The two ladies who comprise “The Steele Sisters: Comedy Sword-Fighting Show” gave the kind of
playful, riotous performance that makes you wish they were your buddies. Gwendolyn
and Gertrude Steele, dressed in fanciful layers of medieval garb, took the stage
at Blackfriars Theatre and revved the audience into a
participatory frenzy with a few playful false-starts before actually beginning
the show.

Through silly antics, squabbling laced with intermittent
sword-fighting, and loads of hammy asides, we learn that the two rivaling sibs
have been booted from daddy’s home for some misbehavior or another. With the
family inheritance at stake, the gals are engaged in a race to wed first, and
to make matters worse, have targeted the same man, whom they selected from the
audience. The three then proceeded to play off one another so smoothly and
hilariously that I couldn’t decide if the gentleman was a plant or a performer
in his own right.

Some crowds can be reticent to show amusement, much less
contribute to the show, but these ladies were in control. At one point, the
sisters had a dozen participants on the stage shaking their butts, all while
charming cheers, jeers, and sad trombones from the rest of the crowd. I was
constantly giggling at the ladies’ bawdy and hyperbolic one-upping of one
another, and the exaggerated pouts from one when the other gained the
audience’s support.

Catch “The Steele
Sisters” on Wednesday, September 24, at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m., the latter of which
is a pirate-themed show. Tickets are $16.

A bit later on, I made it over to MuCCC
to take the soul-searching journey that is “The
Nameless Days of Gumdrop Smith.” Penned and directed by Kate Royal, this
90-minute one-act production by Building 9 Theatre premiered Tuesday evening.
And what a beautiful beginning it was!

How we think about ourselves shapes our reality, but whether
we go with the shifting flow or resist reinvention, we never truly remain the
same person through our entire lives. In this play, the catalyst for shift is
the act of naming.

As Gumdrop embarks upon a new relationship with a man named
Diesel (Liam Enright), the androgynous protagonist reveals that (s)he has been given
a fresh start with the sort of bright and energetic enthusiasm that would make
any Whovian grin inwardly.

We learn that on each birthday, Gumdrop’s parents (Carl
Girard and Nicole Cupo, who each play three
supporting characters with equal precision) gift their child a new name, based
on their current whims. It’s up to Gumdrop to then discover who the name is,
what he or she wants, and spend a year in pursuit of it. Gumdrop is
unflaggingly happy, and Diesel is captivated, but before long, he expresses
dread as he begins to understand there are no guarantees about his future with
such a creature.

At Gumdrop’s next Naming Day, his fears manifest in a clever
and disconcerting way. After a year passes, it’s our protagonist’s turn to
experience some bewilderment — with the death of the parents, all the future
names were lost as well. Nameless, Gumdrop describes the following year as the
worst kind of purgatory, but it’s more like limbo.

Though dressed and coiffed similarly, there was enough
variation in how Melyssa Hall and Rusty Allen shared
the title role to show that a shift deeper than name and identity is taking
place. A fundamental growth in philosophy is necessary, but takes a while to
fully birth. Along the way, lonely, Nameless Gumdrop emboldens a variety of
aching characters by suggesting they create a new name and new identity for
themselves, without hearing the irony in the advice.

Gumdrop ultimately learns that the rules (s)he has been
following are just as limiting as the ones that ensnare most others, and is saved
by a solution worked out in the magical space between autonomy and a love that
persevered through the dark space of unknowing.

This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2014.