Fringe 2019 - Top 20 - #20 - Carbon Man-Dating: A Climate Themed Gay Romantic Comedy - Lee Samuleson (aka, Community Power MN) - Augsburg Studio

Description: Climate activist groups form an online dating program to help their LGBTQ organizers build up a love life, piecing the profound intersectionality between both social movements into a quilt of nonstop laughs.

This show just had a combination of odd cross currents of the personal and political running through it that grabbed me.  They’re local.  And they’re trying something new.  One challenge is that it’s a series of five shows on the overall topic (trying to “cross the streams,” if you will, of the artist’s dating and climate activist lives).  They can be enjoyed individually, no matter which performance you see, but hopefully they also add up to a greater whole as a group.  The More Information tab on their show page lays out which topics he’ll be focusing on which night.  Might be worth a return trip, who knows?  It’s all a little corny in a way that doesn’t turn me off, so I figure it’s worth a try.

Side note: I’m probably going to be seeing more queer content than usual this Fringe.  Not because Mom wouldn’t see it with me, she was always up for any show - and got an eyeful sometimes.  The general political and cultural climate (no pun intended) has me down lately.  The Fringe has more queer content than I get a chance to see in theaters the rest of the year, so I try to stock up while I can.  Right now, seeing queer stuff feels necessary and a bit more transgressive than it probably should.  I want seeing queer theater to feel more normal and everyday again.  So I’m going to keep pretending it is, until it is.  But it doesn’t happen if you don’t go see it. 

First show - Thursday, August 1, 2019, 8:30pm, Augsburg Studio



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)