SD Fringe: Witness to Gettysburg and Ozombie bin Laden: in 3D!

Witness to Gettysburg Have you ever been to Gettysburg? Maybe it’s ghosts, or just how the winds swirl across empty fields. If you didn’t know that during the first three days of July 1863 nearly 60,000 Americans were dead or wounded, you’d swear that something hellish happened here.

Annette Hubbell, who wrote and performs this one-person show, dresses in mourning and tells the story of Hattie Elizabeth Turner. She went to Gettysburg with her husband, Captain George Turner of the 90th Pennsylvania volunteers. She didn’t sit on one of the town’s roofs — as many did — but she witnessed the slaughter first hand, including her husband’s death.

And had no time to grieve. When professional doctors were late, Hattie and other women took charge. The “onlookers” cared for the wounded as if by instinct. Everywhere they walked, Hubbell/Hattie exclaims, “the ground was wet with blood.”

Hubbell’s writing, often rich in details, makes her audience an eyewitness. Descriptions of the battle and Hattie’s initial reluctance (“I can’t do this. I can’t free the memory of what I know is sure to follow.”) are vivid and truly felt. That this is the battle of Gettysburg from a woman’s perspective casts a fresh eye on the havoc.

During the performance, Hattie changes from a proper young woman to a tough, battlefield nurse. Her compassion never sees sides —Yanks or Rebs — just endless carnage.

Ozombie bin Laden: in 3D! The Fringe has two shows about Osama bin Laden. I highly recommend Knaive Theatre’s Bin Laden: The One Man Show for a thought-provoking perspective on “the man who shook the world.” [Company Name Here]’s Ozombie is as zany as Knaive Theatre’s Bin Laden is challenging.

Chuck, a political cartoonist, has 15 minutes to pitch his script to a cigar-chomping movie producer. As in musicals where suddenly everyone breaks into song, a grab-bag cast forms and does a rehearsed, scene-by-scene rendition.

Owing to some sub-atomic, proto-nuclear-ish hegemony, the body of Osama bin Laden morphs into a zombie that feasts on people’s brains. Not only that, he plans to use a similar quantum physics concoction to resurrect dictators of the past and rule the planet! (How he will rule over them remains a puzzle.) So, what to do? Maybe get the American Sniper guy to take him out? No. He died. Then…yeah! How about the guy who played him in the movie? Bradley Cooper? Sure. That’ll work great!

In the meantime, when his daughter runs off to Syria to make a difference fighting ISHITS, Chuck’s stuck. How can he save her and the world as well?

The script — both scripts, in fact, break down (this is author Nick Scutti’s first play, though he does have a knack for crisp dialogue). But in the silly/satirical atmosphere director Katie Foggiano achieves, that’s part of the fun.

Ozombie has one of the Fringe’s funniest pre-show speeches: “Sure there are exits. Find them for yourself. You’re adults.”