An Odd Little Play - Not That There's Anything Wrong With That
"If you don't mind, I'd like to cremate Ted myself."
Bakery Theatre Company
Thin Mint
What an odd little play (and I mean that as a compliment).
I thought I was gay. Then I saw Thin Mint. And now I'm starting to doubt my credentials. This play is so gay, it makes me feel almost straight by comparison.
The latest outing (no pun intended) from the guys at Bakery Theatre Company landed on my Top 10 list this year because I expected something bizarre and way over the top. I got what I expected, they just bumped that up by a multiple of ten.
Their Fringe-For-All preview promised audiences an abusive scout leader (Todd Bruse) berating the young men in his charge. His humiliation tactics were aimed at questioning not just their "manhood" but their very humanity. The full production, and Bruse, delivered a character so completely unhinged that as an audience member I almost felt like I had to step in and put a stop to it.
After an underground pinewood derby unseats the long-time champion Ted (Eric Weiman), Ted's hideously mutilated body is found in the men's room (sure, it's a suicide, sure it is). His fellow scouts hike out to scatter his ashes and of course things go horribly, horribly wrong. The scoutmaster's son Sterling (co-author/co-director Dylan Frederick), a flamboyant wimp with a fake British accent, keeps setting all the boys against one another (like father, like son), though he desperately just wants to belong. Good Strong (Nathan Barlow) is fighting a losing battle against his addiction to thin mint cookies, and a penchant for stealing library books. Bartholomew (Matthew Grathwol), the conservative Christian scout, can get a little too carried away in his religious fervor. Chuck (Satchel McCall) turns the tables on the counselor's homophobic rants by coming out as gay, and the late Ted's boyfriend, then strikes out on his own and joins up with some renegade girl scouts who are up to no good. Once the boys cross paths with the oversexed Mama (Madde Gibba) and not-so-sweet-as-she-seems Chloe (Maeve Moynihan), things quickly start unraveling. Some bondage, a couple of severed heads, and the brandishing of several pistols and knives later, well... yikes.
Frederick and co-author/co-director Anders Nerheim certainly aren't shy about piling on outrageous plot twists and wacky characterizations. They encourage their energetic cast to go for it, and they hold nothing back. It can sometimes be just a bit overwhelming, or even repulsive, but it seems that strategy is quite deliberate. The Bakery Theatre Company don't allow their audience the opportunity to drift, or to sit back passively. Thin Mint is very "in your face" and demands a response, positive or negative. The audience I was a part of was laughing nearly the entire time, recoiling only every now and again.
This scouting tale didn't settle for homoerotic, it just went for the full-on homo. Part of the point seems to be skewering the supposed purity of the scouts. Not that the scouts don't do good. But to pretend that there are no gay people involved in scouting, when it's a breeding ground for all kinds of male bonding, does seem a bit ridiculous when presented in this light.
This production may just be too much of a good thing to fit in a Fringe-sized package. There are so many characters, so many subplots, such a variety of relationships, alliances, double and triple crosses, that it's sometimes difficult to keep up. The audience can certainly keep up with things on an intellectual level, but the characters often get lost in the shuffle. Character development is skimpy, and the rapid influx of contradictory information (he's nice, no he's a killer, but wait, he's a nice, conflicted killer) flying past as the plot twists pile up make it hard for a viewer to latch onto anyone they feel is worth rooting for, or saving. The characters who seem the most sympathetic are the ones who are the most quickly dispatched (in all senses of the word). Some more breathing room in the time frame of presentation might have allowed for a little more depth. The script seems to want to imply that greater depth and explore it, but the lack of time makes such a quest a luxury the script can't afford. So instead the script goes about its business of twisting and turning and heading for that final standoff.
Despite, or perhaps because of, all its strangeness, Thin Mint is...
Highly Recommended
Their website - boyscoutbite.wordpress.com
Their show page
Their video trailer
Their Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 7:00 Sunday - show #20
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Fringe 2009 - Review - Axed! (the Rockstars' Remix) - 5 stars
Three Very Different Stories, One Really Great Show
"Now, when God is angry, He sends you love."
Rockstar Storytellers
Axed! (The Rockstars' Remix)
You couldn't ask for a better storytelling sampler than this. Rik Reppe and Dave Mondy, both returning favorites from Fringes past, plus the wonderful Courtney McLean to round out their trio of tales. Then you top it off with the music mixing/accompaniment of DJ King Otto to smooth the transitions and keep the evening humming.
It's a great idea. Each storyteller gives you a brief teaser of the story to come. Then each returns with the body, the set-up. Another return for the climax. And then the wrap-up. Each time switching up the order, just a bit. As each completed their tale, they left the stage.
Courtney had a cagey little tale of modern day paranoia, an attempt to escape to a life "off the grid" which seemed plausibly autobiographical, until some rather unexpected and dramatic turns in the narrative surfaced.
Dave served up a story of teenage comic fanboy angst against the unlikely backdrop of a Christian Bible camp. Here, Dave and his best friend had their first unsuccessful encounters with romancing the opposite sex, and the unhappy endings of those fledgling relationships turned them into guerrilla rebels - Bible camp-style.
Rik once again dared me not to become a weeping mess, unfurling in song and his own well-observed verbal way a variation on that oldest of stories, love unexpectedly won, and just an unexpectedly lost. The way a man can carry on, even when his heart is missing.
It's a great set of stories in a laid back atmosphere that you can't help just settling into and letting wash over you. All three of these very different spinners of tales know exactly what they're doing, and in combination, you really can't go wrong. That's why they earned Mom's title of The Best Thing We Saw On Sunday. Last year's Rockstar Storyteller outing was just a warm-up. This year feels like the main event it was always capable of being.
Very Highly Recommended
Their website - www.rockstarstorytellers.com
Their show page
Fringe 2009 - 5:30 Sunday - show #19
"Now, when God is angry, He sends you love."
Rockstar Storytellers
Axed! (The Rockstars' Remix)
You couldn't ask for a better storytelling sampler than this. Rik Reppe and Dave Mondy, both returning favorites from Fringes past, plus the wonderful Courtney McLean to round out their trio of tales. Then you top it off with the music mixing/accompaniment of DJ King Otto to smooth the transitions and keep the evening humming.
It's a great idea. Each storyteller gives you a brief teaser of the story to come. Then each returns with the body, the set-up. Another return for the climax. And then the wrap-up. Each time switching up the order, just a bit. As each completed their tale, they left the stage.
Courtney had a cagey little tale of modern day paranoia, an attempt to escape to a life "off the grid" which seemed plausibly autobiographical, until some rather unexpected and dramatic turns in the narrative surfaced.
Dave served up a story of teenage comic fanboy angst against the unlikely backdrop of a Christian Bible camp. Here, Dave and his best friend had their first unsuccessful encounters with romancing the opposite sex, and the unhappy endings of those fledgling relationships turned them into guerrilla rebels - Bible camp-style.
Rik once again dared me not to become a weeping mess, unfurling in song and his own well-observed verbal way a variation on that oldest of stories, love unexpectedly won, and just an unexpectedly lost. The way a man can carry on, even when his heart is missing.
It's a great set of stories in a laid back atmosphere that you can't help just settling into and letting wash over you. All three of these very different spinners of tales know exactly what they're doing, and in combination, you really can't go wrong. That's why they earned Mom's title of The Best Thing We Saw On Sunday. Last year's Rockstar Storyteller outing was just a warm-up. This year feels like the main event it was always capable of being.
Very Highly Recommended
Their website - www.rockstarstorytellers.com
Their show page
Fringe 2009 - 5:30 Sunday - show #19
Fringe 2009 - Review - Slow Jobs - Servicing America for $12 an hour - 4-1/2 stars
Work As A (Comic) Reality, Not Just A Nuisance
"She looks mean. Or maybe just dead inside."
What Happened Productions
Slow Jobs - Servicing America on $12 an hour
Slow Jobs - Servicing America on $12 an hour is a perfect example of what makes the storytelling duo of Laura Bidgood and Curt Lund always such a returning favorite for both me and Mom. Curt and Laura are savvy observers of everyday life. They don't let the days just brush by them. They're always taking mental notes, or literal ones. They can scour their memories and quickly find those telling details that make for good relatable comedic anecdotes. They're not bemoaning the fact that as artists they need full-time jobs to support themselves and continue creating their work. They accept work as a reality, perhaps even a noble one, and they use it like they use the rest of their lives - as fodder for another fine Fringe production.
The experiments hinted at in their Fringe-For-All preview were expanded upon here. I have to say, I'm really enjoying the trend with storytellers this year where they make the leap and step away from the music stand and their pages of words now and again. Don't get me wrong, I like the music stand as home base. I like the reminder that the words are the point of the exercise. But I'm also enjoying the variety that can result when the storyteller steps out and tries something just a little bit different.
There were moments when Curt would take on the role of a character in a couple of Laura's stories. There were moments when Curt also stepped out of his own story and took on the persona of one of his characters, who in turn was channeling Sally Field in "Norma Rae." Both Laura and Curt are getting more adept at creating a cast of characters vocally within their stories. They are also getting better at working the crowd and more and more of the physical theater space they have at their disposal - here, the Rarig Arena they know so well from Fringe outings past. It's great to see them growing in confidence and skill with each new Fringe show. The stories themselves, too, seem even richer this year - favorites, among many great tales, for me would be Curt's boyhood magic career (growing on the sidelines of the reality of family hospital visits), and Laura's brief unexpected foray into the cast of a senior citizens' variety show, The Silver Follies.
The smart thing about the collection of stories they share here is that it's not just confined to the vein of "this was a crappy, or silly, job I had once." Work was often the backdrop - as in Laura's learning the rules of office romance; or Curt's brush with sperm donation (something you do for money isn't always a daily calling). There were jobs killed in their infant stage - Laura's brief sojourn at Taco John's. There were jobs that had their own politics and a fully formed cast of characters - such as Curt's laboring in the grocery deli section.
Curt and Laura even had a great opening sequence which segued from the agony and the ecstasy of job interviews ("Let's face it, I love talking about myself!"), into a childhood sleepover where the idea of working for a living first loomed into view. Both these elements took place before they allowed themselves to touch down by the old familiar music stands, so it was a stretch for them, but a successful experiment in form that paid off.
They're still looking for that ending sequence, one that doesn't telegraph quite so far ahead "Well, looks like we're heading into the home stretch, folks." But that's a minor quibble. If anything, it just makes me sadly aware that our time together would be ending soon. And with Laura and Curt, I long for the illusion of them keeping me in the palm of their hand, telling me stories, to continue as long as possible. You know a show is good when, even though they've had you for almost an hour, you still feel like your time spent in their company is ending too soon.
Very Highly Recommended
Their website - www.curtandlaura.com
Their show page
Their Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 4:00 Sunday - show #18
"She looks mean. Or maybe just dead inside."
What Happened Productions
Slow Jobs - Servicing America on $12 an hour
Slow Jobs - Servicing America on $12 an hour is a perfect example of what makes the storytelling duo of Laura Bidgood and Curt Lund always such a returning favorite for both me and Mom. Curt and Laura are savvy observers of everyday life. They don't let the days just brush by them. They're always taking mental notes, or literal ones. They can scour their memories and quickly find those telling details that make for good relatable comedic anecdotes. They're not bemoaning the fact that as artists they need full-time jobs to support themselves and continue creating their work. They accept work as a reality, perhaps even a noble one, and they use it like they use the rest of their lives - as fodder for another fine Fringe production.
The experiments hinted at in their Fringe-For-All preview were expanded upon here. I have to say, I'm really enjoying the trend with storytellers this year where they make the leap and step away from the music stand and their pages of words now and again. Don't get me wrong, I like the music stand as home base. I like the reminder that the words are the point of the exercise. But I'm also enjoying the variety that can result when the storyteller steps out and tries something just a little bit different.
