If the writers of The Dukes of Hazzard adapted one of William Faulkner’s works, it would have to look a lot like Southern Gothic Novel: The Aberdeen Mississippi Sex-Slave Incident. This off-off-Broadway production is a funny, knowing, affectionate send up of all things South.
What ‘Southern Gothic Novel’ is About
Recounting the plot of Southern Gothic Novel only tells half of what this comedy is about because the show is inseparable from Frank Blocker, who wrote it and plays all 17 characters. It’s as much “about” Blocker’s spot-on take on the mores, manners, and peculiar madness of Southerners. (I should know, being one myself.)
Southern Gothic Novel is a Greater Tuna-like week in the life of a small southern town. Young Viola Haygood, illegitimate daughter of Donna Hazzler, yearns for a man right out of a romance novel to sweep her off her feet and take her away from the Natchez Trace Mobile Home Park. Is the new stranger in town that man? Or is he the one responsible for the recent spate of missing young women?
What You’ll Like About ‘Southern Gothic Novel’
Frank Blocker has the ability, with the tilt of his head or the protruding of his belly or the narrowing of his eyes, to morph from a Southern-wanna-belle to a dumber-than-dirt red neck to a seen-most-of-it country judge. And those are just three of the 17 citizens of Aberdeen, Mississippi, he introduces us to.
Southern Gothic Novel, as the name implies, is the retelling, chapter by chapter, of a book called The Reign of Aberdeen, complete with pot-boiling plot twists, wind-blown june bug metaphors, cliff-hangers, bad men, good ladies, local gossips, and more.
Well-Paced, Well Worth Seeing
Blocker brings all of these characters to life and puts all of these plot twists in motion under the direction of Cheryl King, who also produced this show. It’s well-paced, well-staged, well-acted, and well-worth the price of admission.
Stage Left Studios is a small house and a great setting for Southern Gothic. You get a black backdrop, a black wooden box, a few lights, a little sound, and Frank Blocker. You don’t need much else.
Blocker moves on and off the stage taking us down Commerce Street in Aberdeen, to the Natchez Trace just outside, and into the wilds of the Tombigbee River bottom where not much good ever goes on.
This is a funny show with a surprising amount of heart. There’s enough there for an expanded, full-cast production that would have audiences guffawing, if Blocker ever had a mind to take it in that direction.
Southern Gothic Novel: The Aberdeen Mississippi Sex-Slave Incident
- Where: Stage Left Studios
438 West 37th Street
(Fifth floor, ring for entry)
- Show Times and Tickets
- Run Time: 1 hour (no intermission)