The 70% Club
Social Hall, Trinity University, 125 Michigan Avenue NE
(Note: The performance changed rooms within the Main Hall at Trinity; they have signs to direct you.)

Remaining Performance:
Saturday, July 26 @ 7:30 PM

They say: “Can a woman find lasting love these days — especially a black woman? Can two people stay together “’til death do us part”? As a couple prepares to say “I Do”, these issues are explored. Will Cynthia and Chris save their marriage? Will Deanna make it out of the 70% Club?”

Brett’s take: Deanna and Jackson are about to get married, but he might have cold feet, or possibly a secret that he’s worried will ruin their marriage.  Chris is not sure he wants to stay with Cynthia after five years of marriage.  Deanna’s friends, including a backstabbing roommate, her sassy mother and a gay man, are preparing for the big event.

You might be able to see from the synopsis, but “The 70% Club” is not a play.  It is a Hollywood romantic comedy on a stage.  That’s not a judgment; the play follows the familiar structures and keeps with the tropes almost exactly.  Considering romantic comedies usually take several Hollywood screenwriters and script doctors to put together, it is impressive that Mary McCallum constructed this on her own - and more so that she then puts in a necessarily likeable appearance playing Deanna, a lead role.

Actually, the script occasionally dips its toes into darker waters, as at the end of each act.  The title is a reference to a New York Times article which reported 70% of black women are without a spouse; although producing company Sista Style Productions “prides itself on providing quality and relevant theatre” only during a scene at Deanna’s bachelorette party (the overall highlight of the evening) does the play actually tackle the subject with any interest.

The actors all acquit themselves well, particularly Jene India who effecitvely plays against her apparent youth to portray Deanna’s mother.  If not for the awkwardness of the musical cues covering transitions, this could very well be filmed and put on screen as part of TInseltown’s menu of romantic comedies.  The play is performed in a massive, echoey ballroom; the sumptuous decor actually matches the plush set (no set designer is credited), although the venue has no place for lighting whatsoever, and thus overhead lights remain on the whole time.  The actors effectively project above their own echoing and the din of an air conditioner.

See it if: You like romantic comedies.

Skip it if: You don’t.  (Sometimes these things are simple.)

The Disappearance of Jonah
The Shop at Fort Fringe

Remaining Shows:
Thursday, July 24 @ 6:00 PM; Friday, July 25 @ 8:30 PM
Saturday, July 26 @ 5:00 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 12:30 PM

They say: “When small town golden boy Jonah Thompson moves to New York City, he dreams that the city will be his playground but soon he disappears. Two years later his brother Finn sets out to find Jonah, or at least some answers.”

Brett’s take: It’s painful to review a show that clearly has benefited from hours upon hours of effort and attention from thoughtful, hardworking people (who have traveled to D.C. from New York) but that nevertheless leaves you cold. You can see the conviction in the actor’s faces, hear it in their voices, and even see it in the way one of the leads’ limbs shake with apparent nervousness before going into a big scene. But sincerity can’t save this production from pretentiousness and hollowness.

The plot concerns… well, the disappearance of a college student named Jonah. It leaps back and forth from the time leading up to that event and some years afterwards (two years, as far as I could grasp), when Jonah’s younger brother Finn goes to New York City to search for him on Jonah’s birthday. In quick succession, we meet a coterie of educated New York characters, including a writer, a professor, a photographer/physics student, and an aspiring actress/waitress, all of whom had some connection with Jonah and all of whom begin to have new connections to each other. Just why these new connections start happening right when Finn is arriving at the city - besides convenience for writer Darragh Martin- is an unanswered question that points to the problems with the play.

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Carnal Node
Harman Center - Forum

Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 26 @ 9:00 PM
Sunday, July 27 @ 3:00 PM

They say: “Sex, love, and lies in the internet age: what is it about technology that simultaneously brings us together and drives us apart? Where can lonely souls find love in this age? Great Noise Ensemble explores these ideas through the works of D.J. Sparr, Mark Mellits, and Ryan Brown.”

