Fringe - In Summation

Here's a little cheat sheet so if you're interested you can hop around and see what I wrote about you all - saw 48 performances, 41 shows if you pull out the repeats. I could review all but three on the Fringe pages - those being my own, Dandelion Snow and Fast Fringe 1 and 2. I held off talking about them myself until most of the votes were in and the festival shut down. More on them in a bit. In the meantime, here's all the rest of it.

A number of people and I have had this conversation and we all sort of came to the same conclusion - there wasn't one show for any of us that really knocked us on our ass this year. But on the plus side, there were so many more good shows, and much fewer duds (I only saw one I regretted). And many of the great shows were local this year, whereas last year the truly amazing shows were all imports. So it all bodes well for both the Fringe and the Minneapolis theatre scene in general, I guess.

5 star shows
For me, this means I love them unreservedly and there's little or no room for improvement - click on the title for their Fringe page to see other people's opinions (my mini review should be in there somewhere, too), click on the link next to the title to hear more from me on this show's pros and cons

Death Penalty Puppetry (full review)
Jack & Ben's 10th Annual Bar Crawl and Moveable Feast (full review)
Knock! (full review)
The Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen (full review)
Look Ma, No Pants: The Last One (full review)
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (full review)
Philosophy: The Music of Ben Folds (full review plus thoughts on my return trip later in the Fringe)
Pipes (full review)
Plants and Animals (full review plus thoughts on my return trip on the last day of the Fringe.)
Punk Rock Awesome (full review)

4-1/2 star shows
Love and highly recommend them, but maybe there was one little thing which could have made it even better - click on the title for their Fringe page to see other people's opinions (my mini review should be in there somewhere, too), click on the link next to the title to hear more from me on this show's pros and cons

Before Dark (full review)
Dandelion Snow (more on Dandelion Snow later)
Metamorphoses (full review)
Osama Kincaid: Painter of Terrorism (full review)
Patrick and James: A Love Story (full review plus thoughts on my return trip on the last night of the Fringe.)
The Swimmer (full review)
This Love Train Is Unstoppable And I Am The Conductor (full review)
Whiskey Bars (full review)

4 star shows
Love and recommend them. Wanted to love them more, and more than one little thing would probably be required to do it - click on the title for their Fringe page to see other people's opinions (my mini review should be in there somewhere, too), click on the link next to the title to hear more from me on this show's pros and cons

10,000 Comic Books (full review)
Fast Fringe 1: The Agony (more on Fast Fringe later)
Fast Fringe 2: The Ecstasy (more on Fast Fringe later)
Feeling Faust (full review)
From The Diary of Virginia Woolf (full review)
Goats (full review)
Improv A Go-Go: Deathmatch (full review)
In Defense of Sin (My Friends' Best Stories) (full review)
John and Jen: Part One (full review)
Murderers (full review)
Women! Live On Stage! (full review)

3-1/2 star shows
Rough around the edges but still above average and well worth your time - click on the title for their Fringe page to see other people's opinions (my mini review should be in there somewhere, too), click on the link next to the title to hear more from me on this show's pros and cons

The 7 Project (full review)
Agog (full review)
Dix (full review)
The Judas Cradle (full review)
Lokasenna (full review)
Mary Kelley Sunshine Box (full review)
Six Steps Part Deux (full review)
U Betcha! eX-posed! (full review)
The Valets (full review)

When I compiled this sort of list halfway through the Fringe, I set up a section for 3 star shows, saying that they were sort of like pizza or sex, even if a Fringe show isn't the best in the world, it's still better than no Fringe show at all.

But I didn't have any shows that fell into that category - either halfway through the Fringe, or even now. Pleasant surprise that.

However, there was one dud on my travels. I didn't bother to give it a mini-review or any stars on its Fringe page because I didn't want to drag them down (not that I really could, so many people were gushing about the thing - as you can see by clicking on the title and visiting their Fringe page). The link next to the title is my list of the show's...well, cons, basically.

Everything and Nothing All At The Same Time (full review)

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