Review: Dead Doves and Lemons,  Etcetera Theatre

This one-woman show, Dead Doves and Lemons, promises to decode the tight-knit, jargon-heavy, fantasy-fuelled world of fan fiction. It does not disappoint. It’s a celebration of creativity that covers everything in fan fiction from the citrus scale – you will discover this review is an orange (i.e., PG), not a lemon (i.e., 18+) – to the all-important and tricky issue of choosing which server you should pledge your allegiance and love to. Does this sound a trifle specific? Well, it is. Is it a bit dull? No, it’s not. Deanna Strasse is bubbling over with enthusiasm for her subject, and on the evening I saw the show, she was met by a hugely enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience. She creates a very warm, inclusive and fun atmosphere to explore the topic.

The show itself is structured as a lecture and writing class for people who may be living in close contact with a fan fiction writer. Strasse takes on various characters, including a disapproving sister, the famously litigious fantasy author Anne Rice as a glove puppet, along with several fans who explain how they got into the genre and how it makes them feel. This is well handled for the most part. There is minimal lighting and music, but her confident and likeable stage presence carries the performance well.

To explain how it all works, she encourages audience members to fill in a worksheet to set them on their first creative foray into fan fiction. There is just the right amount of audience interaction, although, as I was seemingly the only non-fan fiction devotee in the audience and the interactions were pretty specialist, they sometimes felt a bit exclusive. For instance, it took me a while to work out that two random names suggested with much hilarity by the audience to illustrate a point – Jacob and Edward – were references to the popular vampire book and film series Twilight; basic knowledge to fan fiction writers, I’m sure, but less so to the uninitiated. 

Deanna also unpacks some of the trickier aspects of the genre, such as whether you can still love and write about characters from authors who may have been cancelled. Is writing fan fiction an infringement of copyright? And she also glances at some of the darker corners of the fan fiction universe, but passes it off with the fan fiction motto “Don’t yuck someone’s yum”. Readers are not there to condemn other people’s often strange (and possibly sometimes criminal) peccadilloes. If you don’t like something you find, don’t condemn it, just close the tab and find something else to read.  

Overall, this is an enjoyable and amusing show. It feels a little rough around the edges still, but it is a very promising work in progress.  I would say that some general knowledge of Tolkien, Marvel, Harry Potter, and other fantasy favourites is a must for attendees.

I will end with a disclaimer – my daughter is a fan fiction writer, a pastime I have watched from the sidelines with some bemusement – so this performance was tailor-made for me. I have always admired her unique brand of creativity, and watching a production which celebrates this made me really happy. If you go to this show with an open mind, you will definitely find something to enjoy.

Written and performed by Deanna Strasse
Produced by Joy & Joy Productions

Dead Doves and Lemons has completed its run at the Etcetera Theatre