Image courtesy of Capital Fringe
The adage (okay, cliche) of not judging a book by its cover should be adjusted in this case to “don’t judge a play by its synopsis.” The tale of a young woman who came to D.C. as a college student with big political aspirations (in this case becoming ambassador to France) and had a slew of misadventures in love sounds annoyingly familiar. One would easily be forgiven for thinking this seems reminiscent of the stories told by every obnoxiously driven political science student at every D.C. party. As it happens, Cara Foran found those people insufferable as well — which is just part of the reason why her teenage plans went awry.
Her story, aided by a projector that gave the titles of her life chapters and a few helpful visuals, is extremely engaging and dynamic. She was a bridesmaid as a teenager. She gets stuck at a crackhouse for several hours. She watches a close friend get shot. She gets scammed by lovers that have been dishonest about their relationship status, their feelings and their drug use. Everything from her working class Ohio background to her long term relationships take on a very vivid life as Foran weaves her tale together, complete with shockers and moments of humor.
The bigger problem with the story is that Foran doesn’t seem entirely prepared to tell it. During her mid-show story about “the one who got away,” she actually wiped a tear from her eye at the memory of a man that left her decades ago. But while that added to the drama of her story, her inability to remember it all was a decided detractor. She had to stop more than once so that her “nonsexual life partner” and projector operator Justin could give her prompts. Foran not only had an interesting show, but some great nuggets of wisdom about love and adulthood and finding yourself. A little extra practice and memorization would have sent it over the top.
District of Cara is running at the Tree House Lounge. The remaining performance is:
Saturday, July 25 at 2:45 p.m.
Click here for more of DCist’s Capital Fringe 2015 reviews.
