Fringe Sunday - a festival of over-stimulation

[dreamshark]

I purely hate to pass up a free ticket to Valleyfair, so when the company picnic fell in the middle of the Fringe I decided to do them both. I actually had a great day, but a thoroughly exhausting one. Met up with some of my co-workers at 10am at Valleyfair, rode both of the Power Towers, the new Extreme Swing (yikes!) and 4 roller coasters (one of them twice). Concluded that the Power Towers and Steel Venom are the best thrill rides in the place, Extreme Swing is maybe a little too much, and Wild Thing is a damn fine roller coaster. Dashed home, took the seat out of the van with help from thorintatge and popped my bike in the back and met up with Richard at Augsburg for 3 Fringe shows.


2:30 p.m. Venue: U of M Proscenium * * * [Richard]
The Nightingale
presented by The Urban Spectrum Theatre Co.

4:00 p.m. Venue: Augsburg Mainstage * * * * [Richard]
Needs, Wants, Desires!
presented by Rhino Productions

5:30 p.m. Venue: Augsburg Studio * * * * 1/2
Parry Hotter and the Half-Drunk Twins
presented by Empty S Productions

8:30 p.m. Venue: Mixed Blood * * * * *
The Curse of Yig
presented by Tim Uren

10:00 p.m. Venue: U of M Xperimental * * *
June of Arc
presented by Sandbox Theatre


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5:30 p.m. Venue: Augsburg Studio   
Parry Hotter and the Half-Drunk Twins * * * * 1/2
presented by Empty S Productions 

Extremely hilarious show wherein one man recaps all 7 books, doing all the characters, and punctuating it all  with a few songs. Tom Reed is incredibly talented - watch for him in the future. Show definitely requires  basic familiarity with the Harry Potter Phenomenon to appreciate properly, but I am living proof that one  book, two movies and everybody you know talking about it is enough familiarity to enjoy the show. Marked down  from 5 stars for overly loud musical accompaniment that drowned out the singing and the fact that the room  was at about 90 degrees.


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8:30 p.m. Venue: Mixed Blood       
The Curse of Yig              * * * * *
presented by Tim Uren 

HP Lovecraft is best when read aloud. There is something about his hypnotic cadence and plummy verbosity that  needs to be heard with the ear to work its awful magic. But this performance is much more than a simple  reading (like last year's "Rats in the Walls.") At the start of the show it is essentially two narrators  taking turns reading the introductory exposition, but after a while Tim and Amy slip into the characters of  Walker and Audrey Davis and lead the audience into the ultimate "there's something under the bed" nightmare.  Beautifully done, despite the occasional slips of the tongue.


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10:00 p.m. Venue: U of M Xperimental     
June of Arc                * * *
presented by Sandbox Theatre 

June Cleaver (Beaver's mom) weaves a wistful tale of unrealized possibilities as she recalls her hopes and  dreams from before she married Ward, waves her arms around mechanically, rationalizes her present empty  existence, and fails to notice that the men in her family are doing nothing in each scene but grunting like  zombies and falling over. Every few minutes there is a commercial break. The 3 male performers hold up  black-and-white 2-dimensional versions of the products they are touting and do a verbatim reconstruction of  vintage 1950's commercials. 

I'm not sure quite what the point of this show was. I think it was supposed to be incisive irony of some  sort. But for me it was just a trip down memory lane. The actress who played June was perfect - she had the  same little string of pearls, wide brittle smile and that finishing school accent that all actors used to  affect when they weren't playing criminals or low-class women (in which case they used broad Brooklyn  accents). Yet, she somehow managed to bring some emotional resonance to the role and was really rather  touching, provided one overlooked the incongruous zombie grunting in the background and the peculiar bits of  physical business where she tried to sit down on the stove and kept sliding onto the floor. But the star of  the show was the commercials, every one of which I recognized. If you had asked me to describe a Salem  cigarette commercial from 1956 I wouldn't have been able to, but when the jingle started, I found myself  singing along ("For smoother taste smoke Sa-lem cig-a-rettes.") I'm not sure what the younger generation is  getting out of its current fascination with the 50's, but I'm getting a nostalgic kick out of it all. I can't  in all good conscience rate this show higher than 3 stars, but I got at least 4 stars of enjoyment out of it.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

There's no reviews!

K.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Hold your horses, there are now! I'm still fiddling with the fucking cut tags (which NEVER work right for me!!!).

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about cut tags. They're silly anyway; scrolling is easy.

B

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Personally, I find long entries like this to be extremely irritating.
However, you get your wish because I CANNOT get the cut tag to work.

What about you? Did you see anything on Sunday? Going out on the weeknights this week? We're doing an Uptown thing this evening.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing something at 7. Maybe "Like a Virgin." What are you seeing? I am also leaning towards the show at Intermedia: "The Problem of the Body: Why is our society ashamed of bodily urges?" I am afraid it might be too boogery and gross, though.

K.