Carny Girl
Bret Fetzer and The Moonshine Revival Tent’s fusion of sprightly storytelling and lush choral singing was described by the MC at a recent Folklife performance as “The Brothers Grimm meet O Brother Where Art Thou.” In their next performance at West of Lenin in Fremont, the Moonshine Revival Tent debuts their newest piece: Carny Girl
A Kansas girl named Betsy decides to run away from home with a traveling carnival that sets up a ramshackle set of rides, games, and sideshows across the midwest. Betsy finds herself as assistant to the sideshow barker, and glimpses of her in her sequined tights entice the sideshow’s Alligator Man to ask if Betsy will walk down the midway with him, bathed in light from the moon and the jittery electric bulbs…but the Alligator Man isn’t much of a gentleman and Betsy might need help from the Tattoo’d Lady and the Anatomical Wonder to escape his scaly clutches…
Bret Fetzer has been writing and performing original fairy tales since the late 1980s, when he was a regular feature at New City Theater’s Late Night Club. In the early 2000s, he shifted from what one might call “classical” fairy tales (set in European forests, Arabian deserts, and Asian mountainsides) to American fairy tales: Stories that use the traditional narrative structures of fairy tales, but with a distinctly American iconography—instead of castles, cabins and coal mines; instead of potions and magic wands, liquor and cigarettes; instead of princesses and fairies, farmgirls and the Devil himself. (Fetzer is currently aspiring to write a fairy tale for every state in the union.)
Musical accompaniment is provided by singer/composers Sari Breznau and Eric Padget, along with Christine Longé and Jillian Vashro.
Along with Garrison Keillor and Mark Twain, Bret Fetzer is one of the best American storytellers and he is right here in Seattle.
Carny Girl The Moonshine Revival Tent at West of Lenin, 203 N 36th St. Fremont. Seattle Sundays Evenings at 7 pm April 30, May 7, 14, and 21—N.B. Sun, May 7, is PWYC. TN.B. Parking is difficult to non-existent.
Tickets http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2889247