Brett’s take: Reading the blurb, you’re forgiven for not realizing this is primarily a musical performance. It consists of three pieces, of which the one entitled “Carnal Node” is the second. That titular piece is an operatic miniature, the story of a lonely man engaging in an Internet romance, sung by a soprano who “fills the dual roles of narrator and protagonist.” The first piece, “Thick Skin” is in an avant-garde jazz vein, while the final section, “Five Machines,” comprises a quintet of ‘musical machines’ (more on that in a moment).

Here is a sampling of the notes I jotted down during the performance, when I wasn’t too enraptured to do so: “Oddly triumphant,” “powerful,” “mashup artists,” “never lose grasp of a hook, head or melody even when way off-kilter,” “Beatles (Abbey Road) drum solo?,” “old woman in audience plugged ears,” “unpredictable,” “Gastr del Sol,” “surprisingly down-to-earth humor,” “Tubular Bells.”

This is modern composed music at its best; nimble, expressive, ear-turning and strange in an accessible way, highly virtuosic (7/4 time, anyone?) but never pretentious. “Thick Skin” is a good choice for an opener because it works in the most familiar forms: despite the odd time signatures and musical use of clothes hangers (yes, clothes hangers), the three movements recall jazz ballad, film score, march, even rock n’ roll (that Ringo Starr-on-bebop drum solo I noted). It’s fun, it’s beautiful.

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Busted Jesus Comix
Flashpoint

Remaining Performances:
Sunday, July 20 @ Noon; Wednesday, July 23 @ 6:30 PM
Saturday, July 26 @ 8:00 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 4:30 PM

They say: “At nineteen, Marco’s been convicted of obscenity . . . for publishing his homemade comic book. Starting fresh in New York, a chance meeting will expose his past and change his life. A comedy about art, sex, the drive to create and the power of friendship. Based on real events.”

Brett’s take: I attended the show with some friends of the lead actor in this play, and on the Metro afterwards the actor talked about a discussion the cast & crew had over whether it categorizes as a comedy or a tragedy. He said tragedy; most of the cast said comedy. For my part, every time I think I’ve settled on an accurate descriptor - dark comedy, satirical drama, confessional romp - it seems inadequate.

Be sure, however, that if the title and blurb lead you to thinking that this is juvenile, you’re wrong. Without revealing too much detail, suffice to say that at its heart it explores the emotional fallout of tragic and horrific events. That the dramatic arc of this fallout is portrayed alongside some seriously obscene comic-book sequences is what makes it so difficult to pin down.

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The Cloud Factory
Warehouse Next Door

Remaining Performances:
Thursday, July 17 @ 10:30 PM
Friday, July 18 @ 6:30 PM
Saturday, July 19 @ 4:30 PM
Friday, July 25 @ 8:30 PM

They say: “Welcome to Sommerville, home of North America’s last independent cloud factory. The forecast is always partly cloudy, and Mary is sick of looking for the silver lining. But what will she do when the factory is shut down and her little town is changed forever?”

Brett’s take: I’ve read several reviews so far that talk about the relative “Fringe-iness” of the show being reviewed. General consensus seems to be that the out-there, the edgy, and the daring are the definition of Fringe (vis-a-vis The Naked Party), but based on my experience, far more common (and at times far more beloved) at Fringe is the small, simple solo show. Perhaps they are even the bread-and-butter of Fringe, these 7×1 Samurais and McSwiggins Pubs and Mothers of Inventions, compared to the flaming desserts and exotic liquors (to belabor the metaphor) of the Naked Parties and Sticking Places. So it all depends on what you’re looking for.

