From the Fringe: ‘Capt. Discovery and Escape to Planet O’

Fringe review: Capt. Discovery and ‘Escape to Planet O,’ Jeff Ferree, Orlando

By Elizabeth Maupin

On a Fringey scale of 1 to 10, the experience of seeing Capt. Discovery and ‘Escape to Planet O’ is a 19.

First of all, it’s performed in a janitor’s closet off the lobby in the Lowndes Shakespeare Center – the newest Fringe performance space, dubbed the Jamie Mykins Theater for the local puppeteer extraordinaire.

Second, the venue is set up for two audience members, but the show’s creators are eager to accommodate. I saw Capt. Discovery with seven other people, and I suspect the viewing was all the better for it.

Capt. Discovery is a 10-minute sci-fi puppet show, in which our hero and two trusty sidekicks (one a glamorous woman in pearls and the other a nerdish young man in a nifty tie) have a run-in with some very tall, skinny mushroom people and various other extraterrestrial ne’er-do-wells. Turns out that males are prized in this other world because they’re turned into sperm donors – and also that Capt. Discovery is something of a ‘60s-era sexist. (I hissed, although no one else joined me.)

Ferree and Sophia Wise handle all the puppetry, and they do it admirably; I especially liked the talking eyeball (which looked more like a watermelon to me, but then most of what I could see of it was the inside of its mouth).

All in all, it’s the Fringiest thing at the Fringe – and if your glasses get knocked askew by an overzealous puppet, well, that’s just part of the adventure.

But be forewarned: Get in line early because, well, seating and standing are both limited. What Ferree has on his hand is a show that sells out, three or four times over, every night of the week.

Remaining shows: 9 p.m. Tuesday 5/25, 9 p.m. Wednesday 5/26, 9 p.m. Thursday 5/27. Studio C (Jamie Mykins Theater), Lowndes Shakespeare Center.