Brown Girl in the Ring: definitely not my cup of tea

All gong and no dinner. A lot of Fringe shows suffer from this condition - a decent premise but miserable execution.  You see, a show about a black woman becoming the Queen of England seems like a sure Fringe bet.  Especially if you toss in a solid performer (Valerie Mason-John) with phenomenal British elocution wearing a silly blonde wig and hot pink prom dress.  But no - Brown Girl in the Ring is a full-on disaster.

Our erstwhile queen starts the show with a series of pointed proclamations for her Canadian subjects - then proceeds to descend into what I perceived as an extended bout of madness. Calling herself Regina II, she lapses into long sequences of using a VERY high-pitched little girl voice to discuss her situation with Michael (an imaginary friend? an adopted brother? who the hell knows?!?!?) alternating with a convoluted tale of how she came to be the first black Queen of England for the new millennium.

I strongly suspect that the writer-performer is trying to comment on racism and history in an original, interesting way. And maybe everyone else in the audience actually understood what was supposed to be going on (though I seriously doubt it).  Definitely NOT a fun experience in bizarroland for yours truly.

Brown Girl in the Ring is part of this year's Fringe Festival. For more information go here.