Papa Squat’s Store of Sorts
Papa Squat’s Store of Sorts
By Paul Strickland
Ain’t True and Uncle False’s Hood
Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival, Blue Venue.</strong>
Storyteller Paul Strickland continues to expand the world of the Big Fib Trailer Park and Cul de Sac. This year we explore the romance between Papa Squats and Rue Morehasit. Strickland takes common figures of speech and forges them into real humans with not-that-exotic needs, desires and back stories. Papa Squats lives by the credo of “Find a need and fill it”; he notes people are “out of sorts” and opens the “Sorts Store”, the need to make “ends meet” and there a factory to make them. While there no money in his endeavors they fill a community need, and if people need cash they go work at the area’s major employer, the “Pea Punching Plant” where strong men slug vegetables to make black eyed peas. His stories are punctuated with songs, his style is that of an upbeat blues man rhythmically punctuated but boot stomps to the floor. There’s a loving mystery in his singing, a love of people rather than money in his populace, and depth of humanity that says we can be more than what we own. You ‘ll find something introspective here, whether it’s in his abuse of the English language or contemplation of what ends you will go to to make ends meet.
This commentary was based on a technical rehearsal.
This production is part of the 2014 Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. Information on tickets and show times may be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/
