Sonder Productions' "The Fainting Room" at Elgin Fringe Festival

Is sexuality a source of anxiety, or a relief from it? Do doctors give diseases, or take them away? Who defines "wellness"?  Decide for yourself in "The Fainting Room," the one-woman show performed by Becca Bernard of Sonder Productions.

Switching costumes and characters like an old-fashioned farce, she takes you to a Victorian doctor's office where nervous ladies have their "female troubles" evaluated by a gloved hand, and a runaway bride serenades herself (and her proxy) with songs of love, doubt, depression or shame.

Billed as an "explosive release of physical comedy," the bits come gushing out like a firehose, in a mixture of characterizations, songs and sight gags that hold you clenched between your sheepish social norms and full-on dribbling paroxysms of joy.

Becca Bernard in Sonders Productions' "The Fainting Room"
at Elgin Fringe Festival.

Bernard is fearless and utterly body-positive throughout, but displays great artistic depth in a closing sequence of symbolic dance and a cello instrumental that takes this bawdy performance piece to new heights of pleasure.

Explore the sensations, alone or with a friend, Saturday, September 16th at Noon or 9pm.