Rumors of Shadows – Reviews

By Bob Evans

Those who like vampire stories will be attracted to Rumors of Shadows, not only because of the vampire story within the performance, but some fun special effects, lighting tricks, daft “horror story dialogue,” various out of the ordinary characters, and mime.

Rumors of Shadows serves as a backdrop to a company of performers who create a story to show off their mime skills without spending a full hour doing a speechless performance.  This production takes a simplistic background story, adds some fun characters, some scenes from other venues around the fictitious town infested with vampires, some standard mime pieces, audience interaction, and presto, a fun and engaging show unfolds on the unsuspecting audience.

Those who may have seen the teaser saw the opening of the show with a red lit pair of hands demonstrating how bats fly, move, and nourish themselves.  Most are just common bats and feed mostly on fruits, insects, and what avails itself at night time—all except one—the Vampire Bat.  The Vampire bat feeds on blood—only blood.  Even though only as large as a normal person’s thumb, the Vampire Bat pierces skin to suck warm blood from its victims.

From the informative demonstration of bats, the story then evolves and becomes a quick delight to the audience.  The production company travels to the Kansas City Fringe company from Minnesota, so local familiarity with them and their types of entertainment are one of the serendipities of attending the Fringe Festival and getting your Fringe on.