Fringe 2004 Early Buzz - Sure Things (2 of 3)

See the previous post for my rationale of creating this Top 3 above the Top 10 list of shows which I'm most looking forward to seeing.

Sure Thing #2

In Defense of Sin (My Friends' Best Stories)
from the Ministry of Cultural Warfare
at Intermedia Arts

One of the many things I like about the Ministry of Cultural Warfare (and there are a great many) is that they're always trying something new and intriguing.

Always it's funny. Quite often, it's just plain great.

My first exposure to MoCW was Fringe 2001's "Into the Acid Fountain" - a bizarro-world Fellini-esque variety hour. Fringe 2002 found the standard of the one-set front porch play turned inside out to present us with "Slaughterhouse Warming." Fringe 2003 brought the "pharmaceutical grade kitsch" of "Industrials." And now the multimedia staging of real-life stories of Matthew Foster's non-theater friends - weird, funny, horrifying and stupid, sometimes all four at once. Potential tales range from having parasites removed with only a bottle of rum handy for anesthetic all the way to finding oneself at a birthday party for the self-appointed queen of the Denver Ku Klux Klan. All the stories are real - and deeply funny. As the folks associated with MoCW say, "It's like reality TV. Except it's live on stage. And also doesn't bite."

For more about the show and the Ministry of Cultural Warfare in general, visit them at
www.mocw.org

(For more of my writing - plays, past blog entries and more - visit www.matthewaeverett.com)