An obsessive comedy about a woman who searches for true love,
settles for hot sex and stumbles into self-confidence.

Reviews

Orlando Eats Children With Wine

Strolling out of Dell'Arte's Studio Theater the other night, I felt filled up (no topping off, please) with joy and inspiration, carried along by a giddy cloud from theatre to my car, parked in that funky dirt lot behind the theater. The wobble equilibrium was induced by Lynn Horrigan's performance piece "Up in the Air" along with Alyssa Ravenwood's "Orlando Eats Children With Wine."

…I especially admired the writing and performance by Alyssa Ravenwood of her "Orlando Eats Children With Wine." It was mainly about sex for an audience of mainly "mature" people. Full of surprises, this cleverly and very tightly written coming-of-sexual-age comedy was a kind of farcical, improv-like operetta without the high-falutin' music part, if you get my drift. (There was a bit of music, a wonderfully smoky, blues number, "Down by Choice," which revealed Ravenwood's very terrific voice.) Add her exceptional physical comic skills, a breathless sense of timing, knock-down comic imagination - the paint roller sketch - and a willingness to take chances without pulling any punches, and you have a talent that is larger than big. She could act for the camera as well as in theater.

I was reminded of those chimeric early shows of Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin and Whoopie Goldberg. Outrageously funny, true - and touching. I think that's where "Orlando Eats Children With Wine is headed.

--Barry Blake, North Coast Journal Oct. 2000