Z Smith
Directed by Jenni Kallo
Pompo's inhabits a trash heap. Her wistful desire to make a home from her world filled with trash, compels her to create rituals and systems. Her announcements of, "to the kitchen," or "to the bedroom," send her tiny distances in reality but far into fantasy. Each place has a particular set of junk and a series of actions that define it. About a third of the way into the show she began to really include us and I was drawn into this world and empathized with her yearning.
The importance of Pipo, a silver urn, in the life of Pompo and the arc of the show only becomes clear about midway through. I wish she had addressed the object more clearly right from the start.
I loved her escalating series of fantasy meals, the newspaper folded into airplanes ridden by finger families, and into birthday hats, the creative use of bottle caps, all lovely, traditional ways that a clown transforms her environment.
Z has made a courageous choice to address longing and grief. Pompo and Pipo is a tender and moving show. It needs only more performances and some difficult editing.
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