Photo via Capital Fringe.

By DCist contributor Seth Rose

Reminds us of: A History Channel reenactment with significantly better acting.

Flop, Fine or Fringe-tastic? Fine

Ellouise Schoetter has a stage presence perfectly suited to storytelling, warm and engaging with more than a hint of Southern charm. She uses this trait to good effect in her one-woman performance relating the story of 64 Maryland nurses who went overseas during World War I. She also wastes very little time, establishing herself as one of the nurses and launching straight into the story after a brief introduction.

That story is fascinating and worthwhile, a little slice of local history that hasn’t received the attention it deserves. Schoetter embodies her character completely, and before long it’s easy to forget that she’s playing a character at all. There isn’t really that much more to the show: it’s just an hour or so of Schoetter-as-nurse and the words she’s drawn from history. And yet, that feels like enough. The uniqueness of the story and Schoetter’s adept retelling is all it needs. She covers the darker sides of the war along with the little pieces of humanity on display, and it never feels boring or academic.

After the shows ends and she drops character, Schoettler laments that pieces of women’s history like this are so often ignored by the mainstream. Highlighting them is a noble goal with that in mind, and her subjects would doubtless approve if they were alive today.

Ready to Serve is playing at Caos on F on July 13 at 6:15 p.m., July 20 at 8:15 p.m. and July 23 at 2:30 p.m.

See here for more of DCist’s Capital Fringe 2016 reviews.