There were moments when Curt would take on the role of a character in a couple of Laura's stories. There were moments when Curt also stepped out of his own story and took on the persona of one of his characters, who in turn was channeling Sally Field in "Norma Rae." Both Laura and Curt are getting more adept at creating a cast of characters vocally within their stories. They are also getting better at working the crowd and more and more of the physical theater space they have at their disposal - here, the Rarig Arena they know so well from Fringe outings past. It's great to see them growing in confidence and skill with each new Fringe show. The stories themselves, too, seem even richer this year - favorites, among many great tales, for me would be Curt's boyhood magic career (growing on the sidelines of the reality of family hospital visits), and Laura's brief unexpected foray into the cast of a senior citizens' variety show, The Silver Follies.
The smart thing about the collection of stories they share here is that it's not just confined to the vein of "this was a crappy, or silly, job I had once." Work was often the backdrop - as in Laura's learning the rules of office romance; or Curt's brush with sperm donation (something you do for money isn't always a daily calling). There were jobs killed in their infant stage - Laura's brief sojourn at Taco John's. There were jobs that had their own politics and a fully formed cast of characters - such as Curt's laboring in the grocery deli section.
Curt and Laura even had a great opening sequence which segued from the agony and the ecstasy of job interviews ("Let's face it, I love talking about myself!"), into a childhood sleepover where the idea of working for a living first loomed into view. Both these elements took place before they allowed themselves to touch down by the old familiar music stands, so it was a stretch for them, but a successful experiment in form that paid off.
They're still looking for that ending sequence, one that doesn't telegraph quite so far ahead "Well, looks like we're heading into the home stretch, folks." But that's a minor quibble. If anything, it just makes me sadly aware that our time together would be ending soon. And with Laura and Curt, I long for the illusion of them keeping me in the palm of their hand, telling me stories, to continue as long as possible. You know a show is good when, even though they've had you for almost an hour, you still feel like your time spent in their company is ending too soon.
Very Highly Recommended
Their website - www.curtandlaura.com
Their show page
Their Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 4:00 Sunday - show #18
Fringe 2009 - Review - Livelihood - 3-1/2 stars
Relentlessly, Brutally Funny - Maybe A Little Too Relentless & Brutal?
"I said the pleasure's mine! You can't have it!"
Urban Samurai Productions
Livelihood
Livelihood and Urban Samurai Productions were part of my Top 20 list this year for a number of reasons. Among them, Urban Samurai is devoted to producing good new scripts. A lot of those good new scripts - including this one - come from the typing fingers of playwright and Artistic Director Aaron Christopher. They work with powerhouse actors like Nate Hessburg and Matthew Greseth (the two person cast of this outing). They also work with sharp directors like Katie Willer, who helmed this production of Livelihood for the Fringe. Extra points for stepping up at the last minute when called off the Fringe's waiting list scant weeks before the festival was to begin.
Livelihood is relentlessly, brutally funny. Perhaps just a bit too relentless and a bit too brutal, but it's hard to fault a company for swinging for the fences when they've got a group of artists working together like this bunch.
Jason (Nate Hessburg) comes in for what he thinks is a final interview for a position at the company where Mike (Matthew Greseth) works. Mike is the last hurdle Jason needs to clear. Mike not only sets the bar impossibly high, and keeps on raising it - he also keeps it a moving target. Jason quickly becomes overwhelmed by Mike's nonsensical badgering.
The question is - what is Mike's problem? Has Jason really stepped through the looking glass, or is there something much more disturbing driving Mike's harassment? You could go with either answer. The play and production make either one viable. However, after the play and production spend most of their time convincing the audience it's probably the former, there's a sudden left turn right near the end that takes us down that darker path.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this approach. The level of intensity, however, became a little much to deal with after a while. Jason wasn't the only one feeling verbally bludgeoned about halfway through. Becoming one with Jason's disorientation as an audience member, I was unprepared to follow the play where it ultimately wanted to take me.
Livelihood is an interesting, absurdist parable for our current times, though it was written before the economy and the job market started to really go down the crapper. Aaron Christopher and his fellow Samurai have their finger on that pulse of general unease gripping the nation right now. It's a good place for artists to be, and worthy subject matter to be exploring, and as always, they do it well.
Maybe they could just hold back on poking that vein quite so hard. Just a little bit.
Brace yourself for a rollercoaster descent into comedy madness, and then Livelihood is
Highly Recommended
Their website - www.urbansamurai.org
Their show page
Then there's the trailer
The slightly longer trailer
For those of you who want a little more meat to sink your teeth into, how about a 6 minute retrospective on the previous production?
Fringe 2009 - 2:30 Sunday - show #17
"I said the pleasure's mine! You can't have it!"
Urban Samurai Productions
Livelihood
Livelihood and Urban Samurai Productions were part of my Top 20 list this year for a number of reasons. Among them, Urban Samurai is devoted to producing good new scripts. A lot of those good new scripts - including this one - come from the typing fingers of playwright and Artistic Director Aaron Christopher. They work with powerhouse actors like Nate Hessburg and Matthew Greseth (the two person cast of this outing). They also work with sharp directors like Katie Willer, who helmed this production of Livelihood for the Fringe. Extra points for stepping up at the last minute when called off the Fringe's waiting list scant weeks before the festival was to begin.
Livelihood is relentlessly, brutally funny. Perhaps just a bit too relentless and a bit too brutal, but it's hard to fault a company for swinging for the fences when they've got a group of artists working together like this bunch.
Jason (Nate Hessburg) comes in for what he thinks is a final interview for a position at the company where Mike (Matthew Greseth) works. Mike is the last hurdle Jason needs to clear. Mike not only sets the bar impossibly high, and keeps on raising it - he also keeps it a moving target. Jason quickly becomes overwhelmed by Mike's nonsensical badgering.
The question is - what is Mike's problem? Has Jason really stepped through the looking glass, or is there something much more disturbing driving Mike's harassment? You could go with either answer. The play and production make either one viable. However, after the play and production spend most of their time convincing the audience it's probably the former, there's a sudden left turn right near the end that takes us down that darker path.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this approach. The level of intensity, however, became a little much to deal with after a while. Jason wasn't the only one feeling verbally bludgeoned about halfway through. Becoming one with Jason's disorientation as an audience member, I was unprepared to follow the play where it ultimately wanted to take me.
Livelihood is an interesting, absurdist parable for our current times, though it was written before the economy and the job market started to really go down the crapper. Aaron Christopher and his fellow Samurai have their finger on that pulse of general unease gripping the nation right now. It's a good place for artists to be, and worthy subject matter to be exploring, and as always, they do it well.
Maybe they could just hold back on poking that vein quite so hard. Just a little bit.
Brace yourself for a rollercoaster descent into comedy madness, and then Livelihood is
Highly Recommended
Their website - www.urbansamurai.org
Their show page
Then there's the trailer
The slightly longer trailer
For those of you who want a little more meat to sink your teeth into, how about a 6 minute retrospective on the previous production?
Fringe 2009 - 2:30 Sunday - show #17
Fringe 2009 - Review - Applesauce Fiction - 4-1/2 stars
Great Physical Work In A Quirky New Play
"I need to get back to my own universe for lunch."
Jeffrey Shockley
Applesauce Fiction
These folks landed on my Top 10 list this year due to an oddball script and a lot of enthusiasm. The production of Applesauce Fiction came through with both the oddness and enthusiasm on full display. A friend of mine who got a chance to see it before I did described it as "very Fringey." I'll second that, it's very Fringey indeed.
The script by Maggie Williams deals with the issues of conspicuous consumption, limited resources and the uses and abuses of power by twisting them all around a wacky science fiction premise. The characters use the notion of alternate universes to give themselves unlimited goods. They clear out their own world and just import everything from their otherworldly doppelgangers in the next universe over. Controlling the traffic between universes is where the real struggle for power plays itself out.
Francoise (Margaret Williams - perhaps also the playwright Maggie? coincidence? alternate universe?) and Henri (John Potter) are convinced by the Haberdasher (Nicholas Marcoullier) and le Comte de la Rochefocauld (William Mullaney, with an understudy assist by Kalen Keir) to divest themselves of their belongings and to live off the largesse sent by their other selves in the alternate universe via a sort of intergalactic, transdimensional postal service. (And you thought our stamps were pricey.) Francoise and Henri's alter egos get a little carried away with their absolute power over the "new-niverse" where they live, and the original Francoise and Henri head over to the alternate universe to try and set things right. Francoise and Henri's new-niverse slave Lebouef (Madelyne Riley) isn't sure how she feels about the power plays going on around her, but she wouldn't mind not having to dust and clean up after her masters so much. Double-crosses and assumed identities abound but it all makes it's own goofy kind of sense. Oh, and there's a guy (Ilya Garelik) in a giant apple costume sitting in the corner playing a mandolin and occasionally tossing out some narration. Again, in the context of this play, it all makes sense.
The physical movement work in this production is first rate. These are a bunch of limber young actors back-flipping, somersaulting, crawling and flying about and making it look like it's the simplest thing in the world to do. Far from it. The amount of control these performers have over their bodies, and the things they can make them do, adds another layer of otherworldliness to proceedings.
There's also puppetry to be had, and slights of hand screwing with audience perception of space and time. Hands holding candlesticks (candle holders) emerge from the sides of the wall. A worm sock puppet pops out of an apple tree and tosses and apple out to someone. A feather duster makes a journey so far away from a person's head on the other side of a set that that hand can't possibly attached to her body, can it? The costumes are sharp, and just weird enough in combination to make you look at these people and think, hmmmm, not from around here, are they? The sets are delightfully ramshackle affairs involving a lot of cardboard, not all of which stays upright as required at all times.
The only drawback is some of the voice work. While the actors all go in for radically different sorts of modulation in their voices to again seem out of the ordinary and a bit over the top, sometimes the change in volume or tone doesn't always gibe with the words being spoken. The delivery detracts from the sense of the dialogue, and here the dialogue, though nonsensical, needs to make as much of its own sort of sense as possible. The audience needs to be able to follow along clearly and cleanly, even if the journey itself is unlike how and where they're used to traveling. It's a small problem, easily fixed. And it wouldn't be occurring if they weren't be adventuresome and trying something new. You have to laud the intent, if not the execution.
Overall, however, the script and performances and visual landscape are very engaging and a lot of fun. So Applesauce Fiction comes...
Very Highly Recommended
Their show page
Their Fringe-For-All preview
Their video trailer
Fringe 2009 - 1:00 Sunday - show #16
"I need to get back to my own universe for lunch."
Jeffrey Shockley
Applesauce Fiction
These folks landed on my Top 10 list this year due to an oddball script and a lot of enthusiasm. The production of Applesauce Fiction came through with both the oddness and enthusiasm on full display. A friend of mine who got a chance to see it before I did described it as "very Fringey." I'll second that, it's very Fringey indeed.
The script by Maggie Williams deals with the issues of conspicuous consumption, limited resources and the uses and abuses of power by twisting them all around a wacky science fiction premise. The characters use the notion of alternate universes to give themselves unlimited goods. They clear out their own world and just import everything from their otherworldly doppelgangers in the next universe over. Controlling the traffic between universes is where the real struggle for power plays itself out.
Francoise (Margaret Williams - perhaps also the playwright Maggie? coincidence? alternate universe?) and Henri (John Potter) are convinced by the Haberdasher (Nicholas Marcoullier) and le Comte de la Rochefocauld (William Mullaney, with an understudy assist by Kalen Keir) to divest themselves of their belongings and to live off the largesse sent by their other selves in the alternate universe via a sort of intergalactic, transdimensional postal service. (And you thought our stamps were pricey.) Francoise and Henri's alter egos get a little carried away with their absolute power over the "new-niverse" where they live, and the original Francoise and Henri head over to the alternate universe to try and set things right. Francoise and Henri's new-niverse slave Lebouef (Madelyne Riley) isn't sure how she feels about the power plays going on around her, but she wouldn't mind not having to dust and clean up after her masters so much. Double-crosses and assumed identities abound but it all makes it's own goofy kind of sense. Oh, and there's a guy (Ilya Garelik) in a giant apple costume sitting in the corner playing a mandolin and occasionally tossing out some narration. Again, in the context of this play, it all makes sense.
