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BRING IN THE CLOWNS
The charming, neurotic Izzy of 'Out of My Skin' is among the gems
ORLANDO SENTINAL - Friday, April 27, 2001
By Elizabeth Maupin
Picture Izzy.
She has bride of Frankenstein
hair. She's wearing white sneakers, white
anklets and a long white wedding dress
skirt. On her face is a big, round, cherry-red
clown's nose. And above her waist ... well, a
lot of the time she's wearing nothing at all.
That doesn't stop the remarkable goings-on
in Out of My Skin, Shannan Calcutt's Fringe
showcase for her creation, the fascinating Izzy.
With her constricted little voice and her elegant
tones, Izzy sounds like one of those highly bred
heroines in a 1930's screwball comedy.
But her fearlessness is breathtaking.
Calcutt's Izzy, an award-winner at several
Canadian fringes, has a way with understatement:
"I'm a bit dangerous without that dress," she says of
the missing top to her wedding dress, but only
after she's been onstage a full five minutes without
it. Nonetheless, she's still a lady - modest, polite
and bound and determined that everyone in
the audience (including those with ringing cell
phones) behave as decorously as she.
Nobody will be happy if I give away any more of
Calcutt's show, which involves wind-up fish, a
bit of gallant audience participation and an
ingenious use of baggies, with or without the
Scotch she suggests.
Suffice it to say that Out of My Skin will give
you a whole new idea of clowns. And it's one
of the most surprising, most utterly entertaining
Fringe shows I've ever seen.
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