Saturday, July 27, 2024

Fringe 2024 Top 20 - #18 - Love Lies a Bleeding - Vee Signorelli and Logan Signorelli Verdoorn


Love Lies a Bleeding
Vee Signorelli and Logan Signorelli Verdoorn

This raunchy, heartfelt Jacobean-era tragicomedy is rife with unresolved sexual tension, secret love, crossdressing, erotic stabbings, civil unrest, and an overly-involved narrator.

Venue: Strike Theater
Tagged For: Comedy, Drama
Content Warnings: Crude Humor, Blood, Violence, Suicidal Ideation/Self-Harm, Sexual Content, Gun/Weapon Usage
Ages 16 and up

Speaking of horny previews

The preview for this show had one of the funnier, inappropriate and goofy sexualized  presentations of CPR that I’ve seen in a while (if that’s a thing that gets you to buy a ticket).

(And no, this is not a staging of the equally horny recent lesbian movie Love Lies Bleeding)

The thing that originally caught my eye was the name Logan Signorelli Verdoorn (I’ve seen and reviewed Logan Verdoorn, pre-Signorelli, in several shows so I’m curious to see his work as a director.)

The full title of the Jacobean tragicomedy being adapted is “Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding” - Philaster being one half of the central couple of the play.

I’ve got a soft spot for Jacobean plays - they’re frequently freaky as hell and dark in a way I don’t find off-putting, with dialogue so out there you wonder how someone dreamed it up (I’m a big fan of Middleton & Rowley’s ‘The Changeling’ - “A woman dipped in blood, and talk of modesty.”)

There’s misunderstandings (betrayals that aren’t really betrayals, etc.) and, just as in the previews, over-the-top melodramatic gestures like stabbing oneself not out of anger but somehow instead out of overwhelming love.

The preview promises that they’re punching up the camp and the comedy, and the queerness, of the play in this adaptation, so it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Another good reason to get over the Strike Theater for some shows.

 

Here's some handy links to this year's Top 10 list and Top 11-20 list, also a full list of all returning favorites to this year's Fringe, plus a link to all the 2024 Minnesota Fringe Festival coverage.

While I have your attention, please VOTE :) 

Minnesota is currently in the early voting period for our Congressional and local primaries (I had the U.S. Senate, Congress, and the Minneapolis school board on my ballot) - final day to vote in the primary is Tuesday, August 13th, but you don't have to wait until Fringe is over, go vote right now :)

Early voting for the Presidential Election itself in Minnesota starts on Friday, September 20th. We're lucky to have a lot of time to get our voices heard, so cast your vote, and then make sure everyone you know and love is registered and gets to the polls to vote. Election Day, your final date to vote, is Tuesday, November 5th.

As a queer playwright and theater maker, I want a government that's compassionate and competent enough to keep us all safe and healthy, keep theaters open and running, and personally, I'd just like to be legal myself and keep the weirdos out of government and out of my personal business (and the things I post on this blog, for instance). We all have our reasons, so let's make sure we get the leaders we need and deserve, and get our friends, family and co-workers to raise their voices, too.

Find where to vote and what's on your ballot (with links to candidate websites) and other resources at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.

For other resources on how to register, volunteer or donate, locally or nationally, check out Vote Save America.

Vote.  Raise your voice. We're not going back.

  

 

 

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