The physical movement work in this production is first rate. These are a bunch of limber young actors back-flipping, somersaulting, crawling and flying about and making it look like it's the simplest thing in the world to do. Far from it. The amount of control these performers have over their bodies, and the things they can make them do, adds another layer of otherworldliness to proceedings.
There's also puppetry to be had, and slights of hand screwing with audience perception of space and time. Hands holding candlesticks (candle holders) emerge from the sides of the wall. A worm sock puppet pops out of an apple tree and tosses and apple out to someone. A feather duster makes a journey so far away from a person's head on the other side of a set that that hand can't possibly attached to her body, can it? The costumes are sharp, and just weird enough in combination to make you look at these people and think, hmmmm, not from around here, are they? The sets are delightfully ramshackle affairs involving a lot of cardboard, not all of which stays upright as required at all times.
The only drawback is some of the voice work. While the actors all go in for radically different sorts of modulation in their voices to again seem out of the ordinary and a bit over the top, sometimes the change in volume or tone doesn't always gibe with the words being spoken. The delivery detracts from the sense of the dialogue, and here the dialogue, though nonsensical, needs to make as much of its own sort of sense as possible. The audience needs to be able to follow along clearly and cleanly, even if the journey itself is unlike how and where they're used to traveling. It's a small problem, easily fixed. And it wouldn't be occurring if they weren't be adventuresome and trying something new. You have to laud the intent, if not the execution.
Overall, however, the script and performances and visual landscape are very engaging and a lot of fun. So Applesauce Fiction comes...
Very Highly Recommended
Their show page
Their Fringe-For-All preview
Their video trailer
Fringe 2009 - 1:00 Sunday - show #16
Fringe 2009 - Review - Storm Still - 2-1/2 stars
A Little Masturbation Goes A Long Way
"You're bound to lose people when you start having dialogue like this."
The Nonsense Company
Storm Still
I write the following as a big fan of The Nonsense Company. Their first Minnesota visit with The Great Hymn of Thanksgiving/Conversation Storm in 2006 knocked me on my artistic butt for longer than many a show in recent memory. It landed them on my Top 10 list for 2007, and even a last minute tech disaster and substitution didn't keep their show, The Prince Myshkins (formerly American Folksongs), from utterly delighting me (and Mom). Their preview in the Out-of-Towner showcase this year promised great things, no surprise there. But though I am a big fan of The Nonsense Company, I am, sadly, not a fan of their current show.
This, despite the fact that their current show, Storm Still, has within it three of my very favorite moments of the Fringe thus far.
Those moments...
The very beginning - a microphone on a stand is positioned over an open book. Someone flips through the pages of the book - and the voices of all the characters within the book flutter out in rapid fire words and phrases, too fast for the human ear to catch and process them all, but a lovely little moment nonetheless. Then a conch shell is set down on the book, underneath the same microphone, and we hear the sound of the sea.
They would return to this use of microphones and sound effects, some matching the item and movement to which they were holding the mic, some in opposition to the item being mic'd. It was an intriguing, bewildering, sometimes disturbing, often quite funny, bit of stage trickery.
Later - an edition of King Lear is being questioned. The book cover is being pulled open and shut like the mouth of a puppet with a piece of fishing wire. Simple, but nonetheless fun, and a bit magical.
Later - A tender scene between two human characters. The set-up for the play is that this boys school has been abandoned in the middle of a war. The young men have to fend for themselves when the war raging outside claims their parents, who never come to pick them up from school. So they are left there, continuously revisiting the text of "King Lear" as one way to pass the time. They bond with one another. This scene I like explores one such bond. Ryan Higgins, who plays their Lear, has become inconsolable when the turn of conversation brings up their absent parents. Rick Burkhardt, who plays their Fool, offers comfort to Ryan. First this comfort is emotional, then physical. Rick's character loves Ryan's character, much as the Fool loves Lear, and vice versa. Rick assures Ryan that though others pledge their loyalty and lie, he will not abandon him, he will always be present. I don't recall them ever using the word "love" - in fact, they probably avoid that, as they avoid saying a great many things. But the bond between them is sort of breathtaking in its simple sweetness, sincerity and strength.
I enjoy Shakespeare, and often seeing Shakespeare deconstructed. Any play with lines like "The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman" is a play I don't mind watching other people play around with. There is war in "King Lear," abandonment by parents of their children, and by children of their parents. The cost of personal wars becoming wars between countries, and vice versa, telescoping out and in - the loss of humanity in bulk and one-on-one. All this is rich soil to be tilling in.
These guys can do it. They've brought me with them twice before.
I was sorry they left me behind this time.
There were at least three different kinds of plays going on here. Any one of them on its own would have been ample material for a single Fringe show if explored in greater depth. There was the playing with Lear. There was the tale of the abandoned school. There was the brilliant low-tech/high-tech theatrical trickery going on. Unfortunately, for me as an audience member, these three lines of attack didn't gel into a single coherent experience. Each of them regularly seemed only skin deep, and they all seemed as if they were fighting one another, getting in each other's way, rather than accumulating into something greater than the some of the many parts.
I don't mind watching people pretend to jerk off on stage, literally or symbolically, alone or in pairs. That's fine. I don't even mind watching someone being sodomized, as long as they look like they're enjoying it. That's fine.
But there needs to be a point. Otherwise I start to think it's just pornography.
I knew this wasn't going to be your average run-of-the-mill Fringe offering.
I was prepared for it to be longer, and more challenging, and more obtuse.
I was trying, very very hard, to meet this show halfway, even three-quarters of the way.
But the more I strained to reach out to it, the more I felt it pulled away from me.
It's not for the faint of heart. It's not for the easily frustrated. It's not for the sensitive.
And yet, it should be for the faint of heart, the easily frustrated, and the sensitive. They're exactly the types of people who should get tweaked by theater like this. Not out of spite, but to shake them up and engage them in the kind of things that only live theater can do so well.
But I honestly couldn't tell you how to grab a hold of this one and hang on.
Because I never got a handful of it myself.
And those three moments I loved so much? In almost 100 minutes of performance?
They got lost.
And so did I.
Their websites - nonsensecompany.com and www.princemyshkins.com
Their show page
Fringe 2009 - 10:00 Saturday - show #15
"You're bound to lose people when you start having dialogue like this."
The Nonsense Company
Storm Still
I write the following as a big fan of The Nonsense Company. Their first Minnesota visit with The Great Hymn of Thanksgiving/Conversation Storm in 2006 knocked me on my artistic butt for longer than many a show in recent memory. It landed them on my Top 10 list for 2007, and even a last minute tech disaster and substitution didn't keep their show, The Prince Myshkins (formerly American Folksongs), from utterly delighting me (and Mom). Their preview in the Out-of-Towner showcase this year promised great things, no surprise there. But though I am a big fan of The Nonsense Company, I am, sadly, not a fan of their current show.
This, despite the fact that their current show, Storm Still, has within it three of my very favorite moments of the Fringe thus far.
Those moments...
The very beginning - a microphone on a stand is positioned over an open book. Someone flips through the pages of the book - and the voices of all the characters within the book flutter out in rapid fire words and phrases, too fast for the human ear to catch and process them all, but a lovely little moment nonetheless. Then a conch shell is set down on the book, underneath the same microphone, and we hear the sound of the sea.
They would return to this use of microphones and sound effects, some matching the item and movement to which they were holding the mic, some in opposition to the item being mic'd. It was an intriguing, bewildering, sometimes disturbing, often quite funny, bit of stage trickery.
Later - an edition of King Lear is being questioned. The book cover is being pulled open and shut like the mouth of a puppet with a piece of fishing wire. Simple, but nonetheless fun, and a bit magical.
Later - A tender scene between two human characters. The set-up for the play is that this boys school has been abandoned in the middle of a war. The young men have to fend for themselves when the war raging outside claims their parents, who never come to pick them up from school. So they are left there, continuously revisiting the text of "King Lear" as one way to pass the time. They bond with one another. This scene I like explores one such bond. Ryan Higgins, who plays their Lear, has become inconsolable when the turn of conversation brings up their absent parents. Rick Burkhardt, who plays their Fool, offers comfort to Ryan. First this comfort is emotional, then physical. Rick's character loves Ryan's character, much as the Fool loves Lear, and vice versa. Rick assures Ryan that though others pledge their loyalty and lie, he will not abandon him, he will always be present. I don't recall them ever using the word "love" - in fact, they probably avoid that, as they avoid saying a great many things. But the bond between them is sort of breathtaking in its simple sweetness, sincerity and strength.
I enjoy Shakespeare, and often seeing Shakespeare deconstructed. Any play with lines like "The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman" is a play I don't mind watching other people play around with. There is war in "King Lear," abandonment by parents of their children, and by children of their parents. The cost of personal wars becoming wars between countries, and vice versa, telescoping out and in - the loss of humanity in bulk and one-on-one. All this is rich soil to be tilling in.
These guys can do it. They've brought me with them twice before.
I was sorry they left me behind this time.
There were at least three different kinds of plays going on here. Any one of them on its own would have been ample material for a single Fringe show if explored in greater depth. There was the playing with Lear. There was the tale of the abandoned school. There was the brilliant low-tech/high-tech theatrical trickery going on. Unfortunately, for me as an audience member, these three lines of attack didn't gel into a single coherent experience. Each of them regularly seemed only skin deep, and they all seemed as if they were fighting one another, getting in each other's way, rather than accumulating into something greater than the some of the many parts.
I don't mind watching people pretend to jerk off on stage, literally or symbolically, alone or in pairs. That's fine. I don't even mind watching someone being sodomized, as long as they look like they're enjoying it. That's fine.
But there needs to be a point. Otherwise I start to think it's just pornography.
I knew this wasn't going to be your average run-of-the-mill Fringe offering.
I was prepared for it to be longer, and more challenging, and more obtuse.
I was trying, very very hard, to meet this show halfway, even three-quarters of the way.
But the more I strained to reach out to it, the more I felt it pulled away from me.
It's not for the faint of heart. It's not for the easily frustrated. It's not for the sensitive.
And yet, it should be for the faint of heart, the easily frustrated, and the sensitive. They're exactly the types of people who should get tweaked by theater like this. Not out of spite, but to shake them up and engage them in the kind of things that only live theater can do so well.
But I honestly couldn't tell you how to grab a hold of this one and hang on.
Because I never got a handful of it myself.
And those three moments I loved so much? In almost 100 minutes of performance?
They got lost.
And so did I.
Their websites - nonsensecompany.com and www.princemyshkins.com
Their show page
Fringe 2009 - 10:00 Saturday - show #15
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Fringe 2009 - Review - Every Pastie Tells A Story - 5 stars
A Backstage Tale, Told The Right Way
"She was a brand new teacher straight from the teacher factory. You could smell the plastic wrap on her."
Nancy Donoval
Every Pastie Tells A Story
If there's anything about a show that will send me running in the opposite direction, far away from it, it is learning that the show is about artists. Theater about theater, theater about TV, theater about film, theater about writers, actors, directors, you name it - nothing tries my patience or bores the pants off me more. Except maybe hearing about their upbringing that led them to be artists. Or their day jobs. Stop crying about how tough it is to do your art and, you know, just do it. Hold the mirror up to nature, not yourself.
There are notable, but rare, exceptions to this general theatergoing rule of mine. Without exception, they make the smart choice of treating the characters as human beings first, and artists second. The art isn't the point, the universal human experience is.
Nancy Donoval's Every Pastie Tells A Story is one of those rare exceptions.
Nancy Donoval is another returning favorite of mine, and of Mom's, who had her on the "List of Demands" for this year's Fringe. Every Pastie Tells A Story is a perfect example of why.
