"For a full understanding of Laurel's performances, it helps to be familiar with the Commedia dell' arte and the commedia characters, Pierrot, Harlequin, and Columbine. In lieu of that history, Laurel's work can be characterized as Vaudevillian in that it is flamboyant, tragi-comic, improvisational, musical. She has been called a 'Comic Philosopher', a modern clown, a Jungian Trickster Figure. She is specifically a gifted writer, actress and singer.
What makes Laurel's performance particularly powerful in the erver-changing 'script', which is written by Laurel in the form of stories, vignettes, social comment, character sketches, contemporary anecdotes, overheard dialogue. With clipboard in hand, Laurel starts to read her work, but is quickly interrupted by her own questions! A dialogue with the audience begins and Laurel weaves it into the flow of another story, a thought, a memory, advice, even a statistic. What ensures is an exciting roller coaster ride as Laurel struggles to harness truth amidst chaos. It is theatre in its purist form." |