Miniature Refrigerator Operator presents 'Two Walkens'

My favorite is the Saturday Night Live (SNL) series of skits, revived whenever he hosts, in which every cast member copies his syncopated emphatic style as members of a ridiculous extended Walken family, who all share his distinctive facial tics and spasmodic gestures.

And now we have Two Walkens, an hour-long fantasia by creative duo Susanne Collins and Kevin Meehan, who recently dubbed themselves Miniature Refrigerator Operator.

More cowbell

Two Walkens belongs in that richly creative but difficult to define category of theater-dance-movement performance pieces that are a Fringe Festival staple. Their dialogue is lifted from Pulp Fiction, The Deer Hunter, and other memorable Walken film performances, but also Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's beloved children’s book The Little Prince. Dance breaks are inspired by Walken's performance in Fatboy Slim’s "Weapon of Choice" music video (yes, even the flying) and his many film dances, all collected in popular YouTube clips.

The pair makes delightfully whimsical Walkens, especially once they open their Walken kits and don pleated trousers with open Hawaiian shirts over white tees. But there's more to Two Walkens than their adorable imitations, which are created primarily through nuanced movement and vocal delivery. Neither looks remotely like Christopher Walken, or even tries to, yet they're unmistakable.

The story is difficult to follow, especially if one becomes absorbed in playing "what Walken movie is that from," or chuckling over their uncanny mastery of his idiosyncrasies. Perhaps I was too involved in that game to recognize that the thing Collins wraps up like a swaddled baby is a cowbell, a reference to the SNL skit in which Walken plays a producer urging the rock band Blue Oyster Cult to add more cowbell to their song “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

Haunted by Walkens

A tale unfolds, however, in this low-tech, high-energy performance. I saw it at the Whole Shebang in South Philly, a trapezoidal dance studio with space for about 30 audience members. Collins and Meehan use table lamps, a sheet, an overhead projector, two chairs, a small table, and two tape players, operating the lights and sound themselves.

What evolves in Two Walkens is a mesmerizing journey of seemingly simple scenes that reveal two surprisingly complex characters operating within the bizarrely wonderful confines of a Walken universe. They're bound together on a journey that, more than all the laughs it provides, reaches a bittersweet finale that haunted me long after.

To hear Darnelle Radford's podcast interview with Two Walkens's Susanne Collins and Kevin Meehan, click here.