There’s a lot of courage and talent in evidence at the Matrix, where Rachel Parker is performing her one-woman show, The Wolfe & the Bird, directed by Alina Phelan.
Any actor taking on a solo show is doing a brave thing -- you’re out there poised on a tightrope -- but to try and do it on a limited budget, in the face of a pandemic, is additionally gutsy.
Parker also confronts her dark, twisted childhood in equally courageous fashion, describing what it’s like to grow up in a severely dysfunctional family. Her parents were mismatched, spiteful and petty, and they took out their failings on her, often in cruel psychological and physical ways. It’s a testament to Parker that she managed to survive this horrendous upbringing with her humanity intact.
A love of theater helped keep her sane. She found a second home in the theatre program of her Michigan high-school and showed exceptional prowess as an actor, so much so that she was offered a partial scholarship by a New York theatre academy. It was again courageous of her to go off to Manhattan at eighteen and start a new life there on her own, with limited financial resources. Luckily, she found part-time work as model and managed to survive once more, all the while honing her acting craft. She then went on to act professionally in theatre, films and TV—and build the skills that enabled her to take on the challenge of writing and performing a one-person show.
The slim and trim Parker commands the stage effortlessly as she relates her personal story, aided by six unseen actors who voice the various characters in her life: her parents, friends, teachers and relatives. Stephen Epstein and Matt Richter’s sound and lighting designs enhance Parker’s monologue, which runs for ninety powerful minutes.
