Rogue Reviews 2026: “The Review” & “My Dead Uncle’s Porn Collection”
By Heather Parish
Today is the final day of the 25th annual Rogue Performance Festival in Fresno’s Tower District. Shows run hourly from 12:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $7-$15 per show with the one-time purchase of a $6 Rogue wristband. Go to fresnoroguefestival.org to see today’s schedule and locations.
“The Review” by Martin Dockery
Venue: Dianna’s School of Dance
Edited with Google AI Concrete Drops – The Review
“The Review” is about a performance review. It is also about getting reviewed, being reviewed, reviewing the past, reviewing options, and reviewing one’s life choices. I, a reviewer, am tasked with reviewing “The Review.”
This is no small feat, as there is a lot packed into this 50-minute two-hander intelligently written by Martin Dockery and deftly directed by Vanessa Quesnelle. Dockery stars as the older lawyer called in by his younger supervisor (Andrew Broaddus) for a performance review. Right off the bat the collegial banter has an undercurrent of menace to it as the two jockey for dominance in the room. What flows from there is a tightly wound knot of insecurity, petty competition, and power reversals demonstrating the ways personal grievance and toxic masculinity can infiltrate even the most innocuous of “bullshit jobs” (to reference David Graeber).
Dockery performs the role precisely and with a manic energy that can stop on a dime, turning into a quiet threat. His character feels his power when he has it and is blindsided by reversals when they come. But he always rallies. Turn-table questions like “Have you ever been reviewed?” and “What if your relationships were reviewed?” act as a lever to shift the tension in a scene while also posing them to the audience.
Broaddus keeps up with Dockery’s pace stride for stride and give his role a smug insecurity, an over-eagerness that makes him vulnerable to his “opponent’s” mastery of verbal twists. He develops his character’s ups and downs more subtly than Dockery, but the contrast is effective.
Layered throughout this display of office gladiatorial politics are also questions about age discrimination, AI and digital surveillance, personal accountability, and the trickiness of legacy in the world of fathers and sons. There’s a lot to unravel there. Quesnelle’s sharp direction keeps every beat clean, every word clear, and shapes a fascinating piece full of ideas and spectacular wordplay.
There is one more performance of “The Review” today at 3:30 p.m. at Dianna’s School of Dance in the Tower District.
“My Dead Uncle’s Porn Collection” by Barbara Brady
Venue: ViSTA Theater at Fresno Music Academy
Barbara Brady – My Dead Uncle’s Porn Collection
Barbara Brady has the kind of appealing stage presence that can make a show about darker subjects a pleasure to watch. “My Dead Uncle’s Porn Collection” is a case in point.
Simply staged with just two chairs, Brady takes us into the world of her grandparent’s home that feels fully visualized. From her grandmother baking (and smoking) in the kitchen to the position of the bedrooms where such formative events occur, Barbara builds the world of her story with pristine clarity.
The porn collection in question is not actually the central event of this autobiographical piece wrestling with abuse, trauma, and family secrets, but it does turn out to be an important key to unlocking the past.
Brady’s writing in this solo show is absolutely impeccable. I mean, truly well written both as a staged piece and as a text. She drops hints, tiny breadcrumbs that turn into red flags as we follow each beat of her story. Brady never waves those flags like a bullfighter but rather lets them sit, stirring gently in a breeze, and lets the audience pick up on them as things develop. Her writing and her delivery never once condescend to the audience but invite them along for the ride.
In terms of the staging, Brady uses the many pantomime gestures and careful indication of different speakers that are common among performers developed at San Francisco’s The Marsh at StageWerx. While some of these gestures can help clarify an important moment, they are too often used for every item in every scene, which slows down the pacing, flattening its dips and crescendos. The audience understands where a performer is going much more quickly than they are given credit. In Brady’s case, these gestures aren’t needed much of the time. Her exceptional writing, simple staging, and able delivery are more than capable of leading the audience to where they need to go.
One particular aspect of the performance that I loved and feel can be highlighted to advantage is the comedic interludes that Brady offers, underscored by cheeky music, on a specific detail of her story, such as the feminine undergarments of the time and her endorsement of the San Mateo County Environmental Safety Department. Brady’s script is already very sharply funny in the right moments to balance out the serious subject matter, but these sections really sing about finding the humor in the darkest stories of our lives.
All in all, “My Dead Uncle’s Porn Collection” is a highly recommended show for those who enjoy complex personal storytelling with a humorous bite. There is one more show tonight at 8 p.m. at the ViSTA theater at Fresno Music Academy.