At first, when Nancy introduces us to the unexpected fact that she owns a pastie collection, it feels as if we may be in for a night of brief but related multiple anecdotes about a wide variety of the pasties on her shelf. After all, it became an opening night tradition of her days as a college theater actress, that she would receive a new set of pasties, made especially for her. There must be a great many stories to tell. But after telling the tale of where pasties and she first teamed up to lighten the mood of a grueling technical rehearsal, Nancy quickly settles on one particular pair of pasties. The lobster claw pasties. They become a doorway into the specifics, and the cast of characters, of a production of "Ah, Wilderness!"
But again, the beauty of this story is that "Ah, Wilderness!" isn't the point. Though I love Eugene O'Neill, I'm not really familiar with the play, but it didn't matter. Nancy shared just the details we needed to know, in order to understand the people in the story. Two key players were her friends Barb (the strong, lead actress type) and Michele (the young ingenue type), with their friend Nancy (the character actress type). Also important, the director visiting their college from New York. The crucible of this particular production is key to the nature of their friendships, their careers, and ultimately the rest of their lives. The things they learned about themselves from the risks that they took, on and off stage, before an audience ever saw the production, would have an enormous impact on who they were, and who they would become.
Nancy weaves her memories, and the alternate versions of those memories from the perspectives of Michele and Barb, to create a story that explores the very notion of memory. When Nancy recently reconnected with her two old friends to go digging into the details of that shared experience, perceptions and assumptions of long-standing were completely undone. The fact that Nancy is able to integrate nearly thirty years' worth of time and conflicting narratives into a rich, full, and funny story that always says just what it needs to say, and no more, never ceases to amaze me. No rambling, no excess story fat, just the details that make the point - even when you don't know until much later, when it all ties together, exactly how it all fits. Oh, and how it ties together. And how it fits.
It's a lovely, lovely thing.
When disaster strikes and the set it destroyed, and the cast doesn't know how they will adjust to having their perfectly constructed imaginary world ripped out from under their feet right before they are set to face an audience, the director reminds them...
"Theater is actors
on a stage
with words.
You don't need anything else."
Give Nancy Donoval an hour of your attention, and she'll prove that truism of theater all over again.
Very Highly Recommended
Her website - www.NancyDonoval.com
Her show page
Her Fringe-For-All preview...
Fringe 2009 - 8:30 Saturday - show #14
"She was a brand new teacher straight from the teacher factory. You could smell the plastic wrap on her."
Nancy Donoval
Every Pastie Tells A Story
If there's anything about a show that will send me running in the opposite direction, far away from it, it is learning that the show is about artists. Theater about theater, theater about TV, theater about film, theater about writers, actors, directors, you name it - nothing tries my patience or bores the pants off me more. Except maybe hearing about their upbringing that led them to be artists. Or their day jobs. Stop crying about how tough it is to do your art and, you know, just do it. Hold the mirror up to nature, not yourself.
There are notable, but rare, exceptions to this general theatergoing rule of mine. Without exception, they make the smart choice of treating the characters as human beings first, and artists second. The art isn't the point, the universal human experience is.
Nancy Donoval's Every Pastie Tells A Story is one of those rare exceptions.
Nancy Donoval is another returning favorite of mine, and of Mom's, who had her on the "List of Demands" for this year's Fringe. Every Pastie Tells A Story is a perfect example of why.
At first, when Nancy introduces us to the unexpected fact that she owns a pastie collection, it feels as if we may be in for a night of brief but related multiple anecdotes about a wide variety of the pasties on her shelf. After all, it became an opening night tradition of her days as a college theater actress, that she would receive a new set of pasties, made especially for her. There must be a great many stories to tell. But after telling the tale of where pasties and she first teamed up to lighten the mood of a grueling technical rehearsal, Nancy quickly settles on one particular pair of pasties. The lobster claw pasties. They become a doorway into the specifics, and the cast of characters, of a production of "Ah, Wilderness!"
But again, the beauty of this story is that "Ah, Wilderness!" isn't the point. Though I love Eugene O'Neill, I'm not really familiar with the play, but it didn't matter. Nancy shared just the details we needed to know, in order to understand the people in the story. Two key players were her friends Barb (the strong, lead actress type) and Michele (the young ingenue type), with their friend Nancy (the character actress type). Also important, the director visiting their college from New York. The crucible of this particular production is key to the nature of their friendships, their careers, and ultimately the rest of their lives. The things they learned about themselves from the risks that they took, on and off stage, before an audience ever saw the production, would have an enormous impact on who they were, and who they would become.
Nancy weaves her memories, and the alternate versions of those memories from the perspectives of Michele and Barb, to create a story that explores the very notion of memory. When Nancy recently reconnected with her two old friends to go digging into the details of that shared experience, perceptions and assumptions of long-standing were completely undone. The fact that Nancy is able to integrate nearly thirty years' worth of time and conflicting narratives into a rich, full, and funny story that always says just what it needs to say, and no more, never ceases to amaze me. No rambling, no excess story fat, just the details that make the point - even when you don't know until much later, when it all ties together, exactly how it all fits. Oh, and how it ties together. And how it fits.
It's a lovely, lovely thing.
When disaster strikes and the set it destroyed, and the cast doesn't know how they will adjust to having their perfectly constructed imaginary world ripped out from under their feet right before they are set to face an audience, the director reminds them...
"Theater is actors
on a stage
with words.
You don't need anything else."
Give Nancy Donoval an hour of your attention, and she'll prove that truism of theater all over again.
Very Highly Recommended
Her website - www.NancyDonoval.com
Her show page
Her Fringe-For-All preview...
Fringe 2009 - 8:30 Saturday - show #14
Fringe 2009 - Review - The Rise of General Arthur - 5 stars
A Place Where Dreams and Legends Are Born
"It's got a price"
Maximum Verbosity
The Rise of General Arthur
Maximum Verbosity and its often one-man-band leader phillip andrew bennett low are returning favorites not only of mine but also of Mom's, who had them on her "List of Demands" for shows to see this Fringe. Just like each Fringe production before, The Rise of General Arthur is completely unlike any other Verbosity offering.
Oh yes, there's the ongoing obsession with the legend of King Arthur. There's the great love of (and use of) language to paint pictures and weave the tale, with little else in the way of props or set to clutter the stage landscape. There's the ever-present music stand, to remind us that the words, after all, are the point.
But here in The Rise of General Arthur, we have a use of costume (army issue camouflage), weaponry (sword), accents (southern and otherwise), and performance that we haven't seen before. Arthur is almost an afterthought. Pellinore is our primary heroic figure, stumbling as best he can through an adventure over which he has far less control that he'd imagined would be the case. Merlin, as always, appears as a supporting player and threatens to hijack the narrative, just because he's so damn fun as a character (both for performer and audience alike). But since he's a good writer in control of his story, low keeps the wizard in his proper place.
low has memorized far more of his text than any of his previous solo outings. His use of the music stand is more prop, than crutch or home base - a signifier of the kind of journey we're on, rather than a map he constantly refers to in order to guide him. low is acting far more, and far more effectively, than he has in previous productions. There are a handful of characters, all clearly defined, and none of whom, even the narrator, is a stand-in for himself. This isn't sketch comedy, or confessional autobiography. It's a military drama with hints of laughter around the edges. low can't even help tweaking his own earnestness, or his plot structure. Late in the narrative, after a series of prophetic dreams from each of the other characters, a new character is introduced, and soon Pellinore is asking, "You didn't have a dream, did you? And if you did, I don't suppose there's any way I could keep you from telling me about it, is there?"
This is a production that rises and falls on the effectiveness of the words, and the performer who speaks them. low knows this story well, and loves it well. He wants to do it justice, so he upped his game this year to do so. I wasn't sure in reading earlier drafts of this script how this kind of dense text could work onstage. But low has rewritten and recrafted it into a sleak, compelling story - a story of honor, and mission, and loyalty, and a quest that always seems to lead the hero onward, to the next adventure.
It's a great piece of work, both on the page and in performance. And even though I have no idea what it may look like, I'm already looking forward to the next adventure.
For now, though, see this.
Very Highly Recommended
His website - www.maximumverbosityonline.org
His show page
Fringe 2009 - 5:30 Saturday - show #12
"It's got a price"
Maximum Verbosity
The Rise of General Arthur
Maximum Verbosity and its often one-man-band leader phillip andrew bennett low are returning favorites not only of mine but also of Mom's, who had them on her "List of Demands" for shows to see this Fringe. Just like each Fringe production before, The Rise of General Arthur is completely unlike any other Verbosity offering.
Oh yes, there's the ongoing obsession with the legend of King Arthur. There's the great love of (and use of) language to paint pictures and weave the tale, with little else in the way of props or set to clutter the stage landscape. There's the ever-present music stand, to remind us that the words, after all, are the point.
But here in The Rise of General Arthur, we have a use of costume (army issue camouflage), weaponry (sword), accents (southern and otherwise), and performance that we haven't seen before. Arthur is almost an afterthought. Pellinore is our primary heroic figure, stumbling as best he can through an adventure over which he has far less control that he'd imagined would be the case. Merlin, as always, appears as a supporting player and threatens to hijack the narrative, just because he's so damn fun as a character (both for performer and audience alike). But since he's a good writer in control of his story, low keeps the wizard in his proper place.
low has memorized far more of his text than any of his previous solo outings. His use of the music stand is more prop, than crutch or home base - a signifier of the kind of journey we're on, rather than a map he constantly refers to in order to guide him. low is acting far more, and far more effectively, than he has in previous productions. There are a handful of characters, all clearly defined, and none of whom, even the narrator, is a stand-in for himself. This isn't sketch comedy, or confessional autobiography. It's a military drama with hints of laughter around the edges. low can't even help tweaking his own earnestness, or his plot structure. Late in the narrative, after a series of prophetic dreams from each of the other characters, a new character is introduced, and soon Pellinore is asking, "You didn't have a dream, did you? And if you did, I don't suppose there's any way I could keep you from telling me about it, is there?"
This is a production that rises and falls on the effectiveness of the words, and the performer who speaks them. low knows this story well, and loves it well. He wants to do it justice, so he upped his game this year to do so. I wasn't sure in reading earlier drafts of this script how this kind of dense text could work onstage. But low has rewritten and recrafted it into a sleak, compelling story - a story of honor, and mission, and loyalty, and a quest that always seems to lead the hero onward, to the next adventure.
It's a great piece of work, both on the page and in performance. And even though I have no idea what it may look like, I'm already looking forward to the next adventure.
For now, though, see this.
Very Highly Recommended
His website - www.maximumverbosityonline.org
His show page
Fringe 2009 - 5:30 Saturday - show #12
Fringe 2009 - Review - The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus - 5 stars
Hilarious Comedy with that Faint Odor of Nostalgia
"The Minneapolis Institute of Art. It's just like the Walker Art Center, only free, and not so ugly."
Joshua English Scrimshaw & Levi Weinhagen
The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus
How can you not love a show with fake chapter titles like...
"Family Reunion... Of Death!"
The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus was another show on Mom's "List of Demands" for things she had to see this Fringe, and it was such a relentlessly high energy good time that it tied with The Gayer Show for the Best Thing We Saw On Saturday.
I was laughing at this show long before I walked into the theater because their website for it is a hoot (sample book chapters, blogs, etc.). Anyone who grew up reading the books on which this show is based, with their creeky narrative style and bland prose, will enjoy the parodies online as well as onstage. Once you grow up, and read some good fiction, you realize with embarrassment that those books you were addicted to as a kid were, well, clunkers. Good for entry level into the reading world, but not the be all and end all of suspense and mystery you once imagined them to be. The labored exposition alone is punishing to an adult reader's eyes.
The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus has all the recognizable touchstones of the originals, alongside a modern-day sensibility. The friction between the two is the place from where a lot of the comedy springs.
