Savannah Reich on Rose Luardo

Oh, Rose:

I was excited when I got an email from one of our cohort artists saying that they had gotten sick and were unable to make it to your show. I had just seen it the night before, and I immediately texted my co-editor Jack asking if they thought it was okay if I wrote the postcard instead. We don’t want to set a precedent, but in this case, I had happened to see your show, and it was the end of Fringe, and I really, really wanted to. (This kind of sloppy ethics is why we aren’t real theater reviewers).

I have now been seeing your work since 2022. I love it so much, and even as someone devoted to thinking and talking and writing about theater, I can’t totally explain in words why your shows make me feel so happy to exist in Philadelphia right here right now, and to be able to walk into the Trestle Inn and be given the gift of this exuberant nonsense. 

Maybe because: there is a kind of Pee Wee Herman / John Waters quality to the Rose Luardo experience, a manic, deviant and muppety energy that is pure id. Your work makes me feel like we are all a bunch of bad kids in our  makeshift clubhouse, telling dirty jokes and learning secret handshakes. I don’t know how you create such a sense of community in your audiences, but every time I’ve seen one of your shows it takes me back to being nineteen years old and walking into a midwestern punk show in someone’s garage. Your shows have the energy of a party where everyone knows each other and the whole thing could get us arrested. 

Maybe because: I love how you always seem to find another hilarious hot freak and make a show with them that is just the two of you goofing around and being hilarious hot freaks together. I loved your energy with Alicia McDaid, partially because at times it got truthful and grounded, which I hadn’t seen in your work before. You and Sacha Vega are another incredible combo: it seems like this collab turns up the party energy. You were mostly just wearing weird costumes and doing karaoke, which doesn’t sound like much when I write it down, but it was genuinely one of my favorite things at Fringe and one of my favorite visits to the Rose Luardo Planet.

I went to your show on the hot and rainy last night of Fringe with Connor, who I made a show with two years ago, and ran into Hannah, who I made a show with this year. Sitting with Hannah and Connor on either side of me and crowd surfing Sacha over our heads was the perfect end to my September. Thank you for being the President of Philadelphia. I love you, I love us, good work everyone. 

xoxo Savannah

Savannah Reich is the writer of The Groundhog and one of the co-editors of Philly Fringe Postcards.

Rose Luardo is one of two creator / performers of Girls Gotta Eat at the Trestle Inn.