Long Fringe Review: Akimbo Bubble Scuttle Ruckus

Connect the dots: zombies in rehab, a woman with 47 dates, a Yank who hankers to be a Brit

The latest project that improv group Da Foundry has forged is exactly what it sounds like: a nonsensical, irrelevant hullabaloo. In Akimbo Bubble Scuttle Ruckus, playwright Topping Haggerty strings together a mess of short sketches that, as we learn in the end, are all strangely linked.

But you'll have to see the show to learn how Haggerty and her co-directors Susannah Raulino and Brandon Paul Salinas connect zombies in rehab, an equivocating evil villain, a woman out to dinner with 47 dates, and an American who aspires to become a Brit, among other oddball characters. Though the spirited ensemble had energy to spare, some of the sketches fell flat, perhaps a consequence of a small Sunday evening house. Still, after the performance I found myself standing in mental akimbo &ndash that is, with hands on hips &ndash trying to make heads or tails of the fairly uninspiring ruckus I'd just seen. That's not to say that Akimbo Bubble didn’t have its moments &ndash there were glimmers of hilarity, particularly a sketch in which a horde of aggressive puppets murder their human handlers. I think perhaps, as David Rosenbaum crooned in the final scene, I just wasn’t drunk enough to get it. Saturday, Feb. 4, 1pm; Sunday, Feb 5, 3pm, Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd. Running time: 1 hr. For more information, visit www.hydeparktheatre.org.