While You're At It...
 
...Or Shows In A Similar Vein

Enjoying your trip to another planet and time to visit
The Judas Cradle?

Try
VISION'S TALE: Curse of the Machine / Cycles of Social Haunting / Birth of Vision
Infinity Star Productions
CalibanCo Theatre

Here's another sci-fi tale that's grown and evolved over the last five years and now comes to the Fringe.

Peter Jensen, the creator of the piece and Artistic Director of Infinity Star Productions, is originally from Minneapolis, but Vision's Tale was born during his time out in Santa Cruz. He recently moved back to his home town and now his friends from California, members of the multicultural troupe Rainbow Theatre who helped mount the first production, are traveling to the Midwest to help him present this new, Fringe version of the tale. (A lot of miles on this one, and all to the good. Still new theater, but with a seasoned edge to it.)

The seeds of the piece came from "The Tragic Events of 6/66: A Science Fiction Tale of War, Boundaries, and Beliefs... a series of monologues and dialogues that looked at the events that were to take place on June 6, 2066 (6/66). The piece was in part a parody on the U.S. government's obsession with war and criminalizing the "Other," (Communists, Terrorists, and in the future history..., Subvervises.)"

It has grown into the story you see summarized on the Fringe site here. Peter provided a little more detail as follows...

"What I want to do with Vision's Tale is to peer into a possible apocapyptic future of agriculture in the U.S. in order to incite transformative action in the present... Vision's Tale is narrated by Vision, who is telling the story of his/her birth on Vision's 100th birthday... about the interwoven and interconnected strands of the Curse of the Machine, Cycles of Social Haunting, and Birth of Vision. Each of the main characters in the play (Saviorpuppet, the Kapital Machine, Kapitalist Krusader, Lazarus, Poetpriestess, and Dream) have a vested interest in the birth of Vision. Dream is a young Mayan woman who was captured and brought to work on a futuristic biodome plantation in California. At the opening of the play, she is nine months pregant with the child, Vision. As the story develops, each one of the characters is confronted by societal ghosts from their past. Each has do decide what to do when confronted by social haunting, including transforming relationships through truth and compassion. The context for the story shows the oppressive and liberating networks involved in the past, present, and future of the agricultural economy in the U.S. (United Global Empire)."

Kapital Machine is a funky-looking interactive soundtrack generator, live on stage, which I find intriguing. And I'm amused by any character with a name like Saviorpuppet.

This feels like the kind of thinking person's sci-fi romp - highly entertaining, but still tweaking your brain both during and after you've seen it - that the happy folks at our local Bedlam Theatre perfected in their delightfully low-tech, off-kilter adaptation of "Terminus." And since I returned to "Terminus" several times during its run to revel in its quirky sensibility of the limitless possibility of theater, I'm happy to line up at the potential for more of the same from a Fringe show.

You can learn more about Vision's Tale, Kaptial Machine and see some photos by going to www.mindsore.com and click on "Vision's Tale" in the menu at the bottom.

While You're At It - other shows that, if you like any of the other top ten/sure thing shows I mentioned, should also be of interest to you:

The Valets (for the Plants and Animals crowd)
Punk Rock Awesome (for the In Defense of Sin crowd)
Delaware, And Other Lies (for the Kevin Kling crowd)
Osama Kincaid, Painter of Terror (for the Death Penalty Puppetry crowd)
Pipes (for the Origin of Consciousness crowd)
Lokasenna (for the Metamorphoses crowd)
EAT! A Generous Buffet of Karen Carpenter's Songbook (for the Philosophy/Ben Folds crowd)
Tequila (for the Philosophy/Ben Folds crowd)

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