FRINGE REVIEW: Stow Your Baggage

Alexx Rouse is committed, to be sure.  Before STOW YOUR BAGGAGE begins, she greets the audience on the way in as a flight attendant does on a plane, which is a nerve wracking proposition.  She definitely knows who’s in the audience.  But she shouldn’t worry; after all, she’s a gifted story teller and talented writer who has managed to follow up her smash hit “Busted Bumpers…” with another great piece of theatrical art.

Rouse is the kind of artist you want to root for; she’s perky, spunky, and a little naughty.  And she knows it, yet she’s nothing if not humble.  During her opening performance, she reveled in the reactions some of her best lines got, with big grins and sincere crack ups.  She’s having as much fun as we are.  I love that.

In this solo show, she tells a few stories, all framed around a theme of flight.  She’s dressed as a flight attendant and the best story is her recounting of what she learned in her brief stay as a trainee for an airline.  But she also manages to weave stories of love and friendship within a context of self-discovery.  She’s very smart and even more funny and you can’t help but be swept away by her natural charm.  More than that, though, is the strong prose.  Rouse could easily be an author of memoirs as she is a story teller.  She could also find success in stand up comedy.  You can tell she’s worked with seasoned storytelling director Erika Kate MacDonald and dramaturg Paul Strickland.

I’m just glad she’s making her work available for us to see.

STOW YOUR BAGGAGE is part of the 2019 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Click here for information about the show and click here for information about the Festival.