Orlando Fringe 2024 review: 'Death of a Dandelion'

Playwright/performer JJ Ivey spent 2020 stuck in western Tennessee with their grandmother, “Mama Judy,” tending to her treasured flower garden and listening to her life stories. They then channeled those memories into "Death of a Dandelion," a cozy hug of a solo show in which Ivey steps into Mama Judy’s drab dresses to share her affirming outlook with Orlando audiences.

Each of Ivey’s biographical monologues illustrates a different aspect of Mama June’s experiences, framed by fun facts about her favorite flowers. The middle daughter of a dozen children, with siblings who died in house fires or were run over by a car, Judy grew up sharecropping on a racially diverse farm, then raised her own big brood (both born to her and fosters) in a triple-wide trailer built from duct tape and prayer, before eventually leaving her two-timing husband.

Mama Judy can be petty or mean, and she may be a devout Pentecostal who believes in the power of prayer (and talking in tongues), but don’t prejudge her as judgmental; she might not understand her grandchild’s “pronoun thing,” but she does deeply repent rejecting her daughter when she first came out. Kaitlyn Chase’s unobtrusive direction could stand slightly more stage movement and tighter transitions, but those are minor issues that don’t spoil the play’s wholesome warmth.

Although Mama Judy claims she was “raised to survive, not be loved,” the existence of Ivey’s gentle tribute is proof otherwise. Don’t let the depressing title dissuade you; amid a festival filled with stories about toxic relations, it’s refreshing to see one about family ties that bind without burning.

Orlando Fringe: Times and tickets for "Death of a Dandelion"
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