Kelsey Slepser with Unmuted Participants brings her show Antennae to the digital strand of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
“A pandemic-induced trip down memory lane”, this show starts simply enough with teenage memories, but becomes something much more odd when a gender non-conforming praying mantis joins Kelsey in her study.
Playing with the notion of Zoom as voyeurism, Antennae discusses gender binaries, professional and personal ambitions, and our own issues and discoveries to find who we are. It also has opinionated puppets.
With this odd new room-mate, the chatty spider, Kelsey recalls her box-set binge of The Sopranos and its ingrained machismo.
Antennae has lots of ideas, but its approach feels a little too scattergun to fully succeed. There’s a lot to unpick here from the beginning of womanhood to body positivity and religious views on sex to early day crushes.
I liked the split screen work which focuses the attention on parts of Kelsey’s body (hands, feet) as well as her face. Her confident and open delivery is also a plus.
With a little more focus and thought, and a bit more structure, Antennae has the potential to develop into an interesting piece of personal storytelling which can reach out to a wider audience.
You can stream Antennae on-demand throughout August as part of the Fringe – purchase tickets here.
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