Fringe 2013 - Friday (fun day)

[dreamshark]

Thorin kindly ran the game party so R and I could Fringe together. We biked to the West Bank, stopping for supper at the Midtown Market. This took longer than expected, and we pulled off the light rail trail and into the West Bank a little too late to make it to the Southern in time for "Burning Brothels." So for the 2nd time this Fringe I aborted my original plan in favor of the venue I happened to be biking past at the moment, and hit Mixed Blood instead. And for the 2nd time, the luck of the draw was a big success. So maybe I should stop planning so hard? This was another very social Fringe night. We rendezvoused with minnehaha  by design, but enjoyed chatting with Maria P, our neighbor Debby, and some very interesting friends of K that happened to be standing in front of us in line.

Anyway, here's what we saw:

7:00pm APPEARING LIVE! (Derek Hughes)  * * * * *
Mixed Blood
An excellent comic performer/ stage magician who also has real magical powers. The only other possibility is that the entire audience is seeded with shills. But that theory was shattered within an hour when minnehaha K revealed that she had seen this same guy perform and had been one of the audience participants. And honestly, if he's somehow able to guess arbitrary letters, numbers, cards and words from reading people's body language, is that any less amazing a skill than reading minds? Best magic act EVER. K was jealous that we got to see this act and she didn't. But that was balanced out by the fact that she highly recommended the "Brothels" show that we missed to see Derek. Things balance out.

8:30pm In Watermelon Sugar (Tripod Productions) * * * 1/2
Rarig Thrust [another in a succession of inappropriately sized venues, incidentally. It was far too large]

This was the show that minnehaha and I had originally planned to see together, since we were both huge Richard Brautigan fans back in the day. I had actually forgotten almost everything about this book except that the language was beautiful, and it was fun to have it gradually come back to me as I watched. It's a very odd, cryptic book and there isn't much that a staged version can do to remedy that. They did their best by wrapping the story in a framing device of Brautigan's daughter trying to understand her late father by reading one of his books. Even when I was reading and re-reading this little book in college I realized that there was something peculiar about the viewpoint character (and very likely, the author). With hindsight, I think he was probably well along the autistic spectrum, which explains almost everything about the way the narrator relates (or mostly fails to relate) to the world around him. This was a very interesting and challenging production for a little theater group to attempt and I think it succeeds for the most part. I rounded it down to 3-1/2 stars for technical reasons - uneven acting, and a musical component that mostly didn't work. I'm definitely glad I saw it. Richard, not having read any Brautigan, was mostly confused by it.

10:00pm Hickory Minimum Security Correctional Facility Presents: Hoosiers: The Stage Adaptation *  *  *  *
Ferrari McSpeedy Theatrical Productions
Rarig Thrust

I have never understood Fotis's status as a Fringe darling. I've seen him once or twice, and have been seriously underwhelmed. IMHO, this frenetically fun production succeeds despite the participation of Fotis, who was by far the least entertaining actor on the stage. But if that was the Ferrari half of "Ferrari McSpeedy" playing Arscot, I have to admit that he won me over. In any case, this is a supremely silly show that just cannonballs its way into your heart with its highly skilled cast and exuberant energy.

Comments

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Raymond was at the HOOSIERS performance you were at. He LOVED it!