SINGLEMARRIEDGIRL

Courtesy of Capital Fringe Festival

A search for self amid the adventure
By Erin Williams
Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Finding yourself is no easy task – in fact, it can make you crazy.

Heather Bagnall Scheeler, star of Tasty Monster Production’s “SINGLEMARRIEDGIRL,” demonstrates just that in her frenetic performance of a woman on a search for her inner self after her marriage and then a relationship end. The play, adapted from Laurel Spears’s blog “Adventures of a Single Married Girl,” borrows a generous amount of dialogue from the site. On a sparse stage with nothing but a bench and a primitive jungle gym, Scheeler flits back and forth between props as she details the author’s adventure in “treating life like a yard sale” -- taking herself out on a date for the first time, trying a belly-dancing class, even posing nude as an art model. Some of her tales are comedic -- asking her estranged husband to send her flirty e-mails at work, only to find out his messages are monitored -- but most, like her character’s overall presence, are pitiful and a bit chaotic. By the time she decides to gorge herself on happiness and appreciate the life and love she has been presented with, one hopes she takes her own advice -- and slows down long enough to process everything that she’s been through in order to move forward as a once-married, now-single girl.