NY Fringe Festival Review: Flight

Flight
Presented by: NO HOPE Productions
Writer: Tim Aumiller
Director: Tim Aumiller

Summary:
Two people stranded at O’Hare Airport during Thanksgiving travels strike up an unlikely and revealing conversation. Paula (Brandy Burre) isn’t in the mood to talk. She’s having relationship problems and hasn’t been able to reach her partner and asks the friendly Hank (Todd Lawson) to leave her alone.

Despite her protests about not wanting to talk, Paula gabs on and on. She tells him she’s a lesbian, that she’s pregnant, that she’s dealing with rage, that her partner wasn’t happy about her sleeping with a man, that she found she really liked sleeping with the man…. My mind wandered – severely -- throughout the play, which lasts only 50 minutes. My favorite part was when Paula barked, “OK, please shut up,” to Hank, who thus far had muttered only a few words of kindness.

Why would anyone continue to try to make conversation with this officious, unpleasant woman? Aah, the airport is packed and there are no seats available, we’re told. A vacant seat between them where Hank has hoisted his bag is available, however, and having been stranded in O’Hare airport, I can tell you that someone would have asked him to remove it so they could sit and voila!, no more conversation needed. In addition, the pregnant Paula could have asked a seated gentleman somewhere else to switch with her because Hank was bothering her. Voila! No more conversation needed. I would even have opted to go somewhere else and sit on the floor or my suitcase to get away from this woman. But then we wouldn’t have a play.

Hank persists, apparently, because she reminds him of a love he lost in youth. And by the way, he asks her, what do women do together sexually? Maybe he’s not what he appears and there’s something more sinister at play? We never really know.

Highlights:
• Only 50 minutes

Lowlights:
• Above

Christians might also like to know:
• Language
• Homosexuality
• Sexually suggestive dialogue

Fringe Tassels Awarded: 1.0
VENUE #15: The Studio at Cherry Lane
The run has ended