Finding Fellini – Captivating

When I interviewed Megan Metrikin for my annual United Solo Preview article, I was intrigued by her obsession of visionary writer/director Federico Fellini as a symbol of creative freedom in relation to the apartheid South Africa environment in which she lived. The real life story of a devil-may-care pilgrimage rang charming; her passion appealed. What was hinted to me then is here manifest, not only dramatically, but with marvelously inventive sound and visuals.

Metrikin’s voice-over letter to her hero prefaces our discovering her in Rome without a friend, a plan, or Italian with which to navigate foreign terrain. “What was I thinking?!” In fact, the young woman is determined to somehow meet Fellini face to face. An actress who aspires to do simply anything in one of his films, she also just wants to bask in the master’s presence. (Note to author: tell the audience you were a working actress.)

She opens her suitcase, which lights up from within. We hear a recording of Fellini. This evocative conceit occurs intermittently throughout the play. The artist’s own, wise and/or amusing words add color. Well chosen excerpts from his films, including the iconic fountain scene out of La Dolce Vita, as well as clips that place Metrikin in her fantasy, serve to heighten immersion. Imitation of on-screen characters is extremely sympathetic. Subtly introduced memories of Africa, conversations with her mother referring to grisly social upheaval, and a brief scene in which she plays her mum in a Phyllis Diller fright-wig (a la Fellini), work wonderfully. One may leave geography but not history.

The performer speaks with hypnotic intensity. She enunciates beautifully and moves like an unaffected dancer. Added costuming is minimal and apt. An egg crate serves as typewriter. Everything feels important/potentially life changing (as it must have then), yet Metrikin never overacts. Director Guy De Lancey merges openhearted, one-on-one encounters in which the actress winningly plays both people, with stylized fixation on the larger goal. The stage is used with imagination and finesse.

Someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone leads her to locations where Fellini might be found and people whose lives he brushed. Metrikin encounters Carabinieri, grazes romance, meets the great one’s sister and repeatedly rebounds from disappointment.  Along the way, she’s affected by the spirit of Rome (and Venice) reveling in the privilege of independence. The traveler is back home when she learns of Fellini’s death. Description is poignant and lyrical.

Writing is immediate (the playwright kept a diary at the time) and redolent, unfussy, yet often poetic. Acting enchants. Finding Fellini is exceptionally enhanced by the successful collaboration of Metrikin and De Lancey who create context, fantasy, and an irresistible journey.

“There is no end. There is no beginning. Only the infinite passion of life.” Fellini

Production Photos by Guy De Lancey

Finding Fellini
Written and Performed by Megan Metrikin
Directed and Designed by Guy De Lancey
One More Show: October 1 at 2:00
The 8th Annual United Solo Festival – 120 shows from 6 continents
Through November 20, 2017
Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street