Review: I Really Don’t Know How To Say This… (Fort Worth Fringe) - OnstageNTX

I Really Don’t How How to Say This… is a clever concept from playwright Charles Jackson Jr. of Poetic Thespian Productions. (He’s involved also with Fort Worth’s Jubilee Theatre and Amphibian Stage.) It’s a sci-fi-ish story about Megan (Christina Cranshaw) who is too scared to break things off with her childhood best friend Natalie (Kelly Stewart). Fortunately, the near-future has a “service” that will scan your brain and make a digital version of…whoever (friend, parent, spouse, et al.). It’s just practice, with that person’s voice coming from a speaker—a way to feel braver, and ready for the “tough talk.” What could go wonky with that? The dialogue feel nicely natural, and both Cranshaw and Stewart give us lively, distinct characters: Megan unsure and curled inward, Natalie clearly the arms-wide Alpha of their twosome. Though Megan only hears her, Natalie appears to us as a silhouette behind a screen, and Stewart’s restless hair-flipping, hand swoops (and interruptions of Megan) tell us why her friend might be feeling a bit squashed. To tell much more about the plot would spoil things—but it was a bright point of the day’s lineup at the Fringe.

-Reviewed by Jan Farrington

https://www.onstagentx.com/reviews/fort-worth-fringe-festival-fort-worth-community-arts-center