The Fringe
Last night after work, I headed back into town to check out The Fringe. As I stated before, The Fringe is 11 days of indy theater and shows that takes place over the course of a few city blocks.
I only got to see 2 shows last night. Both were pretty... um... entertaining. The theaters they were in were small. One held maybe 50 people, the other 20. One had A/C that barely worked, the other didn't have it all. It was hot last night too. Very muggy. It was a pretty good time though. I may consider going back to see a few more over the next couple of days although not today. It's already hot and humid out and later in the afternoon we're supposed to get some thunderstorms. Considering how uncomfortable it was last night, it would be even worse today and would really put a damper on my enjoyment of the shows. And at $10 a whack, screw that. Hopefully it will be nicer out over the next few days so I can go back.
The first show I saw was "1001 Nights (Arabian Nights)" which had actually gotten some good comments in the newspapers based on last year's shows. So that was the first one I checked out. Now the write-up online says "Tales of phantasy, love and illusion. Story of Scheherazade who sacrifices herself to the king to make him realize how his hatred and revenge leads to nothing but sadness and emptiness." And next to the write up is a picture of a nekkid Asian woman. Well, between the newspaper review, write-up and photo, I felt strangely compelled to check it out. I was actually expecting a production of a couple (at least 2) actors with lines. Instead, it was this Japanese chick, Shakti, ritualistically dancing "the story". Different.. very different. No words or anything.. just dance. It started off a little lame but actually ended up being phenomenal. I don't think it's something I'd pay to see again, at least on my own, but it was quite good. Her choreography and movement was amazing. Then after the show, she explained briefly what it was all about, pretty much she just read what was online and told us that it was a story, in a story which was in yet another... you guessed it... story. I'd rate that show an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
The second show ended up being "The Drunken Finger Reveals Himself". There were 6 of us in the theater and despite that, it was friggin hotter than hell. The write-up of this one read "After a night of heavy binging, The Drunken Finger, a seven-foot-tall hand, returns home to his dreary existence." I was prepared to see some messed up shit. And I did. This poor bastard, in the name of art mind you, had this suit on, which, well, made him look like a giant hand. It was all padding. It looked light it was made out of 2 heavily padded winter jackets. God bless him. I was in a t-shirt and jeans and sweating my ass off, he was in that thing, moving around and under stage lights. This show was also interesting, but not of the quality of the other show. This guy's acting was ok, but the initial amusement of all the hand-jokes got old kind of fast. Essentially, he sat around, bitched and drank. And to think, I could have been making a living all along on my favorite pastime, but he beat me to it. I would have to say, I'll give this one 4 out of 10. The concept was good, he was a far better actor than I could ever imagine being, but the writing got stale 15 minutes into the show (which was an hour long). If it wasn't for the heat, I may have considered rating it a little higher, but oh well. The production quality could have been a little better too. There were a couple occasions where he broke character which killed the effect.
There you have it folks. My first 2 reviews from The Fringe. There are a few other productions that I definitely want to go see. I picked up a free program outside the first show that tells you what's playing and when so I'll sift through that today. Who knows, if it clears up and cools down, maybe later I'll go back. Otherwise, I'll be sitting in my place, enjoying the gift from God that is free, central a/c.
I only got to see 2 shows last night. Both were pretty... um... entertaining. The theaters they were in were small. One held maybe 50 people, the other 20. One had A/C that barely worked, the other didn't have it all. It was hot last night too. Very muggy. It was a pretty good time though. I may consider going back to see a few more over the next couple of days although not today. It's already hot and humid out and later in the afternoon we're supposed to get some thunderstorms. Considering how uncomfortable it was last night, it would be even worse today and would really put a damper on my enjoyment of the shows. And at $10 a whack, screw that. Hopefully it will be nicer out over the next few days so I can go back.
The first show I saw was "1001 Nights (Arabian Nights)" which had actually gotten some good comments in the newspapers based on last year's shows. So that was the first one I checked out. Now the write-up online says "Tales of phantasy, love and illusion. Story of Scheherazade who sacrifices herself to the king to make him realize how his hatred and revenge leads to nothing but sadness and emptiness." And next to the write up is a picture of a nekkid Asian woman. Well, between the newspaper review, write-up and photo, I felt strangely compelled to check it out. I was actually expecting a production of a couple (at least 2) actors with lines. Instead, it was this Japanese chick, Shakti, ritualistically dancing "the story". Different.. very different. No words or anything.. just dance. It started off a little lame but actually ended up being phenomenal. I don't think it's something I'd pay to see again, at least on my own, but it was quite good. Her choreography and movement was amazing. Then after the show, she explained briefly what it was all about, pretty much she just read what was online and told us that it was a story, in a story which was in yet another... you guessed it... story. I'd rate that show an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
The second show ended up being "The Drunken Finger Reveals Himself". There were 6 of us in the theater and despite that, it was friggin hotter than hell. The write-up of this one read "After a night of heavy binging, The Drunken Finger, a seven-foot-tall hand, returns home to his dreary existence." I was prepared to see some messed up shit. And I did. This poor bastard, in the name of art mind you, had this suit on, which, well, made him look like a giant hand. It was all padding. It looked light it was made out of 2 heavily padded winter jackets. God bless him. I was in a t-shirt and jeans and sweating my ass off, he was in that thing, moving around and under stage lights. This show was also interesting, but not of the quality of the other show. This guy's acting was ok, but the initial amusement of all the hand-jokes got old kind of fast. Essentially, he sat around, bitched and drank. And to think, I could have been making a living all along on my favorite pastime, but he beat me to it. I would have to say, I'll give this one 4 out of 10. The concept was good, he was a far better actor than I could ever imagine being, but the writing got stale 15 minutes into the show (which was an hour long). If it wasn't for the heat, I may have considered rating it a little higher, but oh well. The production quality could have been a little better too. There were a couple occasions where he broke character which killed the effect.
There you have it folks. My first 2 reviews from The Fringe. There are a few other productions that I definitely want to go see. I picked up a free program outside the first show that tells you what's playing and when so I'll sift through that today. Who knows, if it clears up and cools down, maybe later I'll go back. Otherwise, I'll be sitting in my place, enjoying the gift from God that is free, central a/c.
posted by Surviving In The Burbs at 6/11/2005 09:09:00 AM
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