A Melancholy Stroll Through the Past Edgar Oliver’s Walk ‘In the Park,’ at Axis Theater

Edgar Oliver has yellowed teeth, hooded eyes and a sagging jaw. If it weren’t for his gentle smile, you might mistake him for that portrait of Dorian Gray. A writer and performer, Mr. Oliver will put you in mind of the macabre. He has a tendency to turn even the most banal event — like drinking a Shirley Temple — into something out of Edgar Allan Poe. In the Park, his new monologue at Axis Theater, has Mr. Oliver strolling through Prospect Park in Brooklyn. These meanderings often lead him back to the boy he was and to the young men he loved. Many of these recollections have a mournful tinge. Even as a child, Mr. Oliver says, “I realized that I loved sorrow, and that I loved melancholy, and that I loved life.”