QuestFest Dazzles: Give Yourself a Visual Treat
By Robert McConnell

Originally published in the January 24, 2006 issue of The Buff and Blue

The Buff and Blue's Ratings: Into the Night -- 5 Stars, Blood Makes Noise -- 3.5 Stars

QuestFest 2006 barged into the cultural district of Baltimore, and gestured strongly, "I AM HERE!"

No, really. This gem of a collection features different visual- oriented performances, taking place in venues throughout Baltimore, including the Theatre Project, Towson University, and the Creative Alliance from January 9-22. Billed as "a celebration of visual theatre," QuestFest certainly lived up to its billing.

Both performances reviewed took place inside the intimate, cozy environs of the Theatre Project in Baltimore's cultural district. In this dual bill shared by Into the Night and Blood Makes Noise, one could see the common underlying theme linking these two distinct plays: love.

Into the Night, featuring two talented performers and artistic choreographers in Mollye Maxner and Kelly Parsley, tells the tortured, fitful lifelong love story between two individual souls... without any significant verbal communication. This show was startling in its starkness and such expressive nonverbal language. The visual
symbolism and clever use of music were so strong that any amount of words would never do this performance justice.

Blood Makes Noise, on the other hand, was a disappointment. I had heard of Asphyxia, a noted deaf actress and trapeze artist, prior to this showing, as she had traveled to the United States from her native Australia for this performance, along with her entourage, which included Daniel Gorski playing Sam to Asphyxia's Phoebe. Speaking from a culturally Deaf perspective, this play was beating a quite dead horse -- the conflicts in a Deaf/hearing relationship. I can see, though, how this would enrich a hearing person's perspective on Deaf individuals, in a linguistic and cultural context. Creative use of stage props and surrealistic acrobatic dancing by both performers redeemed this act, and I left the Theatre Project quite satisfied with what I had seen that night.

At the time of publication, QuestFest had completed its exhibition -- but one can always check www.questfest.org for additional information, including the dates and locations of the next QuestFest.