Weird always has a place in theater, and the Fringe is one of the only opportunities in New York for strangeness to truly run wild. Creena DeFoouie, a show that claims to be “Ab Fab meets Addams Family by way of Rocky Horror,” is both stranger than the Broadway conversion of the last and as surreally funny as Ab Fab.
As the titular character, revenging her sister Mary Annabel’s murder by killing mental patients (basically, a less morose Sweeney Todd), Charlotte Barton-Hoare is the weirdest female British performer we've seen this side of Helena Bonham-Carter. In terms of her performance as Creena, Barton-Hoare has as much skill as she lacks shame. That only means good things for the production.
What hurts it is the lack of a coherent story. True, Rocky Horror didn't have much of a plot either. But although Creena at least tries to build a somewhat coherent narrative, the result feels rushed and tangential when it should just feel fun. 
Empathy is clearly not the emphasis in such a bizarre play, but if you’re going to introduce a lost-love subplot and actually solve the murder you introduce, common courtesy is to make the events clearer. As it stands, the show wavers between a weird variety show and a classic revenge plot.That doesn’t mean the action is all that hard to follow, and at moments the play can take hilarious, manic turns. With a dildo fight between Creena and clueless copper Superintendent Hardon (James Hoare), a creatively choreographed murder of a patient (also played by Hoare), and a pitch-perfect closing image, there’s more than enough creativity throughout Creena DeFoouie to keep the show thoroughly entertaining.
The show took the Edinburgh Fringe by storm last summer, and now with a successful run in New York, it should be seeing a larger production in England sometime soon. Maybe around Halloween.
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Article comments
1 - Introspective
Fringe seems to be a is good TV series. It a bit similar to Torchwood and X Files. I just hope that it will not be spoiled.