The Group Project at Elgin Fringe Festival

The art of poetic language and the power of the spoken word are a highly compelling opening to "Three Daughters Who are Not Daughters" by The Group Project. A woman in a chair, covered from the neck down by a denim quilt, delivers a vivid collage of voices without any movement, except for the rhythms of an on-stage drummer.

Group Project at Elgin Fringe Festival

In the second of three vignettes, a prisoner is visited by the spirit of her unborn daughter, carried by the warrior spirit of a woman lost during childbirth. The dialogue turns to a dance, accompanied by the exotic language of a solo flute.

Part three is a tense, multimedia mother-daughter drama surrounded by a four-piece band culminating in an all-female chorus, where it ends just before becoming too cluttered with material.

Outstanding individual performances by Samantha Hurwitz, Soli Santos and Sandra Fonseca, and live music by the Steins carry this study of women's experience of loss in a progressively less abstract sequence. It's a great addition to a fringe festival program in the multidisciplinary/experimental category that deserves more participation.

This piece is definitely worth your attention Sunday, Sept. 18th at 3pm at Next Door Theater.