Press Clips for The Battle of Spanktown
The Battle of Spanktown [is] an inspired collage of political tomfoolery, Shakespearean comedy, anthropomorphism, and classic Americana.
Simply put: The Battle of Spanktown was a DELIGHT. The skilled hand of director Heidi Handelsman had me literally pointing at one of the many talented actors on the stage, poking my friend in the ribs, saying, "Look at that. Did you see what that guy did?"
It would take too long to point out every performer worth praising, but a few of them stand out, even in this large and talented cast. Chris Bannow is quite good as the well-meaning and slightly dim Hobbledehoy who serves as the de facto protagonist and the soul of the whole proceedings. Brett Waldon is wonderfully arrogant as the evil Lord Dinglebury... Samantha B. Northart, as the supernatural Winter Queen, with her sing-song delivery, did some excellent channeling of a magical Disney princess. And then there is Patricia Lynn, appearing as the Lass, the main love interest of the Hobbledehoy, whose bright eyes and toothy smile could most respectfully be describes as "winsome."
...The Battle of Spanktown is a polished little gem of the Fringe Festival, and well worth seeking out.
-Michael Neiderman
New York Theater Review
The Battle of Spanktown combines so many disparate elements, it shouldn't possibly work. It is a piece of Revolutionary War history, relating how a dispute betwixt a Mole and a Badger incites a series of events involving a young Hobbledehoy who embarks on a classic Fool's journey encountering many Wonders and Adventures, including a dread Kobold and the freeing of the Winter Queen from the Nefarious Red Coats only to find himself assisting General George Washington himself in the Great War of Independence.
In other words, it is a delightful 18th century picaresque (a literary style which may be characterized as "on damn thing after another")...
Jeffrey Pfeiffer's script is a wondrous thing. When one hears the word pastiche, one usually thinks of something derivative. But here, the odd disparate elements for a delightful and unique whole. Big kudos are due to Heidi Handelsman for her direction. The performances are all funny and distinct. The casting is marvelous, some of the actors looking as if they have stepped right out of the pages of Punch.
-Carolyn Raship
Caviglia's Cabinet of Curiosities
Viewers are well-advised to sit back and [The Battle of Spanktown] let wash over them... In addition to the obsessive convolutions in Jeffrey Pfeiffer's script, the dialogue is written in an invented patois full of coinages and misuses that may or may not be intentional. Old words are pressed into new meanings... The production's real charm is in the playing, and here, it scores big. Director Heidi Handelsman has drawn from her cast a dozen boffo turns in a style that owes a lot to that art of the clown. This gang is having a lot of fun, and it's infectious.
-Trav SD
The Downtown Express
Jeffrey Pfeiffer's whimsical comedy mines a vein of smart-but-silly historical pageantry that suggests an American "Blackadder," but with fairies, talking animals, and other magical folderol thrown in for good measure. Telling the story of a hitherto-obscure Revolutionary War battle, the play benefits from Pfeiffer's knack for antiquarian doubletalk. The show is... a word-drunk exercise in genial absurdity.
-AJ Mell
Backstage
Lovers of satire, irony, and all-but-obsolete 18th-century writing styles rejoice, The Battle of Spanktown will be right up your alley!"
-Terra Vetter
Theatre Is Easy
