Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Fringe 2009 - Top 10 - #9 - Bard Fiction

If you held a gun to my head and I could only see 10 Fringe shows, what would they be and why?

#9

Tedious Brief

Bard Fiction

Honor. Betrayal. Foot rubs. Shakespeare and Tarantino collide in this Elizabethan retelling of Pulp Fiction.

The story follows the seedy characters of Tarantino's opus, now part of London's underworld, in seemingly disparate plotlines that merge in unexpected ways.

An internet sensation when the idea first surfaced, it appeared on numerous blogs and news sites. It has captured the attention of writers from as far away as New Zealand who wanted to take part in the collaborative effort to bring this melding of high culture and pop culture to life. For a taste of what this show has to offer, please visit and peruse A Slurry Tale, the wiki that collects much of the worldwide effort.

The play has gone through several iterations and has now been edited and compiled into a single one-hour version by three of the members of Tedious Brief Productions; Aaron Greer, Ben Tallen, and Brian Watson-Jones. It is being directed by acclaimed director Carin Bratlie, and includes live musical accompaniment by folk band Lingua Luna.


I'd want to see this even if it was just someone trying to do a Corleone on Pulp Fiction (another film that, like The Godfather, is pretty complex at 2-1/2 hours,

much less trying to squeeze it into a Fringe slot under an hour long,

much less trying to do it in iambic pentameter)

Huzzah for a high degree of difficulty, people!

But let me run down just some of the reasons I know this is a slam dunk...

Noe and Ben Tallen, and Brian Watson-Jones (Fringe vets all) are producing.

Ben and Brian are also two of the writers

Carin Bratlie, who's helming this as well as Theatre Pro Rata's last minute entry in the Festival, Monster, is directing

[Blogger update - oops - it was pointed out to me by Carin that she's actually not directing, Monster, "just" producing. The director for Monster is Natalie Novacek. Apologies.]

Grant Henderson, who's collaborated with me on a number of plays, and was so great in last Fringe's Hue and Cry is one of the cast members

The other cast members include - Amber Bjork, Emma Gochberg, Katherine Kupiecki, Ben Layne, Jen Rand, Clarence Wethern - I could be up the rest of the night putting in links to various reviews of work I've seen by all these actors in the past that I've really liked a lot.

And that's just the cast members I know. There's more.

Based on the concept alone, it was already bound to be a lark. With all these people, and more, involved, it's bound to be damn good Fringe as well.

I'm really looking forward to it.

Their podcast on TC Theater Connection

The online project with a life of its own

Their website - www.bardfiction.com

Their show page

Their video trailer

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