Thursday, March 28, 2024 Mar 28, 2024
43° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
A

Theater Review: Trick Boxing at Out of the Loop Fringe Festival

The play repeats only once.
By Lindsey Wilson |
Image

The premise of Trick Boxing might sound familiar—unscrupulous manager transforms a naive immigrant into a boxing sensation—but Sossy Mechanics presents the tale in a way that is anything but expected.

Husband-and-wife team Megan McClellan and Brian Sostek have been tinkering with this piece for over a decade, contracting and expanding it at fringe festivals across the country. The nearly 90-minute version that played only two shows at Out of the Loop is a buoyant blend of dance, drama, humor, and puppetry, and a marvelously charming experience to boot (there are rumors the duo might be enticed back to DFW).

Sostek sheds and adopts five different personas in whiplash fashion. One second he’s Bill Buck, a smooth-talking boxing manager who spots a fleet-footed apple seller, and the next he’s Dancing Danny David, Buck’s newly created protege. Switching back and forth with remarkable clarity, Sostek inhabits these and the other personalities with ease.

McClellan mainly plays Bella, and her tough-cookie dancing girl is just the right mix of sass and vulnerability. While Danny learns about boxing at the gym, Bella teaches him about romance on the dance floor. These playful swing dancing routines allow the couple to float across the stage with an exuberant joy, a feeling that’s infectious to the audience. “Knockout” has more than one meaning here.

See it? Only if you’re a time traveler. But if Sossy Mechanics happens to stage an encore, you should absolutely dance your way on over.

Related Articles

Image
Travel

Is Fort Worth Really ‘The New Austin’?

The Times of London tells us it's now the coolest city in Texas.
Image
Dallas 500

Meet the Dallas 500: Chakri Gottemukkala, o9 Solutions

The o9 solutions leader talks about garnering a $3.7 billion valuation, growing 10x over the next few years, and how the company is innovating.
Image
Local News

An Early Look at 2026 FIFA World Cup Logistics

The World Cup matches will be held in Arlington, but Dallas will be home to a great deal of team and fan experiences. We're getting an early look at what that will look like.
Advertisement