffende Ingrid. I’ll be the first one in line to see your next [...]
[...] to see at the Fringe this year. I’m a huge Ingrid Hansen fan. In my June review of Hansen’s Gnomeward Bound , I signed off with “Forbløffende Ingrid. I’ll be the first one in line to see your next [...]
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