The Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar, 607 New York Avenue NW

Remaining Performances:

Sunday, July 10th, 6 pm
Tuesday, July 12th, 6 pm
Thursday, July 14th, 9 pm
Saturday, July 16th, 8 pm

They say: Professor VindleVoss and her adopted son Edvard the Zombie invite you to the rebirth of their once towering family circus! With only a few dusty artifacts and their quick wits, they make the magic of the big top live again!

Lindsey’s Take: Come one, come all for vignettes of love, loss, and letting go, told through the circus of characters in the VindleVoss Family – with all the parts played by Karim Muasher and Carrie Brown.

The quirky, mustachioed Professor VindleVoss (Brown) and her adopted zombie Edvard (Muasher) bring the dwindling dream of the family circus back to life. The characters they embody – from strongman to highwire-walker to contortionist to clown to the lonely ticket-taker – are portrayed through inventive props and wonderful character work. Edvard the Zombie is a brilliant and comical creation. The Professor’s mustache is almost a character by itself.

The genius of the cast and props carry the show, which is more a series of vignettes reminiscing on the Professor’s lost family than a
linear narrative. VindleVoss tests her zombie’s humanity – he passes “handshakes” and “smalltalk” with ease – but must share her history in
the circus, the “epicenter of all human emotion,” for the final act. Whether he passes or fails this last test brings a rushed farewell and abrupt conclusion to the performance, but of course, “the show must go on – because it is all that we are.”

Are you human enough to pass the tests? The ambiance of the big top, ridiculous zombie stomp-rhythms, broccoli and gold stretch pants distinguish a show full of family memories and family tragedies told by a peculiar professor and her bald and bucktoothed zombie.

See it if: You enjoy ladies with mustaches, free popcorn and fantastic characters bordering on the absurd.

Skip it if: You are looking for complex and serious plot lines. Or you’re afraid of clowns.