Fred and Jack Harty (writer/director/actor/producers [phew] Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levin Weinhagen) are just as earnest and flat as their hilarious publicity shots, perfectly mimicking the book covers of old. They worship their freelance detective father Philmore (Ari Hoptman). Their mother Lana (Leslie Ball) actually works for the police as a noted forensics expert, but she keeps insisting on boring things like evidence and logic. Their childhood chum Becca (Sulia Altenberg) is smart "for a girl" and frequently goes off to do her own investigating, since she can't get any respect. That, or she reads "The Bell Jar" or "The Handmaid's Tale." Their new pal Clint (Spencer Harrison Levin) may have more to do with their father's old nemesis, the notorious art thief known as The Platypus (Anrie Roos), than anyone at first suspects. Meanwhile, the narrator (Andy Kraft), keeps popping in and out of the story as various henchmen and police lackeys.
There are lame cliff-hangers, maniacal laughter, rampant sexism, silly costumes, and strange leaps of detective logic aplenty. The pace never lets up, and neither do the laughs. Everyone gets into the spirit of the thing and the story lurches along like a cross-eyed race horse, always zigging when you think it's gonna zag. You'll probably groan as much as you laugh but it's all in good fun. When it's done, you feel like you have to catch your breath in sympathy with the actors, particularly the Harty Boys who keep chasing the narrator down every aisle in the house during curtain call, and strike.
The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus is goofy, but never stupid. These people know how to craft a good comedy show, and it shines through in everything they do.
Very Highly Recommended
Their website (visit it for a chuckle) - www.scrimshawbrothers.com/hartyboys.html
Their show page
Their video trailer
Fringe 2009 - 4:00 Saturday - show #11
"The Minneapolis Institute of Art. It's just like the Walker Art Center, only free, and not so ugly."
Joshua English Scrimshaw & Levi Weinhagen
The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus
How can you not love a show with fake chapter titles like...
"Family Reunion... Of Death!"
The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus was another show on Mom's "List of Demands" for things she had to see this Fringe, and it was such a relentlessly high energy good time that it tied with The Gayer Show for the Best Thing We Saw On Saturday.
I was laughing at this show long before I walked into the theater because their website for it is a hoot (sample book chapters, blogs, etc.). Anyone who grew up reading the books on which this show is based, with their creeky narrative style and bland prose, will enjoy the parodies online as well as onstage. Once you grow up, and read some good fiction, you realize with embarrassment that those books you were addicted to as a kid were, well, clunkers. Good for entry level into the reading world, but not the be all and end all of suspense and mystery you once imagined them to be. The labored exposition alone is punishing to an adult reader's eyes.
The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus has all the recognizable touchstones of the originals, alongside a modern-day sensibility. The friction between the two is the place from where a lot of the comedy springs.
Fred and Jack Harty (writer/director/actor/producers [phew] Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levin Weinhagen) are just as earnest and flat as their hilarious publicity shots, perfectly mimicking the book covers of old. They worship their freelance detective father Philmore (Ari Hoptman). Their mother Lana (Leslie Ball) actually works for the police as a noted forensics expert, but she keeps insisting on boring things like evidence and logic. Their childhood chum Becca (Sulia Altenberg) is smart "for a girl" and frequently goes off to do her own investigating, since she can't get any respect. That, or she reads "The Bell Jar" or "The Handmaid's Tale." Their new pal Clint (Spencer Harrison Levin) may have more to do with their father's old nemesis, the notorious art thief known as The Platypus (Anrie Roos), than anyone at first suspects. Meanwhile, the narrator (Andy Kraft), keeps popping in and out of the story as various henchmen and police lackeys.
There are lame cliff-hangers, maniacal laughter, rampant sexism, silly costumes, and strange leaps of detective logic aplenty. The pace never lets up, and neither do the laughs. Everyone gets into the spirit of the thing and the story lurches along like a cross-eyed race horse, always zigging when you think it's gonna zag. You'll probably groan as much as you laugh but it's all in good fun. When it's done, you feel like you have to catch your breath in sympathy with the actors, particularly the Harty Boys who keep chasing the narrator down every aisle in the house during curtain call, and strike.
The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus is goofy, but never stupid. These people know how to craft a good comedy show, and it shines through in everything they do.
Very Highly Recommended
Their website (visit it for a chuckle) - www.scrimshawbrothers.com/hartyboys.html
Their show page
Their video trailer
Fringe 2009 - 4:00 Saturday - show #11
Fringe 2009 - Review - Tragedy of You - 5 stars
Shakespeare and Improv Comedy, Together Again
"Oddly, she still had the composure to speak in iambic pentameter"
Joseph Scrimshaw
The Tragedy of You
This is a brilliant idea, which could be a disaster in the wrong hands. But since The Tragedy of You is the brainchild of Joseph Scrimshaw, you know everything's going to be just fine. And mighty funny.
The idea - pull the name of a random audience member out of the Fate-Bucket (filled with names of people willing to be the subject of the evening). Bring that audience member up on stage, and run them through a series of simple (seemingly) random questions to get some raw material. Return the audience member to their seat. Take the raw material provided and insert it into an established "five act" template for a do-it-yourself Shakespearean tragedy. Oh, and adlib your heart out around the edges, just to keep things lively and unpredictable. Well, more unpredictable.
Also, best not to leave music out of the mix. Composer/keyboardist (and singer) Dennis Curley provided the comedic musical interludes between acts, and prior to the first act, so Joseph would have, oh, just about a minute to figure out how he was going to synthesize all this new information into his storyline. (That has got to be the most exhilarating and terrifying minute Scrimshaw gets to spend onstage in the dark - well, near dark. There's a mirror ball. That moment in the dark is probably a large part of the reason he does it. Nothing like jumping off an artistic cliff to keep the adrenalin flowing.)
[OK. Spoilers? I guess...?]
What's something that's very important to you?
A name to be used for a general, a clown, a senator.
A random verb, a random noun.
Who's someone you love who is no longer alive?
Make up a swear word.
Would you like to include a bear, or not?
What is your tragic flaw?
[end of spoiler alert]
There are a multitude of questions in addition to the above, the answers to which get scribbled onto an erasable white board which then perches at the front of the stage for easy reference as Scrimshaw works the crowd and spins his tale. But those aren't the only details in play. Another thing I found impressive is that, during the interview section at the beginning, Joseph studies his subject, even when the person isn't aware they're being studied. Oh, he asks them to walk around just a bit, and say a particular line of dialogue. But he listens well, and pays close enough attention to the person so that he can recreate mannerisms, inflections, little things that make a difference. Not a complete impersonation, just enough "non-Scrimshaw" to remind us whose tragedy he is performing. Scrimshaw comedy can be broad, of course, but the smart stuff, the stuff that reminds you he's not "just a clown" is often in the subtleties.
It wouldn't work if Scrimshaw didn't know his Shakespeare. But he does. People will appreciate it on different levels, depending on how well they know Shakespeare themselves. The great thing about Shakespeare, at his best, is he knew how to create a solid entertaining story, be it comedy or tragedy. Scrimshaw, at his best, has the same skill. Like Shakespeare, he steals from the best and makes it uniquely his own creation. So those with no Shakespeare in their blood can enjoy it for the fun story it is. Those who know a little or a lot of Shakespeare can enjoy it on multiple levels. But everyone has a good time.
And it's fun to watch the man think on his feet - for some moments never happened before, and will never happen again. For our performance, "The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Cole," the important thing to her was... oranges (?). So her kingdom was Orangeland. When the evil military general character went out to the audience bellowing, "Do you think I'm a bad person?!" - the woman he landed in front of gave a nervous salute and said, "Sir, yes, sir!" He took one look at the color of her shirt, glared at her and walked away saying, "Don't ever wear peach in Orangeland again!"
The Tragedy of You was one of a handful of shows that was part of what I jokingly refer to as Mom's "List of Demands." She perused the Fringe website, and sent me an email of shows she really wanted to see. Joseph Scrimshaw is not just a returning favorite of mine, but hers as well. This was a demand I was more than happy to fit into our schedule.
Mom turned to me as the applause began at the end of the show and said, "We have to come see this again!" She was fascinated by the fact that it would be a completely different show, no matter when we saw it. Part of her also wanted to have her name drawn out of that Fate-Bucket. Days later, she was still pondering, "What would the name of my kingdom be."
A Fringe show that keeps providing entertainment long after it's over - that's a damn good Fringe show.
Very Highly Recommended
Their website - josephscrimshaw.com
show page
His video trailer
His Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 2:30 Saturday - show #10
"Oddly, she still had the composure to speak in iambic pentameter"
Joseph Scrimshaw
The Tragedy of You
This is a brilliant idea, which could be a disaster in the wrong hands. But since The Tragedy of You is the brainchild of Joseph Scrimshaw, you know everything's going to be just fine. And mighty funny.
The idea - pull the name of a random audience member out of the Fate-Bucket (filled with names of people willing to be the subject of the evening). Bring that audience member up on stage, and run them through a series of simple (seemingly) random questions to get some raw material. Return the audience member to their seat. Take the raw material provided and insert it into an established "five act" template for a do-it-yourself Shakespearean tragedy. Oh, and adlib your heart out around the edges, just to keep things lively and unpredictable. Well, more unpredictable.
Also, best not to leave music out of the mix. Composer/keyboardist (and singer) Dennis Curley provided the comedic musical interludes between acts, and prior to the first act, so Joseph would have, oh, just about a minute to figure out how he was going to synthesize all this new information into his storyline. (That has got to be the most exhilarating and terrifying minute Scrimshaw gets to spend onstage in the dark - well, near dark. There's a mirror ball. That moment in the dark is probably a large part of the reason he does it. Nothing like jumping off an artistic cliff to keep the adrenalin flowing.)
[OK. Spoilers? I guess...?]
What's something that's very important to you?
A name to be used for a general, a clown, a senator.
A random verb, a random noun.
Who's someone you love who is no longer alive?
Make up a swear word.
Would you like to include a bear, or not?
What is your tragic flaw?
[end of spoiler alert]
There are a multitude of questions in addition to the above, the answers to which get scribbled onto an erasable white board which then perches at the front of the stage for easy reference as Scrimshaw works the crowd and spins his tale. But those aren't the only details in play. Another thing I found impressive is that, during the interview section at the beginning, Joseph studies his subject, even when the person isn't aware they're being studied. Oh, he asks them to walk around just a bit, and say a particular line of dialogue. But he listens well, and pays close enough attention to the person so that he can recreate mannerisms, inflections, little things that make a difference. Not a complete impersonation, just enough "non-Scrimshaw" to remind us whose tragedy he is performing. Scrimshaw comedy can be broad, of course, but the smart stuff, the stuff that reminds you he's not "just a clown" is often in the subtleties.
It wouldn't work if Scrimshaw didn't know his Shakespeare. But he does. People will appreciate it on different levels, depending on how well they know Shakespeare themselves. The great thing about Shakespeare, at his best, is he knew how to create a solid entertaining story, be it comedy or tragedy. Scrimshaw, at his best, has the same skill. Like Shakespeare, he steals from the best and makes it uniquely his own creation. So those with no Shakespeare in their blood can enjoy it for the fun story it is. Those who know a little or a lot of Shakespeare can enjoy it on multiple levels. But everyone has a good time.
And it's fun to watch the man think on his feet - for some moments never happened before, and will never happen again. For our performance, "The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Cole," the important thing to her was... oranges (?). So her kingdom was Orangeland. When the evil military general character went out to the audience bellowing, "Do you think I'm a bad person?!" - the woman he landed in front of gave a nervous salute and said, "Sir, yes, sir!" He took one look at the color of her shirt, glared at her and walked away saying, "Don't ever wear peach in Orangeland again!"
The Tragedy of You was one of a handful of shows that was part of what I jokingly refer to as Mom's "List of Demands." She perused the Fringe website, and sent me an email of shows she really wanted to see. Joseph Scrimshaw is not just a returning favorite of mine, but hers as well. This was a demand I was more than happy to fit into our schedule.
Mom turned to me as the applause began at the end of the show and said, "We have to come see this again!" She was fascinated by the fact that it would be a completely different show, no matter when we saw it. Part of her also wanted to have her name drawn out of that Fate-Bucket. Days later, she was still pondering, "What would the name of my kingdom be."
A Fringe show that keeps providing entertainment long after it's over - that's a damn good Fringe show.
