Philly Fringe 2024: 100th Meridian presents Jared Michael Delaney’s T.REXTASY

Over the course of 45 minutes, Bonetti guides the audience on a galactic tour as Buick MacKane, a somewhat bumbling would-be rocker who’s sent to space to find resources that might save a dying earth. He seems an unlikely representative—we learn he was selected as part of a reality television show, natch—and Bonetti leans into the doofus-like characteristics that endear MacKane to the viewer. He is a master of misdirection in his comic delivery: many a sentence veers off in a surprising, delightful direction, with a laugh earned through expert timing.

Jared Michael Delaney’s script excels in humorous mode, though even clocking in at less than an hour, it still drags in places. That’s partly due to the limitations of the solo-play genre but attempts to fuse a family narrative with the cosmic comedy turn somewhat mawkish. The environmental theme—the reason that MacKane is in space, after all—also seems to come and go.

Still, director Charlotte Northeast makes inventive use of the limited resources available in the MAAS Studio space, and lighting designer Shon Causer harnesses the full cosmos and the spirit of a rock-and-roll show in his work. Christopher Colucci’s crisp sound design befits a universe in which music might hold the tool to save the planet.

T.REXTASY is the second production of 100th Meridian, and it feels a million miles away from They’ve All Gone and We’ll Go Too, a moving, introspective show also written by Delaney and seen at last year’s festival. It speaks well to the young company that in such a short span of time, they can deliver two entirely opposite yet frequently satisfying productions—especially on what is clearly a shoestring budget.

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