The “Glitch” is on at the Fringe

By Ernest Kearney  —  There is some solid writing in Playwright/Director Travis Snyder-Eaton’s Glitch, a two-person play about Rachel, a journalist (Gemma Pilar Alfaro), who is interviewing Jonathan, a convicted spree killer (Jordan Klomp).

That writing bubbles up in the occasional line:

Rachel: Where did your interest in guns come from?

Jonathan: America.

Jonathan: It’s not education if you’re only learning obedience.

But these intermittent gems cannot assuage the overall dynamics that just ring false from beginning to end.

This is a big story, the killer’s first interview in six years that the program notes describe as “the opportunity of a lifetime.”  An editor would assign his best reporter and that reporter’s entire focus would be on getting the “story,” regardless of whatever repulsion she might feel towards the man she was to interview.  Look at the classic Playboy magazine interview of American Nazi leader Lincoln Rockwell by Alex Haley.

But Alfaro’s reporter is argumentative and antagonistic towards her subject, something a professional reporter would never be.

Klomp gives a full out and — at times — very effective performance, but still the situation the playwright has placed him in lacks truthfulness.  Klomp rages about the stage, demonstrating a freedom of movement that an inmate in maximum security would never be allowed.

Granted, for the purposes of the drama this point could be dispensed with, but you still need justification for it being overlooked within the script.

Glitch jumps on the bloodied and slippery bandwagon that has grimly been crisscrossing this nation since August 1, 1966 when Charles Whitman killed 16 people (*   *)  at the University of Texas, shifted gears with Columbine in 1999 and sadly seems to have been accelerating, even more, recently.

It is a grisly phenomenon that deserves a probing, insightful investigation, but it hasn’t received one here.

Snyder-Eaton has penned a strong role in the character of Jonathan the killer and Klomp gives a performance equal to the challenge, but Snyder-Eaton’s success in this part was achieved at the cost of the overall work and for this a BRONZE MEDAL for Glitch.

♦

(NOTE:  *  * A final victim—raising the total to 17—died several years later, due to wounds sustained at the shooting.)

♦     ♦     ♦

Glitch

By Travis Snyder-Eaton

is playing during

The Hollywood Fringe 2018

at

The Broadwater

1078 Lillian Way

For Show Information and Tickets Go To:  http://hff18.org/5273

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