5 Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist is introspective and interactive
5 Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist is introspective and interactive
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit offers an illuminating look at casual hookups.
Aglobal pandemic isn’t the best time to be hooking up with random strangers, so if you’re looking for some vicarious erotic thrills, Pride Films And Plays’s Five Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist will satisfy your desire. It will also make you consider how casual hookups impact your emotional well-being as playwright Sam Ward recounts his personal experiences with the now-shuttered personals section of Craigslist. As a bisexual twentysomething coming to terms with his sexuality, Ward learns a lot about himself through this mixed bag of flings, and his script makes audience members a part of the action with a heavy amount of interaction.
Performed with inviting warmth by Eric Sorensen and sensitively directed by Jeremy Ohringer, Five Encounters is an intimate and engaging piece of interactive theater. A hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017, the show offers an inventive approach to the confessional one-man show, but its success relies on the willingness of audience volunteers to participate. Volunteers get a name tag before the show so you won’t be asked to interact if you don’t want to, although there is a moment when Sorensen asks everyone to write something personal on a note card.
As one of the few shows currently running in the city, [see note at end of this review], Five Encounters delivers a satisfying hour of introspection that is more active than the usual solo fare. The timing is unfortunate for a show built on audience interaction, but Sorensen and Ohringer do commendable work creating an atmosphere that encourages viewers to open up and share some of themselves in the process.
