Bezinkule

Written and Performed by Christopher Rozzi
Directed by Tasha Gordon-Solmon

What a wild ride! As the lights come up, Christopher Rozzi appears in an outlandish, foppish outfit (first laugh) He introduces himself as the hologram of a mad scientist named Dr. Lawrence Fishburn (second laugh). From there on, through a series of black-outs, he proceeds to tell us a story of multiple dimensions and a quest for a never-explained magical object, the Bezinkule.

Dr. Fishburn must conquer monsters, tame giant baby-men and trek through dark caves; predicament after predicament, each more ridiculous than the next. Christopher Rozzi is an eloquent and mad storyteller with a wonderful physicality. He creates these worlds with only his words and his gaze. The writing is inspired. I laughed at his tiny gestures, and his subtle asides.

I do wonder if this is fits in a clown festival. It hovers there, because of the imagination of the performer, but Dr. Fishburn seldom connected to his audience. The few times he did, it was even more engaging. After a while I wanted him to stay in one place to get truly into trouble, instead of running off to the next far-fetched and far-flung dimension.

Two small disappointments:

1) after conquering the monster and saving the people, Dr. Fishburn never got the Bezinkule! We still do not know what it is! An unfulfilled promise.

2) Mr. Rozzi did not come out for a curtain call. We all wanted to give him our applause and appreciation, which would have been loud and long.