RESERVOIR DOLLS: The Whole Bloody Affair
Reviewed by Amalisha HuEck
The women of Quentin Tarantino in a one-woman sketch show are back to The Fringe Festival this year again; with brand new characters, multimedia elements, and even more audience surprises. Bigger and Badder than ever!
Inspired by Hollywood’s Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 movie, ‘Reservoir Dolls’, Lani Harms, actress, writer and comedian originally from Minneapolis, but based in Los Angeles now. In this one woman show, she explores the complex world of the women in the male-dominated world, and creates an all-female stage performance, as a comedic solo show. By analyzing and digging into the characters as she would like to play them, she found herself among many pretty blond ladies, barefooted in a bar – like Atlanta Springfield; a call girl in a mean, tenth and final Tarantino movie, but definitely not a hooker; and she is having the crises, because one needs to have a gun in this place and be tough, start cursing and eventually be running for her life. She explores several of the women who came before her successfully, by changing the outfits and the wigs to create the hairdo and recreate the characters. As an actor, writer and comedian Lani is in the moment and fully embraces all the characters with powerful voice and body movements. In the little Studio space of the Broadwater theatre the foul language and the loud voice of the characters is penetrating deeply into everyone. One can see that she enjoys the characters she created.
Premiering at the 2026 Hollywood Fringe Festival, this solo performance is brilliantly directed by Laurie Magers, a Filipino American director, writer and actor based in Los Angeles. Her approach to the show is to empower Lani in discovering these women and exploring what it takes to survive as a woman in a man’s world. Mission accomplished. Bravo!
Audio Engineering and stage assistance is done by Nick Milanes. Videos projected on the screen behind the characters are filmed by Mario Nieves Acededo and edited by Alex Harms. Teck engineer is Claire German, and operator is Rebecca Schoenberg. Lani’s stand-in is Minori Oshiro Harms. Publicity is done by Anita Lee.
‘Reservoir Dolls’ is set for 3 performances only beginning on June 9th at the Broadwater Black Box, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038. Give yourself a time, there is a street parking and sometimes it’s a challenge to find parking. The performances are running on Tuesday, June 9 @ 8 pm; Sunday, June 14 @ 2 pm; and Saturday June 27 @ 11:55 pm. The show is about an 1 hour. Age recommended 18+. Tickets are $15.
Tickets can be purchased at: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/12042?tab=tickets