		HER KIND: The Life & Poetry of Anne Sexton
		2007 SAN FRANCISCO FRINGE FESTIVAL AUDIENCE REVIEWS
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CLICK HERE FOR RECENT AUDIENCE REVIEWS CLICK ON PLAY FOR REVIEWS OF THAT PLAY & billions more 1 Quandary Place Abundance ADVENTURES OF A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER Barroom Philosophers Border Crossings The Children's Museum Class Notes Embarrassment & Death The Falls of Vincent Millay Found and Lost: Goals for 2002 Frisco Fred's Cabaret! Fuck You Cancer Great Hymn of Thanksgiving / Conversation Storm The Hasheesh Eater Heavy Metal Playground HER KIND: The Life & Poetry of Anne Sexton i hate my friends Jesus Rant Kiss My Booth Korean Badass Low Hanging Fruit Monkey Poet Stand-Up! Organic Boxed Chicken Stock parts is parts: Party of One RM3 The Sewers Shopping as a Spiritual Path Spotless Stetson Manifesto A Strange Black Passion Super Glossy! TeleMongol Terrible Voice Tesla's White Pigeon Turn of the Screw You Go First		Play: Her Kind: Anne Sexton Reviewer: Harrison 2 Stars The actresses were committed but the material wasn't there. Seemed to be a college level production where no one was sure of the theme. I wanted real interaction between Anne & Elizabeth not silly videos and modern dance. Play: Her Kind: the Life and Poetry of Anne Sexton Reviewer: Andy 5 Stars ONE MORE CHANCE TO SEE IT! First, a disclaimer and confession: I have not so far been a big fan of Anne Sexton’s work, and even something as excellent as “Her Kind” wasn’t able to change that. Which is clearly not entirely true, since Hannah Wolfe’s performances of Sexton’s poems showed such an awareness and understanding of their workings—their subtleties of meter, syntactic turns, and contradictory, drastically shifting and counterintuitive expressive tones—that the writing shone out in the layering of these devices, in the tension between them, the crackling energies that drive the poems. In other words, the poems were crystal clear in a way ordinary recitation hardly ever is. Wolfe brings it all out. Laurel Dugan’s precise dance embodied the composed but volatile force field of the poems without a wasted gesture. It’s the mark of a fine performer when a moment of absolute motionlessness, a coming to rest, can with possibilities, the weight of even the absence of gesture taking the breath away. The character of the movement matches the variety of levels of language at work in the poems, ranging from aestheticized representations of Sexton to explosions into linked series of strange lines, pushed past metaphor and resemblance into a place more abstract yet fully palpable. There’s also plenty of fascinating stuff on Sexton’s life, horribly tragic but with a wry humor at times that also shows up in the poems. The figure of Sexton’s radio stays with me, as if the poet were the receiver of signals from elsewhere, from beyond the barrier of repression erected in her being by a life of sexual oppression and mental illness, giving voice to the dialogue between Anne and the Other, her alter-ego Elizabeth. The nervous, frightened, nearly powerless teacher of poetry (Wolfe again) adds another layer to all of it as she tries to transmit, through the static of her helplessness, the poems in the world of their time. A great piece that, as will have been evident in the sprawl of my sentences here, sent me home wanting to write. Play: HER KIND: The Life & Poetry of Anne Sexton Reviewer: Mia Paschal 5 Stars This is a hauntingly strong and beautiful play, much like Anne Sexton's poetry. The two performers are superb, as are the direction, writing, acting, dancing, choreography, video, sound, and lighting. I especially loved how they seamlessly combined the acting and dancing, as well as how they integrated Sexton's poetry into the script so that it felt as natural as daily spoken speech, in terms of both writing and delivery. Play: Her Kind Reviewer: Rick Burkhardt 5 Stars One of the best I've seen at the Fringe. These outstanding performers are utterly committed to their material: the intense, haunting, idiosyncratic poetry of Anne Sexton. The hour unfolds like a poem, with odd twists and turns spiraling back onto images and themes that grow and change with each revisitation, sometimes lulling, sometimes shocking, always moving but rarely in an expected way. It's both thrilling and heartening to see poetry take center stage like this. (And I don't know what these other reviewers are complaining about -- I loved the video.) Play: Her Kind Reviewer: Shaun Simms 3 Stars I had to see this play for school. I was familiar going in with the poet Anne Sexton. I thought overall this play was above average. There were a couple of poems that were well done. But I am a film guy and the clips were atrocious. They need to be dropped, the sound was not good and I felt the clips were completely unnecessary and really dragged the presentation. I would have given this play four stars, but the clips brought everything down. If you're going to use multimedia, you better make sure it is very well done and it has a purpose. There was a clip of the professor running late for her class and then later getting all upset. Very cheesy. Makes me wonder if Anne Sexton would have still had all this hoopla if she was ugly. Play: Her Kind: The Life And Poetry of Anne Sexton Reviewer: Holly Up On Poppy 5 Stars Hannah Wolfe just shines in this performance art piece depicting the life of a poet we may not all know about. I certainly had no idea who she was and now I can't wait to talk more about her with Hannah at a Fringe party. Her stage companion, Laurel, totally kicks movement ass with graceful and sexy dance pieces in between Wolfe's wide-eyed characterizations of Sexton, her daughter, and our poetry teacher (one note-worthy hilarious and bumbling treat). Supposedly, I saw the show on a night with a few technical difficulties, so I'm going back for another round. Join me? Play: HER KIND Reviewer: George Crowe 4 Stars Moving portrayal of poet, with humor. Poetry well integrated into the text Best moments with live action -- a few too many video interludes. Superb dancing by alter ego. Play: HER KIND Reviewer: Nancy 3 Stars Strong performances from both actresses. Good use of movement and good readings of Sexton's poetry, which is wonderfully disturbing and haunting. The play spirals around and around Sexton's nightmarish childhood and her mental disturbances. It felt both like Too Much Information and not enough. Worth seeing, it's food for thought.