Review by Jen
Time Travel Postman is a joyful little clown show about human connection and embracing the unexpected. Telling the story of a postman (Sevrin Willinder) who needs the audience’s help to deliver his letters across time and space, the show is an original one-man production from new Brooklyn-based clown company Devon Loves ME! Productions, and plays at Gilded Balloon Patter House from August 5th-31st.
This show blew me away. Having decided to attend on a spontaneous whim with a group of friends, I had little to no idea what to expect, and sitting in the front row of a play that relies on audience participation, I may have even felt a little apprehensive. But from the moment the postman (Sevrin Willinder) knocks on the door of the venue, silently asking to be let in by a volunteer from the audience, I knew we were in for a treat. He is instantly charming, and as members of the audience become involved in the action across the course of the show, prompted by the postman to carry out various tasks with only grunts and gestures, he creates an atmosphere of camaraderie and collaborative play that it is impossible not to enjoy. Time Travel Postman is not plot-driven but play-driven, a beautifully spontaneous experience that reminds us to embrace the silliness within all of us and engage the child-like imagination we may have lost along the way.
Sevrin Willinder is nothing short of incredible. Across the course of the show, he bonds effortlessly with the audience and commands hilariously touching moments of connection, all without muttering a word. Responding instinctively to his audience with powerful improvisation skills and adaptability, Willinder is a natural performer and deft world-builder: with just pieces of paper, a small amount of props and his own physicality, he turns the black box stage into a cave, the surface of the moon and a cowboy’s saloon with dramatic dexterity. He and co-creator Melissa Ingle have created something truly wacky and wonderful, a feel-good show that blends moments of absurdity with underlying sincerity. I cannot recommend it enough.
Time Travel Postman is a masterclass in clowning, mime and the art of play. Sevrin Willinder and Melissa Ingle understand comedy to its core, and have created a show that achieves exactly what it sets out to do: bind a group of strangers together through joyful play-pretend.
Time Travel Postman plays at Gilded Balloon Patter House until August 31st. Find tickets and more information here. Read more about Devon Loves ME! Productions here.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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