Victoria Montalbano explores aging, escapism through a Whovian lens in Timey Wimey Stuff at KC Fringe
Photo Courtesy of Sarah Elizabeth Larson
When Victoria Montalbano steps onstage at the Kansas City Fringe Festival in July, you’ll find that her performance isn’t just another show: it’s bigger on the inside.
Timey Wimey Stuff: The Mid Life Crisis of a Time Traveling Space Archaeologist, is a time-traveling exploration of aging, identity, and the disorientation of pandemic-era life. Montalbano will provide plenty of hijinks, too.
“If you picture your most insufferable theater kid from high school, that was me,” Montalbano says. “You’re gonna see a 41-year-old lady shooting Daleks.”
Premiering the Doctor Who-themed venture at KC Fringe, the show follows the Chicago-based performer as she wrestles with midlife, creative identity, and a pandemic-era crisis, all through the lens of a time-traveling alien.
“They don’t live (life) by hitting certain milestones at a certain age, because they’re flying off, traveling around time, and being in different bodies,” Montalbano says. “I thought that was a really interesting lens to kind of put on this topic of aging.”
In her first run at KC Fringe in 2023, Montalbano performed the critically acclaimed The Princess Strikes Back: One Woman’s Search for the Space Cowboy of her Dreams. The Star Wars-themed show explored how her crush on Han Solo impacted her dating life.
“I didn’t sit down and watch Star Wars in full, the original trilogy, until I was 13 years old,” Montalbano says. “So I met Han Solo when I was very hormonal.”
In 2023, audiences were introduced to her heartfelt and vulnerable storytelling rooted in nerdiness and delivered with comedic timing that Montalbano spent years honing across Chicago’s storefront theater and improv circuits.
Photo Courtesy of Sarah Elizabeth Larson
Her new entry in the world of Doctor Who found its roots during the pandemic. While living in the Windy City as a grocery deliverer alongside her acting roles, Montalbano suddenly became an essential worker taking groceries to people in need. She found herself overwhelmed and in need of an escape.
“It was this kind of easy job that became very stressful, and the way I dealt with it was to disassociate in nerd properties,” Montalbano says. “It used to be the thing that I sort of would decompress with at the end of the day like a sitcom, and during that time, that didn’t work for me. I had to actually leave the planet while I was disassociating.”
Montalbano wouldn’t describe herself as the typical nerd, aside from the typical hyper fixations. She only started Doctor Who, particularly starting with the 9th Doctor in the reboot series, but it immediately became a medium to explore her life.
Montalbano builds her shows through the storytelling circuit, crafting live pieces that grow into a full-length narrative. Her storytelling style is like stand-up comedy, but instead of punchlines, her stories have arcs, emotion, and sometimes a fandom twist.
“I just decided that, you know, I’m an actor, and I wanted to create my own work, and hadn’t really successfully done that before,” Montalbano says. “I figured I could use storytelling to kind of take these shorter seven-to-10-minute stories, all on a theme, and kind of create a full-length show.”
While her last show revolved around love, this one centers on identity, and what it means to grow older in a world clouded with youth and milestones. Montalbano assures that you do not need to be a Doctor Who fan to have a good time. Timey Wimey Stuff offers just an honest and nerdy look at the moments that make us feel out of time.
Montalbano has five shows throughout KC Fringe, starting July 18. Tickets for adults are $15, and child tickets are $8.
