LINDEN HOPS
Based on the lyrics of Van Morrison’s “Linden Arden Stole the Highlights,” Colin Mitchell’s one-man play of the same name may have a sketchy narrative, but a combination of genuine acting by the author and Christian Levatino’s knowing and unobtrusive direction make this 1-hour first-person account of a San-Francisco-drug-dealer-turned-Scotland-recluse a persuasive event. It’s Linden’s 50th birthday, so it’s time to slam back single malt whisky (miraculously without getting drunk) and reminisce. Mitchell does a superb job evoking the denizens of the Tenderloin and of the tiny provincial city in which he now lives. The storytelling is higgledy-piggledy, which caused me to check out a few times, but the events explaining Linden’s sudden departure from SF and the shady existence that eventually follows him to Scotland are vivid. Breaking the fourth wall as if the audience were in the living room of his Scottish Highlands home is a shaky premise at best—until a bottle of actual Glenlivet is passed among the patrons, steadying our shaky suspension of disbelief.
photo courtesy of the artist
cover art by Jordan Monsell
Linden Arden Stole the Highlights
part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival
Asylum Lab Theatre
6320 Santa Monica Blvd
scheduled to end on June 28, 2014
for tickets, visit Hollywood Fringe
