Finishing up the Fringe - Sunday Aug 14

[dreamshark]

It seems so long ago now (almost a week ago!), but I guess it's not too late to finish up my Fringe reports. I've discovered that I like looking back at the old ones when Fringe rolls around each year, so I might as well be complete. We finished up with a relaxing and satisfying Sunday. Richard saw 3 shows. I only did two, but got in 12 miles of biking (to the West Bank and back). Since I was biking, Richard and I traveled separately, which led to a mixup where both of us bought tickets to the same show. oops. Fortunately we got away with using the extra pair for the next show.

Macbeth: The Video Game Remix * * * 1/2
Theater Arlo (Tim Uren, Dawn Krosnowski, Duck Washington)

Thoroughly enjoyable, but not brilliant. Relied a little too heavily on half a dozen video-gamer in-jokes repeated over and over. The excellent comic acting made up for the rather pedestrian writing, but I was hoping for a little more cleverness. I did get a kick out of the idea that the fateful witches' prophecy that sets the plot of Macbeth in motion is just a cut-scene that is repeated over and over for every player that wanders by. But it would have been funnier if noob player Macbeth hadn't caught on so quickly that the witches said the same thing to everybody and there wasn't anything special about his destiny.

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The Friar and the Nurse * * * * *
Joking Apart Theater (Edwin Strout and Jean Wolff)

Possibly the best show I saw this year - well written, brilliantly acted and very emotionally affecting. I'm not sure why it was being sold as a "titillating comedy." There were some wonderful comic bits, but the overall story arc is only slightly less tragic than Romeo and Juliet's story going on in the background.

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I was done at this point, biked home and took a much needed shower. If the last show hadn't been such a success I might have tried for one more, but I figured why not go out on a high note? And Richard wanted to see Yarrrh! The Lusty, Busty Pirate Musical, which sounded kind of dumb to me. From his report, it was better than it sounded. Anyway, he enjoyed it. But I have no regrets. I saw just 15 shows this year, and that felt about right. I'm sure i would have seen more if we'd had Ultrapasses. But it's just as well. Trying to get the most out of an Ultrapass is pretty exhausting.

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I'm still not sure what's going on with my bike, but I "fixed" the problem by loosening up the brake a little and reseating the front wheel. The front brake is working acdeptably now, but it squeals. I should really take the bike in for a tuneup. I might as well take advantage of my lifetime free tuneups at Alt Bike and Board.

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I was hoping that Macbeth would have more "Macbeth" than "Video Game", but I thought it worked pretty well. A lot of the Shakespeare variants didn't work for me this year; you liked Tempests a great deal more than I. I'm glad we both liked these two.

Much as I liked The Friar and the Nurse it was really... slash. Perhaps the only fanfic I've ever liked. Admittedly, my sample size is very small.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

*heh* I guess it is at that.

Do you mean that the slash genre is the only type of fanfic you like, or that this was the only example of that genre that you liked?

[barondave.livejournal.com]

The Friar and the Nurse is the only bit of fanfic (or slash) that I've been able to make it all the way through. I'm glad characters are so real to some people that they feel the need to carry on their lives outside the canonical work, but other's interpretation/sex fantasy is not for me.

(Of course, no one has written Shockwave Radio fanfic, so maybe I'm just peeved...)