My Two Cents: The Tale of the Coon, The Coochie & The Clown
★
1 Star
What started out as a show with some promise of intriguing characters and perhaps some showmanship of storytelling dynamic and performance dichotomy unfortunately fell flat at tonight’s performance of My Two Cents: The Tale of the Coon, The Coochie & The Clown.
It is crafted by multidisciplined Missouri-native creator/performer Erin Renee Roberts. The show was a wistfully broken letdown of artistic practice and preparedness. I found myself lost throughout the production without any sort of redemption by its conclusion.
What sadly stunned me the most was the show’s highly apparent lack of direction, plot, and substance. It seemed that Roberts was scattered whilst on stage, perhaps stretched too far and too thin between a miasma of colorful ideas and intriguing character perceptions. I could see there was a vital thespian seated before me. Alas, her engaging delivery was unmatched by a bewildering fumble of confusion, mundane transition, staging, and unequalized tech and sound design, The result was a perplexing mishmash with seemingly nonsensical dialogue.
The one thing I am thankful for, despite the patchwork of My Two Cents by E.R.R. Token: The Tale of the Coon, The Coochie & The Clown’s unmet satisfaction was Roberts’ connectedness to the audience. She tried to allow the production to be immersive, and I must applaud her for her attempt in creating an invigorated space of creative energy. Towards the end of the show, she invited the audience to breathe in and out with her in an act of clarity and meditation and she expressed her earnest gratitude for being able to share her story on stage with us.
I just wish that I could have enjoyed being a part of her experience as I ardently appreciate all forms of storytelling and live theatre mainly for that very connectedness that she tried so valiantly to inspire. Whatever Erin Renee Roberts’ next foray into performance becomes, I hope that she can succeed with her ideals and present something of prepared caliber and concise contentment and fulfillment to her next audience. All performers should be given the chance at reparation and I hope that this can be a call to all performers to continue persevering towards transformative artistic improvement and revision.
My Two Cents by E.R.R. Token: The Tale of the Coon, The Coochie & The Clown
Starring: Erin Renee Roberts
Performed on: October 31, 2026
October 19 - November 22, 2026
Reviewer: Grayson Sebert
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