Fringe 2025 - Day 3 in Brief - Touring, Mind Reading, Composing, Lighthouse Keeping, FanFictioning, Cutting, and Reincarnating

Still trying to figure out the best way to navigate social media platforms that are increasingly full of garbage.  No longer using the site formerly known as Twitter, giving BlueSky a try (a lot fewer Nazis).  So that’s where the posts on the fly during the festival will be posted (https://bsky.app/profile/matthewaeverett.bsky.social), and then I’ll gather them here at the end of each day for the snapshot of my daily festival travels from show to show, with longer reviews to follow.

MN Fringe show #9: Jon Bennett: American’t - everything I want to talk about would also kind of be a spoiler so I’ll just say this solo show is perfectly crafted, full of surprises, and extremely funny, even better than his last one (more later, when I’ve figured out how not to spoil it) 5 stars 

MN Fringe show # 10: Mind Reader - somehow I managed to not get selected as a volunteer; wild feats of memory and stuff that shouldn’t be able to happen; had Steven Nicholas read my mind, all he probably would have gotten was “wow, he has really nice arms” 5 stars (for the show as well as the arms)

MN Fringe show #11: Songs Without Words - Holy sh*t, that was amazing! Brilliant script,effortless performance, and music friends said she nailed all those details and it made them want to run home and listen to more music by *both* the Mendelssohns; 5 stars 

MN Fringe show #12: The Wickie - just delightfully goofy, well-executed clowning from beginning to end as a beleaguered lighthouse keeper battles the ocean that stole his left shoe; great crowd engagement and world building, so inventive and funny; 5 stars 

MN Fringe show (lucky)#13: J and R - The Drama Experience remixes Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers as young queer fanfic so it’s kind of messy and melodramatic but very well-intentioned :) - 3 stars 

MN Fringe show #14: Philip Simondet’s Fall of the High School Valedictorian - definitely the rawest thing I’ve seen; still a bit stunned; music great, though intense; warning about graphic depictions of self-harm is no joke, though there is also actual humor; great show but steel yourself - 5 stars

MN Fringe show #15: Apsara, the Musical - slightly confusing show set mostly in 12th century kingdom of Khmer but constructed and sounding like a 21st century Disney musical, which didn't seem to serve the story, the subject or the culture it was trying to convey; cast doing their best; 3 stars

 

 

 

 

Here’s some handy links to coverage of 5 Star and 4.5 Star Shows I've Seen (VERY Highly Recommend), 4 Star and 3.5 Star Shows I've Seen (Highly Recommended), Other Shows I've Seen (3 Stars or Less), as well as my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, and all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.  

 

As I’m sure many artists are, I find myself struggling with the idea of just “taking time off” (what a luxury) and submerging myself in a whole lot of theater for 11 days while the world is on fire so… I’m going to put some phrases and links down here (and at the end of each post going forward) and if you find yourself compelled to explore one or more of them, so much the better.  There’s a lot going on, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed and tune out, but as Congresswoman Sarah McBride recently said, “If everybody shows a little courage, nobody needs to be a hero.”  I freely admit this list and these links are hardly exhaustive.  It's just something to get started.  Do what you can, where you can, however you can.  Let’s help one another get through this.

Contacting your elected officials about the issues that matter to you (and protesting as necessary)
Starvation in the Gaza Strip
Immigration raids around the United States
Ukraine fighting off invasion by Russia
Trans rights
Climate change action
Housing shortage and the unhoused
Reproductive Rights
Voting rights, and running for office
The courts, from the Supreme Court on down to the local level
Don’t forget to laugh - even gallows humor is still humor