Heretic (Seattle Reviews)
ARCHIVE EDITOR'S NOTE --- Following are the Heretic reviews gleaned from online sources in connection with Niki's performances during the 2003 Seattle Fringe Festival in Seattle, Washington, USA - beginning with one from the official Fringe publication, The Review Rag, continuing with reviews from mainstream publications and ending with audience reviews from the Heretic Show Page on the now-defunct Seattle Fringe website.
THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLES? --- Never underestimate how the rosy timbre of a woman’s English accent can sweeten even the murkiest of scripts. Actress Niki McCretton navigates - with aplomb - the dark tale of a woman banished to solitude on the Moon for her religious beliefs. She portrays a character equally occupied with psychological and physical survival as she struggles to redeem herself for crimes of faith she doesn’t fully comprehend. Heretic shares the lonely, futuristic melancholy of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles: a desolate landscape with nothing to see between sky and earth, and where soliloquies delivered like machine-gun fire shift to silent, sensual baths in sand and tears. The threat of catatonia lurks in the wings (I failed to understand the significance of the interpretive dance sequences) but it never quite takes hold; McCretton’s energetic discipline and playfulness keep the story consistently buoyant and a worthy Fringe selection.
(Peter Sackett - Seattle Fringe Review Rag - 21 September 2003)
COOL! --- Highly imaginative post-apocalyptic tale of a zealot banished to the Moon when religion is outlawed on Earth. Fantastic Niki McCretton wrote and stars in this one-woman show that mixes theatre, film, dance/movement and even a bit of puppetry to achieve a cool (if somewhat distant) experimental piece.
("Embracey" - Three Imaginary Girls Dot Com - 3/4 Stars - September 2003)
THOUGHTFUL & INNOVATIVE --- Festival organizers make no attempt to impose themes on the roster (slots are first-come/first-served), yet one seems to have emerged. Perhaps due to our post-9/11 outlook, a number of the plays explore faith or Biblical subjects. Niki McCretton's Heretic is among the more thoughtful and innovative of these offerings. The UK performer combines film, movement and dramatic scenes to encourage us to consider the plight of a woman exiled to a distant planet for her insistence on believing in God. She can return when she fills an aquarium tank with tears cried for her misdeeds. Rather than a shrill defence of faith, McCretton's portrayal of the beaten woman who has no more tears only prods us to face our human impulse to religious belief.
(Gianni Truzzi - Seattle Post-Intelligencer - 22 September 2003)
RADICALLY MEMORABLE --- Last year, Niki McCretton's Worm-Hole provoked love-it-or-hate-it responses, and judging from the flow of press and audience feedback from her recent performances in Canada and Minnesota, Heretic will be just as divisive. Heretic concerns a woman who refuses to renounce her Christian faith in the face of a secular totalitarian government and so is banished to the Moon until she fills a fish tank with her tears. Apparently in performance, the storyline is a bit obscure, but even McCretton's detractors usually acknowledge her outstanding physical skills; her shows mix slapstick comedy, dance (with perhaps some butoh influence - there are many references to the show being slooooow), and mime, along with film projections and chanted text. Not an easy show to watch, but possibly a radically memorable one.
(Bret Fetzer - The Stranger Magazine - Preview - 11 September 2003)
HUMOUR PROVIDES COUNTERPOINT --- Heretic is a well-acted, visually-stunning and thought-provoking piece. Unexpected moments of humour provide a counterpoint to the dark subject matter resulting in a work that is both entertainment and art.
(Inge - Seattle Fringe Website "Heretic" Show Page - 22 September 2003)
WORTH AT LEAST A PENNY FOR CENTS' THOUGHTS --- I loved Worm-Hole so much last year that I headed straight for the first McCretton show I could find (which was Throw Me A Bone, which I liked). I was psyched when I saw all the water bottles and the plastic packages and the tank of tears, but all that stuff never really gets used, played with, discovered, rediscovered, or really even spilled, and that was so disappointing. I remember all those boxes that the nun had in Worm-Hole. She tried to keep them in order, but every time she opened one, some new energy was unleashed on stage. I was hoping for more of the same, but didn't find it. If I was directing this show, McCretton would be alternately a wet puppy and a soaked cat, and then some sort of zen surfer. She does get soaked near the end when she tries to drown herself in her own tears (which was kind of gross because the "water" looked nasty - like a secretion should I guess), but it wasn't no fun. And I didn't learn anything - like in Worm-Hole where I learned that we are all captives captivated by our daily routines which, if we take the time to unwrap, are exploding with the energy of us.
(Cents - Seattle Fringe Website "Heretic" Show Page - 25 September 2003)
NO PLOT??? (IT WOULD HELP IF YOU READ THE BLOODY PREMISE!) --- There isn't a plot here. There's not supposed to be. There isn't a "reason for dance" here. There's not supposed to be. The whole point is just a study of one woman's experience (and I was really tempted to say insanity) during an exile. She doesn't come to deeper understanding and she doesn't reveal any universal secrets. We just watch her go through a piece of her environment and see what happens. Compare it to Gilda Live. This is a character study with various humorous and philosophic bits strewn about.
(jperry - Seattle Fringe Website "Heretic" Show Page - 25 September 2003)
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