On Decoding Show Listings
Since Fringe Year One, I’ve been refining a theory that, in its present state, goes something like this: The more artsy-fartsy the Fringe-brochure come-on, the more unbearable the show is likely to be.
Most recent evidence in support of said theory: The hilarious snippet of show I just experienced while ordering a tall, cold something at the bar in the Baldacchino.
High-order performance-art hooey, if I can judge by the tiny bit I saw and heard. Or by the expressions of the bartenders, who’d been listening for 25 minutes or so — and who looked like they were ready to poke out their eardrums with stir-straws.
Sure enough, I pull out my dog-eared Fringe schedule, and here’s the show “synopsis”:
poetic non sequiturs ….. punctuate illusive conformity ….. minimalist …. sounds effect … existential expression .. on the platform . into tangents ThroughDanceWithImprovOverMusicFromConcreteToStateOfMind PERCEPTION WILL TRANSPORT YOU IN YOUR OWN REALITY . . .
That’s my theory, and I’m stickin’ to it.
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
You can follow any responses to this entry through its comments RSS feed.
2:31 pm
I think Trey is on to something. Let the Nobel committee be alerted!
Do you think that succint, easy to digest descriptions mean a good show because the artists have a clear understanding of their own show?
3:54 pm
Not necessarily. Probably just an indicator that they’re less self-indulgent.
But I’m not Trey. Trey? Thoughts?
1:04 pm
[...] that in my opinion the Happenstance Theater has disproved Trey Graham’s previously posited theory that “the more artsy-fartsy the Fringe-brochure come-on, the more unbearable the show is [...]