Very Highly Recommended
Their website - josephscrimshaw.com
show page
His video trailer
His Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 2:30 Saturday - show #10
Monday, August 03, 2009
Fringe 2009 - Review - The Gayer Show - 5 stars
A Show So Good, It Made Mom Cry
"How do you not know what Stonewall is?!"
"How do you not know how to hold my hand?"
The Adventures of Les Kurkendaal and Dan Bernitt
The Gayer Show
I knew from the preview snippet at the Out-of-Towner showcase that this was going to be a good show. Turned out, it was a great show.
In fact, it was in a two-way tie for Mom for the very best thing we saw in a Saturday chock-full of really good shows.
"You made my Mom cry!" I called out in angry jest when we chatted with the performers after the show. She did cry. The stories from Les Kurkendaal and Dan Bernitt really moved her.
They were also, of course, very funny stories. Les, especially, is an expert at using humor to cushion the painful emotional blows which peppered the main story which threaded through his coming out narrative. That central issue was the strained relationship Les had with his father for nearly forty years. Les wasn't the son his father expected, but eventually, after many setbacks, Les' father realized that he had a son of whom he could be proud. There were many romantic and sexual mishaps along Les' journey of self-discovery, and self-respect, but it was Les' unbreakable ties to his family which impacted the audience with the most force. It was a well-modulated series of comic tales, which ultimately added up to something that packed a nice emotional punch.
Dan, by contrast, had almost no worries with his parents. For Dan, the main issue was one of his own - learning to navigate the rocky waters to between sex and intimacy. Not easy for a guy who spends half his time thinking too much, and the other half feeling too much, never quite able to get both those verbs working in unison to help each other out. The decidedly unromantic adventures of Dan were compounded by another ongoing struggle. Dan, being the smart, well-informed fellow he is, often had an easier time embracing the idea of his gay heritage, than just... well, relaxing and being a gay man himself. Moments with poetic turns of phrase slammed up against scenes of personal interaction, and betrayal, that were anything but poetic. Here again, the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.
Gay men, from two different generations, share a stage, a story, and a common future. It's a simple, but powerful, conclusion - despite all the laughs along the way.
No wonder Mom cried.
Yeah, you've seen variations on this story before. But not from these guys. So, in that sense, it's completely unique, and...
Very Highly Recommended
Their websites - www.facebook.com/pages/LES-KURKENDAAL/38991573192 and www.danbernitt.com
Their show page
And don't forget Dan's solo show, the return of the really great
Phi Alpha Gamma
Fringe 2009 - 1:00 Saturday - show #9
"How do you not know what Stonewall is?!"
"How do you not know how to hold my hand?"
The Adventures of Les Kurkendaal and Dan Bernitt
The Gayer Show
I knew from the preview snippet at the Out-of-Towner showcase that this was going to be a good show. Turned out, it was a great show.
In fact, it was in a two-way tie for Mom for the very best thing we saw in a Saturday chock-full of really good shows.
"You made my Mom cry!" I called out in angry jest when we chatted with the performers after the show. She did cry. The stories from Les Kurkendaal and Dan Bernitt really moved her.
They were also, of course, very funny stories. Les, especially, is an expert at using humor to cushion the painful emotional blows which peppered the main story which threaded through his coming out narrative. That central issue was the strained relationship Les had with his father for nearly forty years. Les wasn't the son his father expected, but eventually, after many setbacks, Les' father realized that he had a son of whom he could be proud. There were many romantic and sexual mishaps along Les' journey of self-discovery, and self-respect, but it was Les' unbreakable ties to his family which impacted the audience with the most force. It was a well-modulated series of comic tales, which ultimately added up to something that packed a nice emotional punch.
Dan, by contrast, had almost no worries with his parents. For Dan, the main issue was one of his own - learning to navigate the rocky waters to between sex and intimacy. Not easy for a guy who spends half his time thinking too much, and the other half feeling too much, never quite able to get both those verbs working in unison to help each other out. The decidedly unromantic adventures of Dan were compounded by another ongoing struggle. Dan, being the smart, well-informed fellow he is, often had an easier time embracing the idea of his gay heritage, than just... well, relaxing and being a gay man himself. Moments with poetic turns of phrase slammed up against scenes of personal interaction, and betrayal, that were anything but poetic. Here again, the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.
Gay men, from two different generations, share a stage, a story, and a common future. It's a simple, but powerful, conclusion - despite all the laughs along the way.
No wonder Mom cried.
Yeah, you've seen variations on this story before. But not from these guys. So, in that sense, it's completely unique, and...
Very Highly Recommended
Their websites - www.facebook.com/pages/LES-KURKENDAAL/38991573192 and www.danbernitt.com
Their show page
And don't forget Dan's solo show, the return of the really great
Phi Alpha Gamma
Fringe 2009 - 1:00 Saturday - show #9
Fringe 2009 - Fearsome Critter review is up on MNArtists.org
Go here to read the 4 star review...
Labels:
4 Stars - Excellent,
Fringe Archives 2009
Fringe 2009 - MNArtists.org Review Update
Just a quick update on reviews in the editing pipeline.
My editor over at MNArtists.org is currently processing the review for Fearsome Critter and says it should be posted sometime tomorrow.
I've also submitted the next MNArtists.org review, for Love Me Or Die!, so hopefully that one will be up soon thereafter.
Once they're both live, I'll post some links here and over at Twin Cities Daily Planet.
Meanwhile, just know I think very highly of both shows.
Fearsome Critter ranks at 4 stars, Highly Recommended.
Love Me Or Die! ranks at 5 stars, Very Highly Recommended.
So get out and see these, and all kinds of other, Fringe shows.
Thanks for your patience.
My editor over at MNArtists.org is currently processing the review for Fearsome Critter and says it should be posted sometime tomorrow.
I've also submitted the next MNArtists.org review, for Love Me Or Die!, so hopefully that one will be up soon thereafter.
Once they're both live, I'll post some links here and over at Twin Cities Daily Planet.
Meanwhile, just know I think very highly of both shows.
Fearsome Critter ranks at 4 stars, Highly Recommended.
Love Me Or Die! ranks at 5 stars, Very Highly Recommended.
So get out and see these, and all kinds of other, Fringe shows.
Thanks for your patience.
Labels:
Fringe Archives 2009,
Fringe blogging
Fringe 2009 - Review - Food Shelf Follies - 5 stars
For Some People, There Is No Safety Net
"Standing there, my hands full of fake money..."
Lane McKiernan
Food Shelf Follies
I didn't realize just how much I took the simple act of eating for granted. The past year and a half I've been focused on things like losing weight and some changes in my diet. The concept of there just not being any food to eat, or worse yet, food available, but none that my body could tolerate ingesting, just never crossed my mind.
Food Shelf Follies is the best kind of window into another world. Lane McKiernan's Fringe show is a clear-eyed view of a life lived close to the edge. It is unsparing, but also unsentimental. There is a remarkable lack of self-pity in this true tale of food stamps, lost shelter, lost health care, lost jobs, and a lost way of life. There is also humor, and anger, but both are earned, and directed at the right targets.
This isn't just a rant against the lack of feeling society has for its most needy. It is a travelogue through the backstreets of a world we'd rather pretend didn't exist, of a problem we'd like to pretend we've solved, or at least found the resources with which to begin to cope. I'd say it was a wake-up call, but I think we're all awake. It's more like a hand reaching out, taking our chin, and turning our head to look squarely at something that's already there. The hand is gentle. The hand doesn't yank on us. But the hand is insistent. As it should be.
Between Lane's tales of being berated at the checkout line at the grocery store, being fed and shepherded through a time of poverty by a friend who'd been there themselves, and miles of red tape that boggle the mind, we have interludes of Katie Burgess juggling food, as Walken Schweigert playing a busker's violin, empty instrument case open at his feet.
I'd like to think I could keep getting up after being knocked down the way Lane has, over and over and over again. I'd like to think I could make such a smart, entertaining document of the places all those troubles took me. I'm not sure I'd be able to.
But Lane certainly has. And it's a journey worth taking. Let him guide you.
(There are snacks at the end. And snacks just don't look quite the same after he weaves his tale.)
Very Highly Recommended
His show page
Fringe 2009 - 10:00 Friday - show #8
"Standing there, my hands full of fake money..."
Lane McKiernan
Food Shelf Follies
I didn't realize just how much I took the simple act of eating for granted. The past year and a half I've been focused on things like losing weight and some changes in my diet. The concept of there just not being any food to eat, or worse yet, food available, but none that my body could tolerate ingesting, just never crossed my mind.
Food Shelf Follies is the best kind of window into another world. Lane McKiernan's Fringe show is a clear-eyed view of a life lived close to the edge. It is unsparing, but also unsentimental. There is a remarkable lack of self-pity in this true tale of food stamps, lost shelter, lost health care, lost jobs, and a lost way of life. There is also humor, and anger, but both are earned, and directed at the right targets.
This isn't just a rant against the lack of feeling society has for its most needy. It is a travelogue through the backstreets of a world we'd rather pretend didn't exist, of a problem we'd like to pretend we've solved, or at least found the resources with which to begin to cope. I'd say it was a wake-up call, but I think we're all awake. It's more like a hand reaching out, taking our chin, and turning our head to look squarely at something that's already there. The hand is gentle. The hand doesn't yank on us. But the hand is insistent. As it should be.
Between Lane's tales of being berated at the checkout line at the grocery store, being fed and shepherded through a time of poverty by a friend who'd been there themselves, and miles of red tape that boggle the mind, we have interludes of Katie Burgess juggling food, as Walken Schweigert playing a busker's violin, empty instrument case open at his feet.
I'd like to think I could keep getting up after being knocked down the way Lane has, over and over and over again. I'd like to think I could make such a smart, entertaining document of the places all those troubles took me. I'm not sure I'd be able to.
But Lane certainly has. And it's a journey worth taking. Let him guide you.
(There are snacks at the end. And snacks just don't look quite the same after he weaves his tale.)
Very Highly Recommended
His show page
Fringe 2009 - 10:00 Friday - show #8
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Fringe 2009 - Out of Towner Showcase (or OOTS)
Here's links to the coverage of the artists previewing in the Out of Towner Showcase (or OOTS), alphabetical by show title.
The Twin Cities Daily Planet versions of the posts are grouped together in clumps - first half, second half of the evening.
Once I get them archived on my site, there will be individual show posts, too.
7/30/09 - AfterLife
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Auntie Dorris’ You May Not Wanna Know but I’m Gonna Tell You Anyway A-thon
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Bedroom Stories
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Casebolt & Smith - Speaking Out
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Cherry Cherry Lemon
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Concord, Virginia - A Southern Town In Stories
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - The Gayer Show
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Habitat - A Documentary Theater Project
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Holding Patterns
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Like A Virgin
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Like You Mean It
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - The Morning After The Summer of Love
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Passage
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Storm Still
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Stroke Is No Joke
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Sure To Cure, Dr. Amelia's Medicine Show
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Tech Support - The Musical
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - The Tenth Muse
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - The Vegas Project (#1)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Was My Brother In The Battle? Songs of War
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Winnemucca (three days in the belly)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
The Twin Cities Daily Planet versions of the posts are grouped together in clumps - first half, second half of the evening.
Once I get them archived on my site, there will be individual show posts, too.
7/30/09 - AfterLife
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Auntie Dorris’ You May Not Wanna Know but I’m Gonna Tell You Anyway A-thon
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Bedroom Stories
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Casebolt & Smith - Speaking Out
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Cherry Cherry Lemon
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Concord, Virginia - A Southern Town In Stories
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - The Gayer Show
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Habitat - A Documentary Theater Project
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Holding Patterns
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Like A Virgin
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Like You Mean It
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - The Morning After The Summer of Love
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Passage
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Storm Still
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Stroke Is No Joke
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Sure To Cure, Dr. Amelia's Medicine Show
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - Tech Support - The Musical
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/30/09 - The Tenth Muse
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - The Vegas Project (#1)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Was My Brother In The Battle? Songs of War
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/31/09 - Winnemucca (three days in the belly)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Fringe 2009 - Review - Winnemucca (three days in the belly) - 5 stars
A Play So Good I Wish To Hell I'd Written It
"I was bad luck. Something dark about me. They knew it. I knew it."
