The Sinner King - Lots of Potential Here

The one-man show is a brave and ambitious endeavor to take on for any actor, and the Fringe, in my opinion, is a great place for an actor build some chops. The Sinner King, written and performed by Eric Hinch, as a one-hour storytelling play has lots of potential, and is probably a courageous creative leap for Hinch, but the show I watched seemed more like a work-in-progress than a finished product.

The piece is based on story by Goethe and follows the adventures of a man chasing his mystery woman, and getting swept up in sex and drugs between rendez-vous with her. I think Hinch, a charming, sparkly-eyed performer who is both grounded, and capable of lovely physicality, has the potential to make this play great but he never manages to get it off the ground.  The show opened with a video spoof of a commercial for a self-help seminar.  Why?  How did this relate to the rest of the play? It could have served as an interesting frame for the show, but I failed to see the connection and I was confused when Hinch made his entrance afterwards fussing about an ambiguous problem.  Was this related to the self-help seminar? Was he doing this demonstration to also sell us something? The stakes were so low, and the choices so unclear that the opening felt sloppy and bewildering.

After telling us a little about himself, the character began telling anecdotal stories, one after the other, which were almost compelling, but lacked a build and any real structure or commitment to form a coherent overarching narrative journey.

I think the ideas in this show are fun and funny but they haven’t been fully executed.  Throughout the show it seemed like Hinch was forgetting his lines, and losing his train of thought.  Moments that were potentially funny fell flat because there was no commitment to the set up, and no drive to the story.  There a few instances of full commitment and passion, which were interesting where Hinch’s physical expressiveness shone, but the momentum of the play would soon return to being slow and choppy.  Intellectually I could tell what the character wanted through the things he said, but I didn’t find the world of the play or the character’s relationship to the mystery woman fully believable and I didn’t see him really going for what he wanted so I wasn’t emotionally engaged.  

I think there is an arc to this script, and a lot of great elements and plot points are in place, but it needs stronger direction.  With full commitment and confidence the extremely creative, absurdist and comedic elements could really come to life and make for an entertaining and hilarious show.  I would be interested to see this play again, after it’s been worked on some more.