By Front Row Reviewers Staff
In 2018, after seeing Élise Hanson’s award-winning comedy The Secret Son of Hitler, Jim Martin commissioned the playwright to pen a serial play series. What is a serial play? It’s sort of like a television show. Onstage. There have been versions of this through the years. Vaudeville saw the return of familiar acts and fan favorite characters. Mike Nichols and Elaine May performed a series of repeating sketches in small local theatres, eventually bringing their pieces to Broadway. Greater Tuna has a few different riffs on the same format, with a handful of plays containing kooky and eclectic characters from the fictional town of Tuna, Texas. The Open Syrup follows this last style most closely, in that The Open Syrup is a fictional hotel found in anywhere (and anytime) U.S.A., and while the two lead characters stay the same (Rhonda Saint-Cuthbert, the beleaguered hotel manager and Bradley Burgoyne, the hapless superintendent), the characters shift, the actors change, the genres diverge, and the plots get wilder and wilder with every turn.
The first “episode” of The Open Syrup, called The Bride Wore Smack, premiered at The Box in downtown Salt Lake City in December of 2019. The cast and playwright were three–almost four–episodes in by March of 2020, when suddenly they were interrupted by…something. A giant lizard? The Open Syrup then took the form of virtual monologues from favorite characters that audiences could access through online subscriptions. In 2021, the cast reconvened, deciding together to start the whole project over, and so the first three episodes aired again, followed by an additional three, making for six total that went through the summer of 2022. The plays featured things like mob bosses, alligators named Hank and Tiffany, time travel, space assassins, a zombie invasion, grandmas rapping about pizza rolls, vampires, ghosts, a woman transformed into a chicken, and a musical episode (to name a few).
As the first season concluded, the cast and audience begged for more, suggesting new plotlines, requesting characters they wanted to play, and asking Hanson to mount a new edition of plays to continue what was fast becoming a Salt Lake institution. The lore of The Open Syrup was taking hold, with some even wanting a chance at co-writing episodes and taking The Open Syrup to some avant-garde new heights such as immersive theatre. Theatre companies around the United States have caught wind of The Open Syrup as well, and one day soon it might be simply all over the place.
For now, the serial show is making its first appearance at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, just in time to celebrate the festival’s ten year anniversary. Kallisti Theatre Company, which made its first appearance at Fringe in 2017 with Hanson’s Float, has been awarded by the Festival for the shows 3 Drag Queens Defuse a Bomb at a Talk Show, David Isn’t Getting Into Heaven, The Secret Son of Hitler, and My Gay Baptism. Kallisti focuses on bespoke theatre pieces by Hanson, who writes stories and roles to reflect the talents and wishes of the actors in the Salt Lake Valley. The actors in The Open Syrup: Oops, We Did it Again! were chosen by Hanson, all the parts written specifically for them. Some are veterans of The Open Syrup and some are brand new not only to the play but to the stage itself, making their onstage debut in order to participate in the zany comedy.
It is not necessary for audiences to have seen every play in The Open Syrup series in order to enjoy it. Each play stands on its own as an episodic work with a contained plot and absurdist jokes aplenty. Those who have been privy to the plays before now can pick up on jokes and metacentric references throughout, such as the ladder Bradley attached to the roof and can’t get down, Rhonda’s dour demeanor, the pipes in room 119 that have been leaking for years, the holes left by a witch that act as portals to other dimensions, and more. All these things, however, are explained in a clear and entertaining way that can delight new and old fans alike.
The Open Syrup: Oops, We Did it Again! will play at The Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival
July 26th at 7:30 pm, July 27th at 4:30 pm, August 2nd at 9:00 pm, August 3rd at 3:00 pm
Tickets are $15 and are available at the Great Salt Lake Fringe box office or on the Fringe Website.
The Open Syrup: Oops, We Did it Again! is rated “F” for Family Friendly.
The Open Syrup Facebook Event
The Great Salt Lake Fringe Facebook Page
The Open Syrup Facebook Page
Kallisti Theatre Company Facebook Page
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