I performed at the Philly Fringe this year. I was there for a week, and performed 4 times, and saw 9 shows of the 237 presented. Here are my reviews of them.
Please note These are MY opinions. I'm sure that other people had their own opinions, that might have been different.
If you saw some of the same shows,
I'd love to hear your opinion of them! (And if you were in one of these shows, and have a different opinion (or the same),
I'd also love to hear from you!)
HOTEL OBLIGADO'S CONTAGION:--By alums of one of the schools I went to (Dell'arte School of Physical Theatre) Some beautiful physical bits (esp. some very fast stage combat choreography), and some really touching moments. I loved the glove on the head bursting from sheer nostril power, the bed of roses/gloves, and the scratching in the waiting room (Oh yes, and how can I forget "The Anal!") From talking to various cast members, I know that the piece is in flux and will change somewhat. I look forward to seeing the story develop more, (esp. the interactions between the recurring characters) and the verbal and vocal parts matching up to the intense physical-ness of the show.
HEADLONG DANCE COMPANY'S BRITTNEY'S INFERNO-- a dance piece about the making of Brittney. It was good, but not great. The set was BEAUTIFUL! and the dancing was good, but it just didn't cut it IMO. Too much of the same thing, and I guess I don't know enough about Brittney to "get it" I mean, I knew at the start of the play that Brittney was a vapid girl going after the popular. They didn't add anything to my knowledge of what she had to give up, or how the fame and fortune and glitter seduced her. ) The dance part was very well done, esp. the glitzy choreography of Brittney learning to dance. I just wish the writing had been different, and that the arc of the show had been stronger.
SOBOOGE'S HATCHED --a brilliant physical theatre company made up of Lecoq grads-- they tell a turn of the century love story set in a circus with a winged woman and a disbelieving reporter. Their physical work and music (live) is really sharp, but the best thing about their work is their storytelling! They've made up a great story and they tell it well (enough to easily forgive the many missed lighting cues). Update: I saw the end of this show the second day, and it is a beautiful piece. They'd fixed a lot of the technical stuff on the second day! I highly recommend seeing this group.
TEATR BIURO PODROZY'S CARMEN FUNEBRE-- A Polish theatre piece about the war performed entirely out of doors, involving stilt walking, burning sets, burning crosses, and some pretty seriously loud industrial music. It was visually stunning, and the opening scene (two men on stilts slowly approach the group, moving through the audience with large flashlights (it's nearly black) You can't see them, but they are hooded. When the lights come on, they have metal helmets and chest shields and are carrying whips. ) The show was quite well done, but for my mind, it was all on one note-- all solemn. There was no sense of humor or other notes to push against, and show us what we'd lost in the war. It was quite a moving and striking piece with many amazing visual images (war-cripples on stilts) but theatrically unsatisfying.
NEW PARADISE LABORATORIES 60 MINUTE MENTAL VACATION-- this is a group run by former Bloomsbergian Whit McLaughlin. It was a guided exercise/workshop. After a brief physical warmup, you were guided to a place in the room with a facilitator, and a partner. You were shown a book of photographs of statues, and were asked to choose one. The other two people then would mold you into that statue. You traded with your partner, and then the facilitator molded both of you into (at first a second statue (together) as Orpheus and Eurydice, and then a third modified statue. You then went from your first statue to the second statue to the third. (We had some extra time, so we did it again going from 1 to 2 to 3 and then back to 1. We were pressed for time, so we didn't get a chance to talk about it. It was fun, and maybe for the less theatre savvy it was enlightening. For me-- well, I've done loads of those exercises before. Still I had a good time.
SPLICE-- a group of four physical theatre actors (graduates of the LeCoq school from four international cities (London, Sydney, New York, and Toronto) put on a very clever and witty homage to film. Using very few props, a series of black and white screens, and their bodies and voices, the international group (Blue Inc.) were extremely inventive in creating the look, characters, and even the sound of classic movies. There were lots of very clever transition, and the actors displayed a lot of virtuosity in movement and voice. My only cavil was that they didn't play enough with the characters. They were content to pay homage and quote the films, but I would have loved to see them SPLICE some of the films (Marlon Brando in the middle of Gone With the Wind) Still, that's writing a different play really. They did a great job and it was Well worth seeing!
CRYOLUMIA-- a NYC group of Rave artists, dancers, and ice sculptors. The show (which was more of an event or spectacle than a show or a dance) featured fire, ice, smoke, hypnotic music, and video projections. It was definite eye candy, but for me, the pace of the show (and the point of it) was completely lost. It was 35 minutes long and it seemed like an hour. The ads promised erotic, and I just didn't find it erotic enough. The lead instigator (whose name is Cipher) was and is a great performer and fun to watch, but his partners just didn't have the same enthusiasm, skill level, or personal charisma that made them fun to watch. The concept of the show had a lot of promise (and there was one moment with the ice dripping into water, and dry ice being turned into gas that was kind of sublime) but there wasn't enough to keep my interest. I wish I'd seen this at the NYC Fringe when it was free, and I could have left after 10 minutes of eye candy.
THE GREAT QUENTINI-- a performance artist who works at Penn as a technical theatre advisor, he's created a series of pieces that deal with feelings of alienation, awkwardness, and the pervasiveness of technology. Quentini uses a variety of sculptural costumes (including a 120 lb tire tread costume, and katherni made out of large metal bowls) The pieces in the show are not 100% explained, and are occasionally mystifying, but overall there is enough humor and visual stimulation to follow the show quite well. It's closer to performance art than theatre, which was fine with me. A couple of memorable moments-- as his taped voice tells a story about how he was observed frolicking in the grass by his neighbors as he slowly rubs his face and head onto a tiny rectangle of sod grass on the stage was. Another great moment was a monologue/music piece that he performed using steel drums and talking barbie dolls was pretty funny and compelling. Definitely worthwhile.
MACHINES MACHINES MACHINES MACHINES MACHINES MACHINES MACHINES --Philadelphia locals (and artistic directors of the Pig Iron Theatre Company) Quinn Bauriedel and Geoff Sobelle join forces as Antique MŽcanique, a new company, to present this show. It's purportedly a show presented by "Antish Mecanish" a Slovakian duo. During the course of the show, Quinn and Geoff at first play an English producer and the American stage hand, and then the two performers, who speak in a kind of nonsense gibberish Slovakian, and have concocted a series of crazy machines to do simple tasks as part of the show. The machines include lots of strings, a large ice pick, a folding bed, a rolling treadmill thing (like for under a car), lots of newspaper, golf balls that roll along tracks, a match lighter, and a cereal pourer, to name a few. It's a clown show basically, and the performers are quite good and easy to watch. The show has a very loose structure and is seemingly improvised and very dependent on how some of the machines work (when something doesn't work, the other performer would come out as a machine ambulance and fix the machine.) There was lots of brilliant chaos, and some great in the moment moments. My favorite was when a model of the set was brought in, and a windup elephant and a live rabbit (both approximately the same size) are left to their own devices in the set. In the show I saw, the rabbit escaped, and it was a brilliant moment. It was a little too hot in the little storefront theatre, and I think the show could have been tighter, but overall, very enjoyable. I'd go see it again!
I spoke to Quinn before the show. Amazingly, he'd seen the production of
Waiting For Godot that I was in at the George Coates Performance Works in San Francisco in 1993! Amazing! They were going to wear flea circus tattoos during their performance, but managed to forget!
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