review ? yes sir, may i have another.

Margo Veil: An Entertainment
By Len Jenkins
Directed by David Lee
UCF Black Box Theater, Orlando, FL

Somewhere between Surrealism and the Avant-Garde lies the story of Margo Veil (Sara Barnes), a young actress on the rise. Fleeing rural Iowa she makes New York and grabs the lead in a play that closes in a day. In some respects, this is a career, but the press is harsh and some people just don’t take that well. Her agent (Todd Davis) offers here a gig escorting a corpse back to the Midwest which solves two problems - it puts cash in hand, and gets her out of the big city. The trip goes well enough, although she descends into and increasingly nightmarish world and accidentally murders The fat Man in the Bad Suit (Davis again - he really nails the role) Fleeing the police, she picks up a boyfriend of sorts (Ben Hope), and spends the rest of the show jumping into different bodies in a weird machine stashed in a truck stop massage parlor. Sex and race matter not, but after awhile the itching becomes unbearable, and she returns to her original "shell", only slightly the worse for the journey.

And that's about as coherent as this gets. A mind boggling number of people flow on and off stage, all perfectly choreographed to a secret agenda controlled by director Lee. One is tempted to call the whole experience cubist, with shards of image glinting off the theater smoke and minimal stage surrounded by fun house mirrors and surmounted by a toy train. Margo seems swept along by events, never able to modulate them or explain what they mean or why she's embroiled in them. Dozens of current and dated cultural references fly by, aided by a helpful links page in the program. We don’t have internet access on stage, but I looked up ziggurats and obelisks and steno pool and found myself broadened. This singing is good (if a bit gospel), the timing sharp and crisp, and the whole event wonderfully cryptic, yet completely entertaining.

For more information on UCF Conservatory Theatre, visit www.theatre.ucf.edu