Philly Fringe 2018: Tongue & Groove’s ‘FEEL’

For FEEL, audience members anonymously write a sentence about how they're feeling on an index card and toss it in a basket. Throughout the hour-long performance, actors draw cards for inspiration.

Words and poses

The performers — for this run, Megan Bellwoar, Seth Reichgott, Tanesha Ford, Matt Lydon, Joy Weir, and Ed Miller, accompanied on (improvised) harmonica by Carol Moog — never plan between them during the performance, and never leave the stage. They respond to what we've written on our cards, to each other, and to the audience.

I've seen Tongue & Groove many times and can attest that each performance is unique. They also change their methods for each format. One new strategy in Feel has a performer set two actors in physical positions, then read a random card from the basket. The actors improvise a brief scene — just a line or two — using whatever serendipitous connection they discover between their poses and the card.

Feelings, mixed

A series of longer two-person scenes are created early in the performance, then revisited later in the show. Feel concerns characters struggling to explain feelings: Lydon tells his boss, played by Weir, that she's too uptight, and she explains that she doesn't like him much. Reichgott tries to explain to husband Miller that he's too controlling. Ford plays a teen revealing romantic feelings for her best friend, played by Bellwoar.

Not all scenes have just two characters. One put all six actors in the same place — a coffee bar, open mic night — and in addition to them interacting, each shared confessional interior monologues with the audience.

Sometimes a performer starts a scene by explaining the setting, maybe even moving the show's six chairs — the only furniture or props — to suggest it. Sometimes they interrupt a scene with a brief flashback that echoes in a character's mind. For example, Reichgott played a nervous guy who wants to ask a co-worker out; Lydon stepped in as a friend urging him on.

No standing and talking

They also have an uncanny instinct for knowing when a scene should end, resulting in neatly overlapping scenes that don't fizzle out. Moog's harmonica snippets add wry commentary throughout.

Each show is full of detail, using most of the audience cards (alas, not mine this time) and creating dozens of characters, relationships, and situations. Actions are mimed, specifically and meaningfully; characters are never just standing around talking.

Tongue & Groove works hard to find an audience, since they're creating a new niche between typical improvisation and traditional theater. After 12 years and 10 Fringes, they've earned a small but devoted following. I feel that if more people saw Tongue & Groove, that fandom would grow.