Fringe Festival Friday - Day 2

8:00 PM
The Book of Pops ****
Presented by Theater Zero at Bryant-Lake Bowl

10:00 PM
The Cody Rivers Show: Flammable People *****
Presented by The Cody Rivers Show at Minneapolis Theatre Garage

11:30 PM
An Intimate Evening with Fotis; The Taller Side of Ferrari McSpeedy ***
Presented by The Importance of Being Fotis at Minneapolis Theatre Garage

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The Book of Pops ****
We only went to this one because it fit the schedule, and were very pleasantly surprised at how good it was. This show apparently grew out of a series of improv sketches, but somebody did a lot of work weaving those sketches together into an overall story that touches on themes of life, death, relationships and self. The staging is really remarkable - the huge cast (including several children) flits across the stage, through the audience, and in and out of doors (breaking not only the 4th wall but the 5th one as well) without missing a beat. The performances are engaging, but the segues are brilliant. Recommended for all ages - with one caveat. The printed program contains a hastily inserted horrified disclaimer along the lines of "We had no idea that bridge was going to break, and we're really really sorry but there's nothing we can do about it at this point..." Indeed. The play takes place on, under and around a bridge, and given the themes of the play there are references to death and drowning that could well be upsetting to more sensitive audience members.

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The Cody Rivers Show: Flammable People *****
This show is soooo good! I just wish there were some way to describe it adequately. It's a couple of guys in bright green jumpsuits and big hair doing rapid-fire absurdist sketch comedy, physical humor, fish impersonations, and occasional acrobatic song-and-dance routines. If you like that sort of thing, you'll love these guys. Sit down front if you're feeling brave.

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An Intimate Evening with Fotis; The Taller Side of Ferrari McSpeedy ***
One guy sitting at a desk and READING (not telling) stories from his (not terribly long, not terribly interesting) life. This guy has quite a following, and I guess he's pretty good at what he does, but not to my taste. If you would find that a boring monologue about sports becomes hilarious when the names of the players are replaced by the names from the old Transformers cartoons, then you are his target audience. I clearly am not.

Fringe Festival Saturday - Day #3 - The Plan

Oh oh. Weather. I forgot that water sometimes falls from the sky. Ah, it can't be serious. We don't get rain here.

Here's the (ridiculously strenuous) plan for the day. Let's see how close it comes to reality. Unlike minnehaha K, when I make an ambitious plan I feel absolutely no sense of commitment to it. This plan is based on biking a big loop through downtown, over to the West Bank, and ultimately back home.

1:00 PM
Hansel and Gretel: The Musical
Presented by Top Hat Theatre at Theatre de la Jeune Lune

2:30 PM
The Broken Brain Summit
Presented by Interact Center for the Visual Performing Arts at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts

4:00 PM
Nor Did the Atomic Bomb Drop Itself
Presented by Richard Rousseau/Gone Today Productions at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts

5:30 PM
Uncle Al's Tales from Beneath the Sink
Presented by Al Sicherman at Playwrights' Center

8:30 PM
Starr, Scott and Bill
Presented by Starr, Scott and Bill at Cedar Cultural Center

10:00 PM
Three Days in Hell
Presented by Vanderpan Enterprises at Cedar Cultural Center

Fringe Festival Saturday - Day #3 - The Reality

Bowing to the reality of a surprising but much-needed all-day rain, we abandoned the bikes for the day and drove. We actually stuck to plan for most of the day, but replaced the West Bank shows in the evening with Flawed Genius in Southeast, for a total of 5 shows. It was a successful day, leading off with two excellent productions: Hansel and Gretel: The Musical and The Broken Brain Summit.

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1:00 PM - Hansel and Gretel: The Musical ****
--- Top Hat Theatre at Theatre de la Jeune Lune
One of the most elaborate productions I've ever seen at the Fringe - huge cast, colorful costumes, full musical score. The theme of Hansel and Gretel is problematical for modern audiences, coming down to this: adults will always betray you; live by your wits or die a terrible death. The producers of this show have made a game attempt to deal with this dismal message by stuffing the play full of loving mommies and daddies, dancing/singing animals, and villagers that alternate between joyful peasant festivals and woodland search parties. But no amount of added sugar can disguise the fact that the children do get abandoned in the woods, harrassed by nasty crumb-eating blackbirds, and nearly eaten by a witch. It's all great fun. Recommended to everybody except sour-tempered Brothers Grimm purists.

2:30 PM - The Broken Brain Summit *****
--- Interact Center for the Visual Performing Arts at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts
This was just great; a wonderful combination of art and reality. We sat down front, which turned out to put us right in the middle of the circle of "performers" (brain-damaged adults who were both reading from a script and telling their own stories). A wonderfully intimate experience, and a perfect change of pace after the large scale Hansel and Gretel. Incidentally, if you go to the address listed in the Fringe schedule you will just find a lot of lost Fringers asking each other where the theater is. The theater entrance is actually on the other side of the building, on 2nd Street not 3rd Avenue.


4:00 PM - Nor Did the Atomic Bomb Drop Itself ***
---- Richard Rousseau/Gone Today Productions at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts
A very erratic production, with disconnected parts that never formed any kind of whole, or illuminated the intriguing title. The story-teller (Richard Rousseau) that began and ended the show was superb. The poetry (Tom Cassidy) was well delivered, but not to my taste: I prefer rhyme and scansion to heavy-handed irony. And the skit in the middle? Pointless and incomprehensible.


5:30 PM - Salome by Oscar Wilde **
--- Arthur Repertory Theatre at Theatre de la Jeune Lune
The first show I've seen this year that I actually disliked. The play itself was disappointing - I expected more from Oscar Wilde than a flat retelling of the "Bring me the head of John the Baptist" story. There were some nice descriptive turns of phrase, but precious little wit or character insight. The staging was inconsistent: Herod and his queen in full period costume, but everybody else in modern dress. The casting was inexplicable: John the Baptist (wearing nothing but a pair of punked out blue jeans) looked like a fat, hairy couch potato, with dull, piggy little eyes and limp hair. When his head makes a solo appearance at the end it looks like the head of Rasputin (appropriate enough, except that it doesn't remotely resemble the head of the actor that was playing John). Worst of all, the dancing was leaden. To be fair, Richard liked the show better than I did.


8:00 PM - Flawed Genius ***1/2
--- Barnaby King at The Soap Factory
The original Sad Clown and his astonishing piano. Barnaby King is a very talented performer, rubber-faced and seemingly boneless, and he really knows how to work the crowd. However, his material is a little thin and some of his schticks drag on way too long, giving the audience too much time to reflect on how uncomfortable the venue really is. I enjoyed his show, but I must admit that I was glad when it was over.