Shelby Company
Winnemucca (three days in the belly)
This is the kind of play that so completely overloads my brain, it's almost impossible to put all the reasons into some coherent form. It's just about beyond words. If I could put it into the perfect words, well, I'd probably have written the play myself. I wish I had. It's a damn good script. One of the best I've read in a long time. But playwright Dan Moyer found the words. And blogs aren't supposed to be perfect. They're blogs. So on we go.
The outline is simple - A windowless hotel room in Winnemucca. A man, Jonah (Grayson DeJesus) - beaten and bruised - running from a mission he didn't ask for and doesn't want. Another man, Big Chet (Will Brill), wields an aluminum baseball bat, and keeps Jonah locked in that room, determined that Jonah fulfills his mission whether he wants to or not. A woman, Suede Lucy (Jenni Putney), an exotic dancer in a nearby club, channels desires both earthly and divine for both men. None of these people are exactly what they first appear to be. Layers keep peeling off them. New depths and stranger motives are revealed. Sympathies and realities shift.
Director Wren Graves and the cast, supported by producers Brian Hedden and Nathaniel Kent and stage manager Abby Slawik, take Moyer's script and make it unfold just like it needs to. It justified their place in my Top 10 list, and lived up to the peek behind the curtain I got at the Out of Towner Showcase.
The reason this is just my kind of thing, and why I find it so enormously compelling to watch, is that it gets all the pistons firing in by brain on subjects like the nature of good and evil. Right and wrong. Does anyone really need saving? Can anyone be saved? Isn't there a sort of ridiculous arrogance involved in the notion of anyone going out into the world as a missionary, to try and help (or worse, tell) other people how to live their lives in a better way? Who determines what's better? What's ideal? What if there is no God and there is no Devil? No heaven and no hell? But there are laws for a reason. Everyone has their own notion of what's right and what's wrong but there are certain basic things that everyone gets together on, right? Certain things are good. Certain things are bad. Certain things you should do. Certain things you shouldn't. It can't all just be moral relativism, right? Or relativism without the "moral" at all? Right?
Right?
On the other hand, if you're not just existing, if you're not wasting the little time you have breathing on this planet, then you want to be doing something. You want to feel like you have a purpose. That what you chose to do has meaning. That it impacts other people in a meaningful way. Where do you find that? What do you do when someone or something comes along and turns you inside out and points you in a completely different direction? Do you fight the unknown, the unknowable? Do you resist leaving everything you ever knew or felt comfortable with behind? Do you try to take it with you into your new life? If you can't, how do you choose what to leave behind? Whether or not to go? Do you regret what you don't do? Or what you choose to do? Do all your actions have consequences, not just for you but for others? And are those consequences acceptable?
How do you find the words when there are no words?
Mom asked me to just map it out for her, A to B to C to D. What happened?
What happened is pretty basic. What it means, is huge.
It's probably different for every audience member. It depends on your angle of sight.
I want as many other Fringers as possible to see this thing (and it closes Wednesday), because I could sit at Fringe Central and talk about this thing over a drink until even the staff at Bedlam had to kick us the hell out because they needed to go home and get some sleep, to close the place in order to justify the notion of opening it again.
Because this is the kind of thing I go and sit in the dark in a theater to see.
And it's gonna haunt me.
Very Highly Recommended.
Today (Saturday, 8/1 at 4pm), Monday 8/3 at 10pm, Wednesday 8/5 at 7pm - that's it.
Don't let it get away from you.
Their website - www.shelbycompany.org
Their show page
Their video trailer
Travel video #1
Travel video #2
Travel video #3
Fringe 2009 - 8:30 Friday - show #7
"I was bad luck. Something dark about me. They knew it. I knew it."
Shelby Company
Winnemucca (three days in the belly)
This is the kind of play that so completely overloads my brain, it's almost impossible to put all the reasons into some coherent form. It's just about beyond words. If I could put it into the perfect words, well, I'd probably have written the play myself. I wish I had. It's a damn good script. One of the best I've read in a long time. But playwright Dan Moyer found the words. And blogs aren't supposed to be perfect. They're blogs. So on we go.
The outline is simple - A windowless hotel room in Winnemucca. A man, Jonah (Grayson DeJesus) - beaten and bruised - running from a mission he didn't ask for and doesn't want. Another man, Big Chet (Will Brill), wields an aluminum baseball bat, and keeps Jonah locked in that room, determined that Jonah fulfills his mission whether he wants to or not. A woman, Suede Lucy (Jenni Putney), an exotic dancer in a nearby club, channels desires both earthly and divine for both men. None of these people are exactly what they first appear to be. Layers keep peeling off them. New depths and stranger motives are revealed. Sympathies and realities shift.
Director Wren Graves and the cast, supported by producers Brian Hedden and Nathaniel Kent and stage manager Abby Slawik, take Moyer's script and make it unfold just like it needs to. It justified their place in my Top 10 list, and lived up to the peek behind the curtain I got at the Out of Towner Showcase.
The reason this is just my kind of thing, and why I find it so enormously compelling to watch, is that it gets all the pistons firing in by brain on subjects like the nature of good and evil. Right and wrong. Does anyone really need saving? Can anyone be saved? Isn't there a sort of ridiculous arrogance involved in the notion of anyone going out into the world as a missionary, to try and help (or worse, tell) other people how to live their lives in a better way? Who determines what's better? What's ideal? What if there is no God and there is no Devil? No heaven and no hell? But there are laws for a reason. Everyone has their own notion of what's right and what's wrong but there are certain basic things that everyone gets together on, right? Certain things are good. Certain things are bad. Certain things you should do. Certain things you shouldn't. It can't all just be moral relativism, right? Or relativism without the "moral" at all? Right?
Right?
On the other hand, if you're not just existing, if you're not wasting the little time you have breathing on this planet, then you want to be doing something. You want to feel like you have a purpose. That what you chose to do has meaning. That it impacts other people in a meaningful way. Where do you find that? What do you do when someone or something comes along and turns you inside out and points you in a completely different direction? Do you fight the unknown, the unknowable? Do you resist leaving everything you ever knew or felt comfortable with behind? Do you try to take it with you into your new life? If you can't, how do you choose what to leave behind? Whether or not to go? Do you regret what you don't do? Or what you choose to do? Do all your actions have consequences, not just for you but for others? And are those consequences acceptable?
How do you find the words when there are no words?
Mom asked me to just map it out for her, A to B to C to D. What happened?
What happened is pretty basic. What it means, is huge.
It's probably different for every audience member. It depends on your angle of sight.
I want as many other Fringers as possible to see this thing (and it closes Wednesday), because I could sit at Fringe Central and talk about this thing over a drink until even the staff at Bedlam had to kick us the hell out because they needed to go home and get some sleep, to close the place in order to justify the notion of opening it again.
Because this is the kind of thing I go and sit in the dark in a theater to see.
And it's gonna haunt me.
Very Highly Recommended.
Today (Saturday, 8/1 at 4pm), Monday 8/3 at 10pm, Wednesday 8/5 at 7pm - that's it.
Don't let it get away from you.
Their website - www.shelbycompany.org
Their show page
Their video trailer
Travel video #1
Travel video #2
Travel video #3
Fringe 2009 - 8:30 Friday - show #7
Fringe 2009 - Fearsome Critter review - coming soon
To those Fearsome Critter fans out there who may have seen the review come and go, both here and on Twin Cities Daily Planet - my bad.
I'd promised that review to our friends over at MNArtists.org
It's been submitted to them and should be posted over there in the near future.
Once it has been, I'll post a link here and on TC Daily Planet, so you can all find it again easily.
Sorry for the mix-up.
Should be back up again soon.
Thanks for your patience and your readership.
I'd promised that review to our friends over at MNArtists.org
It's been submitted to them and should be posted over there in the near future.
Once it has been, I'll post a link here and on TC Daily Planet, so you can all find it again easily.
Sorry for the mix-up.
Should be back up again soon.
Thanks for your patience and your readership.
Labels:
Fringe Archives 2009,
Fringe blogging
Fringe 2009 - Review - Needs Wants Desires - 4-1/2 stars
It All Comes Together
"Sorry. I was picturing you without a head."
Rhino Productions
Needs Wants Desires
With this Fringe show, writer-director Mic Weinblatt finally pulls it all together and gets the mix just right. In the past, he's always worked with great actors. In the past, many of his scripts have been good, even inspired. But the productions of those scripts and the use of those actors wasn't always in sync with the plays' strongest qualities. The 2008 Fringe production of Hey, I'm Talking Murder Here! is a good example. Though Rhino Productions is a returning favorite of mine, sometimes it seems hard for the production to get out of the script's way and allow it to live up to its full potential. Mic's a friend of mine. I've seen many of his scripts in development and watched them grow. But sometimes as a director, I don't think he's always served his own stories well. In the past, there's been a tendency to play for the big punchline, and the subtler moments of character development got lost in the shuffle. Here, though, in Needs Wants Desires, I really do think he gets it right. Everybody - the script, the actors, the audience - wins.
Needs Wants Desires is a collection of three short plays on the subject of, well... needs, wants, and desires.
A slinky woman (Renee Werbowski) goes to a plastic surgeon in the quest to make herself even more perfect. But is the plastic surgeon the man she first meets in the office (Jack C. Kloppenborg), or someone else (Andrew Sass)? Here, we get a bawdy sex farce for three.
A well-to-do, but slightly repressed, suburban couple (Werbowski and Sass) get a housewarming gift from their new neighbors. The unseen gift prompts a stream of sexual innuendo which gets progressively more unhinged and hilarious.
To close the show, Kloppenborg and Sass are a May-September gay couple not-quite-celebrating their three month anniversary. The younger man feels like he's playing second fiddle to the older man's career, and he's probably right. There's real affection here, but Sass' character is obviously torn in a few different directions. He tries his best, but his best is still coming up short. Kloppenborg latches onto a woman (Werbowski) who comes to the house with a petition for some worthy environmental cause. He's looking for company, but she may have more of a connection to Sass than either of them realizes.
The actors here are great, and Weinblatt uses them well. The first two shorts each call for a different sort of over-the-top bravado, and these three swing for the rafters. It's great fun.
The last piece could have been pushed too far, but here, Weinblatt and his actors wisely don't overplay their hand. These characters are allowed to become fully real, rather than just cartoons, and it's the right choice. The script calls out for it, and it gives the actors a chance to show another side of their talents. The exact nature of the relationship between Sass' and Werbowski's characters in the last piece is the one place where things are a little fuzzy. I understand that the script is deliberately not spelling it all out for us. It may be that in contrast to the first two pieces which laid it all right out there on the table, this last one seems a bit more withholding than it actually is. Maybe I, as an audience member should have been able to switch gears just a little quicker - since the all out farce of script one, led to the wild but a bit more controlled comedy of script two, paving the way for the subtler shades of script three. Everything's leading me in the right direction. I just feel like I didn't quite get there. It's a tricky balance - the right amount of abmiguity. Still, all three scripts are nicely done.
In addition to being a friend of the playwright, I should admit that I'm a big fan of Renee Werbowski's work, as she's acted in no less than four productions of my own plays, including my first in the Fringe. Jack Kloppenborg won me over in a big way with his work on Angels In America recently, so it's nice to see him bringing his talents to Fringe as well. I wasn't familiar with Andrew Sass' work before now, but after this Fringe show, I'll look forward to more.
This is a great meeting of script and actors. Very funny, with a surprising amount of heart under all the laughs.
Very Highly Recommended.
Their show page
Fringe 2009 - 5:30 Friday - show #5
"Sorry. I was picturing you without a head."
