The Presented

I know I’ve expressed on here how much I love one man/one woman shows.  I’ve seen a bunch in my time, and they’ve always proven to be interesting and entertaining.  But in all the time I’ve been seeing shows, I haven’t seen one as absolutely hilarious, unhinged, off the wall, and completely fantastic as The Presented.  And honestly, what else could I expect from a Fringe show?  No matter what I went in thinking, what I saw completely blew my mind.  It was not what I was thinking it was going to be, but Chris Davis presented (haha) something that was completely unique and fun.  I want more shows like this one.

The Philadelphia Fringe Festival is super cool.  Shows pop up all over, even where you would least expect them.  In a strange turn of events, my mom actually knew the venue where The Presented was popping up.  She had taken a class there.  It’s a very cool space, small, intimate, and perfect for a Fringe show.  The set up was in a studio room, with folding chairs and comfy cushions to sit, on the floor, for those who chose to.  The room was pretty filled, and the environment was super cool.  It really worked for this piece.

Chris Davis is quite the character.  From the start of the show, I saw such an impressive figure.  There was a sort of simplicity to it all, but in a really stunning way.  Davis has mastered the use of his body, and it was a fabulous complement to the words he was saying.  In fact, the amount of movement in this show was out of this world for just one actor.  You could tell he was feeling it, but he just kept going and going and going.  There was no stopping here.

The Presented was an autobiographical piece.  I think these types of shows are special in their own way.  It makes the performer vulnerable.  We saw a lot of history in this show, all parts of Davis’s life.  He was doing more than just storytelling, he was making storytelling into an art.  Art is the perfect word for The Presented.  Davis took on so much, and we got to experience all of it with him.  This was art in so many different ways, and watching Davis jump between moments brings the word up again and again.  What he did in sixty minutes was insane.

I mentioned above about vulnerability.  There was a lot of this in The Presented.  Honestly, I think the whole show was a giant “fuck you” to being vulnerable.  Davis tells us stories and shares things with us that should scare most people senseless were they to talk about it.  Davis brings a beautiful humanness to the space, where we can really see in this basic time and place that he has heart and there’s meaning behind everything he has to say.  He doesn’t need to do anything big or extravagant.  We know exactly what he’s trying to do and say with minimal everything.

Watching The Presented made me think about my own story…and I think it was designed to do that sort of thing.  Chris Davis talks about acting…the past and present of the art.  In so many ways, I felt like he was challenging me to go out and do my own thing…to be the artist I am inside.  The whole piece was a challenge.  It was a challenge to think about things outside the box.  It was a challenge to be the person you want to be.  It was a challenge to really figure out the world around us.  And it only took an hour.

For as humorous as The Presented was, and it was very humorous, the last ten minutes or so were extremely raw and stunning.  It was so intense, and my eyes were definitely wide as I watched Davis tug at every heartstring and hit a painful spot over and over.  It was definitely not what I was expecting, especially after the rest of the show.  But honestly, I think it was a phenomenal way to end this show.  The message was hammered in, and I’m pretty sure you could hear a pin drop in that room.  Davis had captivated us in such a short amount of time, that such a raw ending was painful and perfect.

It’s been awhile since I saw a Fringe show, and I’m glad that this was the one I ended up at.  Chris Davis brought out so much in me that I didn’t even know was there.  I wanted more, but I also wanted to take the time to feel the hurt, the awe, the vulnerability, and everything else that The Presented gave me.  Davis’s marriage of brilliant movement and dialogue, and everything in between, made this probably one of the best one person shows I’ve ever seen.  It was such a perfect Fringe show…it was outside of the box and on the very fringes of Philadelphia theatre.  I had no idea what to expect, and after the show, I realized that doesn’t even matter…I got everything I wanted.