Fringe 2012 - Saturday

Skipped Friday (actually, missed the one I was aiming for because I couldn't find The Huge Theater).  First half of Saturday was magical, 2nd half was still fun but not as successful Fringe-wise. Richard and I had a complicated plan for the day. First, we bike together to a local show  (Intermedia Arts) then separate so he can trudge through yet another art fair. I skip a timeslot while biking to the West Bank, see a 4:00 show solo. Meanwhile, Richard bikes home, gets the van, and meets me on the West Bank. We see one more show at Rarig, skip a timeslot to have dinner someplace fun,  and then put my bike in the van and drive to St. Paul to finish the night with 2 back-to-back at the Gremlin. What could go wrong?

Here's what really happened. We saw first show together as planned - not a GREAT show, but thought-provoking and fun. The unnaturally glorious weather made biking to the West Bank a delight, and I made such good time that I found myself riding past Mixed Blood at 2:25pm.  "Sneak Thief" was showing. There was a long line, which is always a good sign for a show premiere (Fringe insiders know which shows are going to be surefire hits and see them early). I managed to get in, and sure enough, the show was hilarious. Then I headed for a dance show at the Southern that turned out to be very much not to my taste ("Nucleus"). Oh well, at least I got a little nap.

On emerging from that show I find a missed phone call from R on my iPhone. Uh-oh, it's from our home number, not cell. Something's gone wrong, since he's supposed to be on the WB by now.  I call. Plans derailed - SOMEONE in our household has taken the van. Oops. Okay, I didn't care that much about "Steampunk Apocalypse" (our 5:30) anyway. I head home on bike, we eat at home, then head off to Gremlin.  8:30 show is resoundingly mediocre, and the crowd control at the Gremlin is a nightmare. Also, I've left my Fringe button at home. The upside of the volunteer chaos is that nobody notices that. Richard is tired after a long day at the Loring Art Show, and I am having a hard time facing the Theater Lobby from Hell again (especially without my button) , so we head home.

Not the best ending, but all in all a fun day. I see I never got around to the shows. I'll put my reviews in a separate post.

Fringe 2012 - Saturday shows

A Drama in Midair           * * * *
A Johnny Daydreaming Project (a buncha guys from Brainerd)
Intermedia Arts

Flawed but worth seeing by Sharon Kahn
Rating: 4 stars
As a longtime fringer I am starting to grow weary of Shakespeare sendups, pop culture mashups, and frenetic absurdist humor. The antidote to Fringe predictability is the quirky "historicals," which usually turn out to be one of a kind productions about topics you never really thought about before. This is one of those shows. You can't throw a rock at Fringe without hitting a Shakespeare/zombie musical, but this is the only chance you'll ever have to see Jules Verne exploring the link between the history of ballooning and the US space program. The presentation of all these themes could have been more polished, but better a show with too many ideas to fit into the time block than one with no ideas at all.
More comments that wouldn't fit in 750 characters.  The pieces of this show were put together clumsily, but the basic idea was visionary: to put a human face on the space program and to show how NASA is part of the continuum of the eternal human drive to escape the clutches of gravity and soar into the heavens. And underlying all that is the sense of wonder that authors like Jules Verne kindle in the human spirit. All this got a little muddled with abrupt transitions between NASA footage, staged balloon disasters, and kindly old Jules Verne lecturing the audience. I think it would have been better if they'd left out Jules and the entire made-up balloon story and instead dramatized some of the real-life ballooning anecdotes that got shoe-horned into the  expository dialog. But still, an inspiring show by somebody who knows an awful lot about ballooning.

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Sneak Thief    * * * * *
The International League of Diamond Thieves (Brant Miller, Tim Hellendrung, Debs Holloway)
Mixed Blood

Perfectly done fluff by Sharon Kahn
Rating: 5 stars
The Two Stooges try to steal a diamond. That's pretty much it, but believe me, it's a lot funnier than it sounds. With such a thin premise it's all in the execution, and in this case the execution is flawless. The writing, the acting, the pacing, the use of music - everything is perfect. You may wait in line to get in, but you'll leave with a smile on your face. 

More comments that wouldn't fit in 750 characters.  There's a little more to this show than 3-Stooges goofiness. Although the brainpower of the main characters is about on that level, the Stooges were mean-spirited.  These guys have such an underlying innocence that it's impossible not to love them. Maybe a better theatrical referent would be "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" meets "Midnight Cowboy."  Oh, hell, just go see it.

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Nucleus and Other Cell Bodies       * *
Kelly Radermacher
Southern

Not Much Fun by Sharon Kahn
Rating: 2 stars

This may be a great show if you like this style of dance, but I am rating it based on the amount of enjoyment I got from it, which wasn't much. I'm one of those unsophisticates that likes to watch human bodies in lyrical motion, flying around the stage to beautiful music with frequent interactions among the dancers. This is not that.

There is a lot of slow writhing on the floor, sudden jerky movements, cryptic hand gestures, and quite a bit of time where the dancers are just lying there or wandering vaguely around the stage. I can't say I saw the relationship between cell biology and the dance moves, either. But thanks to the soporific music, I did get a nice little nap.

More comments that wouldn't fit in 750 characters.  I probably wouldn't have been so mean in my review if the description on the website hadn't been so misleading. If you're putting on a dreary post-modern dance production with soul-deadening background music, you shouldn't describe it as "Fun, frenetic and fulfilling" or "Jarring, silly, arresting."  Truth in advertising, people!

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On the Differences Between Two Ladies and the Resolution Thereof        * * *
Gremlin
Fell Down the Stairs

Disappointing by Sharon Kahn
Rating: 3 stars
This production had more than its share of opening night glitches: extremely long scene changes and way too many flubbed lines from such experienced actors. Those things will probably improve with subsequent performances. Unfortunately, the glib and shallow writing will not improve. While some of the repartee is amusing, the characters are the thinnest cardboard and historical context is completely lacking. Is it supposed to be surprising and shocking for women to duel? For a low-born countess to challenge a princess? For women to be hard-bitten battlefield physicians? Or is this story taking place in some alternate reality where such goings-on are commonplace? Impossible to tell, and ultimately hard to care.More comments that wouldn't fit in 750 characters. This production fancies itself a "comedy of manners."  It is not. A comedy of manners is a work that is rooted firmly in a clear set of social conventions that is well understood by the audience. The characters then play off of that set of expectations, typically doing things that are unexpected or outrageous to make a point or get a laugh. That's why this play doesn't work. It is set in some nebulous fantasy version of 19th-century European aristocracy where topless lady duelists are just as likely as anything else the writers might decide to toss in. On the other hand, the acting was really quite good except for first-night stumbles, and the character of The One-Eyed Baroness was a hoot. If the writers had just given up the whole "comedy of manners" idea and made the other two characters as over-the-top as the Baroness, it might have worked as "Black Adder" style historical farce. .