Rhino Productions
Needs Wants Desires
With this Fringe show, writer-director Mic Weinblatt finally pulls it all together and gets the mix just right. In the past, he's always worked with great actors. In the past, many of his scripts have been good, even inspired. But the productions of those scripts and the use of those actors wasn't always in sync with the plays' strongest qualities. The 2008 Fringe production of Hey, I'm Talking Murder Here! is a good example. Though Rhino Productions is a returning favorite of mine, sometimes it seems hard for the production to get out of the script's way and allow it to live up to its full potential. Mic's a friend of mine. I've seen many of his scripts in development and watched them grow. But sometimes as a director, I don't think he's always served his own stories well. In the past, there's been a tendency to play for the big punchline, and the subtler moments of character development got lost in the shuffle. Here, though, in Needs Wants Desires, I really do think he gets it right. Everybody - the script, the actors, the audience - wins.
Needs Wants Desires is a collection of three short plays on the subject of, well... needs, wants, and desires.
A slinky woman (Renee Werbowski) goes to a plastic surgeon in the quest to make herself even more perfect. But is the plastic surgeon the man she first meets in the office (Jack C. Kloppenborg), or someone else (Andrew Sass)? Here, we get a bawdy sex farce for three.
A well-to-do, but slightly repressed, suburban couple (Werbowski and Sass) get a housewarming gift from their new neighbors. The unseen gift prompts a stream of sexual innuendo which gets progressively more unhinged and hilarious.
To close the show, Kloppenborg and Sass are a May-September gay couple not-quite-celebrating their three month anniversary. The younger man feels like he's playing second fiddle to the older man's career, and he's probably right. There's real affection here, but Sass' character is obviously torn in a few different directions. He tries his best, but his best is still coming up short. Kloppenborg latches onto a woman (Werbowski) who comes to the house with a petition for some worthy environmental cause. He's looking for company, but she may have more of a connection to Sass than either of them realizes.
The actors here are great, and Weinblatt uses them well. The first two shorts each call for a different sort of over-the-top bravado, and these three swing for the rafters. It's great fun.
The last piece could have been pushed too far, but here, Weinblatt and his actors wisely don't overplay their hand. These characters are allowed to become fully real, rather than just cartoons, and it's the right choice. The script calls out for it, and it gives the actors a chance to show another side of their talents. The exact nature of the relationship between Sass' and Werbowski's characters in the last piece is the one place where things are a little fuzzy. I understand that the script is deliberately not spelling it all out for us. It may be that in contrast to the first two pieces which laid it all right out there on the table, this last one seems a bit more withholding than it actually is. Maybe I, as an audience member should have been able to switch gears just a little quicker - since the all out farce of script one, led to the wild but a bit more controlled comedy of script two, paving the way for the subtler shades of script three. Everything's leading me in the right direction. I just feel like I didn't quite get there. It's a tricky balance - the right amount of abmiguity. Still, all three scripts are nicely done.
In addition to being a friend of the playwright, I should admit that I'm a big fan of Renee Werbowski's work, as she's acted in no less than four productions of my own plays, including my first in the Fringe. Jack Kloppenborg won me over in a big way with his work on Angels In America recently, so it's nice to see him bringing his talents to Fringe as well. I wasn't familiar with Andrew Sass' work before now, but after this Fringe show, I'll look forward to more.
This is a great meeting of script and actors. Very funny, with a surprising amount of heart under all the laughs.
Very Highly Recommended.
Their show page
Fringe 2009 - 5:30 Friday - show #5
Fringe 2009 - Review - Jurassic Dork - 5 stars
The Best Thing We Saw Thursday
"Give yourselves a round of applause. We just got through the exposition portion of the program."
John Skelley
Jurassic Dork
The lights, the sound, the props, the dinosaurs, the orchestral score, the killer Jeff Goldblum and Sir Richard Attenborough impressions. Damn, Skelley. Well done.
Another great and very funny homage to another pop cultural touchstone. The number of things that could have gone wrong with this breakneck retelling of the "dinosaurs run amuck" adventure movie are almost too many to count. But John Skelley (and his amazing Fringe tech person) pulled it off in fine style.
This was also my second theatrical fake-out of the night. So good it almost had me thinking I'd completely overestimated the guy. That maybe he didn't have it in him after all. But then, a miraculous, hilarious (dare I say even a bit dirty), cameo by beloved Twin Cities actress Sally Wingert, and we were off to the races again. I don't want to give too much away, because it was a pretty brilliant fake-out.
For those who don't know the story - rich guy hires team of scientists to use prehistoric DNA to recreate living dinosaurs so he can build a theme park around them. After one of the star attractions eats one of the workers on staff, the lawyers and investors have the rich guy bring in another team of scientists to sign off on the place as safe for human consumption. Well, humans do get consumed. Because things go horribly, horribly wrong.
This thing was cheese-tastic from start to finish. Playing off both theatrical and movie conventions, going both high and low tech at the same time, Skelley has every little detail of this thing down. It's a hoot.
This thing was in my Top 20 list for a number of reasons. And they were all on full display tonight.
Damn, Skelley. Well done.
The video below of his Fringe-For-All preview, should give you a taste of the goofiness you should see for yourself.
Very Highly Recommended (and the best thing we saw on Thursday).
His show page
His Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 10:00 Thursday - show #4
"Give yourselves a round of applause. We just got through the exposition portion of the program."
John Skelley
Jurassic Dork
The lights, the sound, the props, the dinosaurs, the orchestral score, the killer Jeff Goldblum and Sir Richard Attenborough impressions. Damn, Skelley. Well done.
Another great and very funny homage to another pop cultural touchstone. The number of things that could have gone wrong with this breakneck retelling of the "dinosaurs run amuck" adventure movie are almost too many to count. But John Skelley (and his amazing Fringe tech person) pulled it off in fine style.
This was also my second theatrical fake-out of the night. So good it almost had me thinking I'd completely overestimated the guy. That maybe he didn't have it in him after all. But then, a miraculous, hilarious (dare I say even a bit dirty), cameo by beloved Twin Cities actress Sally Wingert, and we were off to the races again. I don't want to give too much away, because it was a pretty brilliant fake-out.
For those who don't know the story - rich guy hires team of scientists to use prehistoric DNA to recreate living dinosaurs so he can build a theme park around them. After one of the star attractions eats one of the workers on staff, the lawyers and investors have the rich guy bring in another team of scientists to sign off on the place as safe for human consumption. Well, humans do get consumed. Because things go horribly, horribly wrong.
This thing was cheese-tastic from start to finish. Playing off both theatrical and movie conventions, going both high and low tech at the same time, Skelley has every little detail of this thing down. It's a hoot.
This thing was in my Top 20 list for a number of reasons. And they were all on full display tonight.
Damn, Skelley. Well done.
The video below of his Fringe-For-All preview, should give you a taste of the goofiness you should see for yourself.
Very Highly Recommended (and the best thing we saw on Thursday).
His show page
His Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 10:00 Thursday - show #4
Fringe 2009 - Review - Parry Hotter & The Half-Drunk Twins - 5 stars
Theater Even A Muggle Could Love
"It was time to get Harry a wand and do some serious foreshadowing."
Empty S Productions/Tom Reed
Parry Hotter & The Half-Drunk Twins
Not only was this show sold out, it was a wee bit oversold. I'm really glad Mom and I reserved our tickets or they wouldn't have been able to squeeze us in. People were sitting on the floor in front, including one completely enchanted and amused pre-teen boy next to Mom. We got her a folding chair, and I ended up standing at the back next to the light board, but standing, sitting, near, far, damn, we all got a hell of a show.
I'd feel guiltier about liking returning favorite Tom Reed so much, if he weren't as friggin' talented as he is. Thank goodness, in addition to being really easy to look at, he has a bottomless sense of humor, a limitless ability to contort his face and body into various different characters, and powerful singing voice to boot. Plus, in keyboardist Andrea Olson, he has a great musical partner in crime to keep things humming along. If it weren't for the brief pauses between each of the seven books for a sip of water, I'd wonder how the heck he managed to get through the show. It's a marathon performance that never lets up.
Clearly this is a labor of love. Though Tom tweaks logic and plot holes, and the often repetitive structure, in the epic boy wizard saga (even dismissing one entire book with just a series of four bullet points), the guy obviously knows the books backwards and forwards from having devoured them all personally. They hold an honored place on his bookshelf and in his heart. Only somebody who likes the story so much would feel compelled to wrestle it all down into a musical comedy Fringe-sized package to share with others.
Mom, as a fellow Potter fan, enjoyed the show enormously. Not a missed step in her opinion. She marveled at how even the tiniest supporting characters were fully recreated, with their own separate identities. How Reed juggles the dozens, and dozens (and dozens) of characters and plotlines and somehow manages to keep them all distinct, boggles my mind.
As only a Potter hanger-on, indoctrinated by Mom through the movie versions, never having read the books myself, I followed it all just fine, enjoying it for the comedic and musical aspects, and leaving Mom to fill in the other levels of it all later for me as an added bonus.
This was a hell of a lot of fun.
Very Highly Recommended.
As stated before, his opening performance was sold out. I'd be surprised if Friday's wasn't as well. Make a reservation or get their early if you want to make sure to get it. And don't wait too long. His remaining performances are this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 8/2, 8/3 and 8/4. Unless he nabs the encore slot (a distinct possibility, but no guarantee), there will be no closing weekend performance for Parry Hotter. Catch it while you still can.
The video sample from his Fringe-For-All preview below will give you a taste, in case the words above failed me.
His show page
His Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 8:30 Thursday - show #3
"It was time to get Harry a wand and do some serious foreshadowing."
Empty S Productions/Tom Reed
Parry Hotter & The Half-Drunk Twins
Not only was this show sold out, it was a wee bit oversold. I'm really glad Mom and I reserved our tickets or they wouldn't have been able to squeeze us in. People were sitting on the floor in front, including one completely enchanted and amused pre-teen boy next to Mom. We got her a folding chair, and I ended up standing at the back next to the light board, but standing, sitting, near, far, damn, we all got a hell of a show.
I'd feel guiltier about liking returning favorite Tom Reed so much, if he weren't as friggin' talented as he is. Thank goodness, in addition to being really easy to look at, he has a bottomless sense of humor, a limitless ability to contort his face and body into various different characters, and powerful singing voice to boot. Plus, in keyboardist Andrea Olson, he has a great musical partner in crime to keep things humming along. If it weren't for the brief pauses between each of the seven books for a sip of water, I'd wonder how the heck he managed to get through the show. It's a marathon performance that never lets up.
Clearly this is a labor of love. Though Tom tweaks logic and plot holes, and the often repetitive structure, in the epic boy wizard saga (even dismissing one entire book with just a series of four bullet points), the guy obviously knows the books backwards and forwards from having devoured them all personally. They hold an honored place on his bookshelf and in his heart. Only somebody who likes the story so much would feel compelled to wrestle it all down into a musical comedy Fringe-sized package to share with others.
Mom, as a fellow Potter fan, enjoyed the show enormously. Not a missed step in her opinion. She marveled at how even the tiniest supporting characters were fully recreated, with their own separate identities. How Reed juggles the dozens, and dozens (and dozens) of characters and plotlines and somehow manages to keep them all distinct, boggles my mind.
As only a Potter hanger-on, indoctrinated by Mom through the movie versions, never having read the books myself, I followed it all just fine, enjoying it for the comedic and musical aspects, and leaving Mom to fill in the other levels of it all later for me as an added bonus.
This was a hell of a lot of fun.
Very Highly Recommended.
As stated before, his opening performance was sold out. I'd be surprised if Friday's wasn't as well. Make a reservation or get their early if you want to make sure to get it. And don't wait too long. His remaining performances are this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 8/2, 8/3 and 8/4. Unless he nabs the encore slot (a distinct possibility, but no guarantee), there will be no closing weekend performance for Parry Hotter. Catch it while you still can.
The video sample from his Fringe-For-All preview below will give you a taste, in case the words above failed me.
His show page
His Fringe-For-All preview
Fringe 2009 - 8:30 Thursday - show #3
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