Cloud Factory is one such gemlike, intimate solo show. Making its U.S. premiere after writer/performer and native New Yorker Alix Sobler debuted it in Canada, it’s the kind of show that fits in a suitcase: a couple basic costume pieces to help indicate character changes, four props (one of them a ukelele), a CD of sound cues and nothing else except for Sobler’s script and talent. Read the rest of this entry »

Lexi Star’s Privates
Warehouse Theater - Next Door

Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ 2:00 PM
Friday, July 25 @ 6:00 PM
Sunday, July 27 @ Noon

They say: “A new play about a suicidal man and the porn starlet that stands in the way of him offing himself. This dark comedy explores how when strangers meet and connect, their lives can be changed forever.”

Brett’s take: It is hard to write a play. Things don’t even have to go wrong; they just have to be not quite enough, just a little under- or overcooked. What author (and NYU MFA Playwriting alumnus) Malcom Pelles has here is a play that clearly shows some serious script-cooking. Jokes turn on carefully established character traits; secrets are revealed in a measured, intelligent way; the characters benefit from Pelles caring about them as human beings. …But. The play just isn’t done.

The plot concerns a meeting between unproduced screenwriter and all-around nebbishy guy Bradley (Edward Daniels does a good job of playing against his muscular physical type, if a bit lax when things get heavy) and a porn star named Lexi Star (Mikhel Wirtanen does everything she can, and does it well - expect good things from her). They meet at a motel room for a “private” - a.k.a. sex for money, which apparently many porn stars do to nab an extra buck from their fans. Read the rest of this entry »

City Folk
The Universe and Source

Remaining Performances:
Sunday, July 13 @ 6:00 PM (The Universe)
Friday, July 18 @ 6:00 PM (Source)
Thursday, July 24 @ 8:00 PM (Source)

They say: “City Folk, a new improvised sitcom about the people you know, but don’t really want to. Over five nights audience members will drive the plot to create a pilot, a few filler episodes, and a series finale. Brand new episodes each night! You speak. We act! Save us from syndication!”

Brett’s take: Youngish improv group ATC (A Theater Company) has an intriguing concept: an improvised sitcom, with a completely different, sequential episode each performance. Whether or not they’re angling for followers to attend each show or not doesn’t matter, since a sitcom, of course, is designed to be jumped into with little background. What ATC does seem to be aiming for here is a modern commedia dell’arte, given the easy-to-follow stock-characters-and-plots format of the sitcom.

Trouble is, they’ve got the structure down pat, but lack the skill and substance to make it funny, or even particularly amusing. Five actors (with the program promising guest improvisers at some performances, but not saying which) take on an appropriate array of stock types: a pompous theater director and her slightly dimbulb producer, who are trying to run a theater company in the basement of a church populated by a nice-guy preacher, a sweet-and-naive choir singer and a wacky old monsignor. The group is funniest when they’re nailing sitcom tropes, like the look-at-the-camera-and-smile credits sequence.

However, the mechanics of plot and interaction (at my performance, the episode theme picked out of a hat was the ‘dream’ episode) produce little besides fumbling amateur improv. It didn’t help that at the performance I saw the plot ended up following the choir singer, who must have been brought in to sing a song or two (her voice is lovely) because her ‘acting’ mostly consisted of repeating the last line spoken to her in a higher pitch. Anu Yadav does deserve credit for milking as many laughs with her expressive face as she can given the sluggish proceedings.

If you do decide to see this show, I recommend waiting until they are at Source, because the inexperience of some of the cast shows as their voices are lost in the echo chamber that is the Universe.

See it if: You give an A for effort.

Skip it if: You’re holding out for the holy grail: the Hilarious Fringe Improv Show.

An Enchanted Evening in the Andes
GALA Hispanic Theatre - 3333 14th Street NW (1 block from Columbia Heights Metro)

Remaining Performances:
Friday, July 11, @ 7:30 PM (GALA Hispanic Theatre)
Saturday, July 12 @ 7:30 PM (GALA Hispanic Theatre)

They say: “Ancient panflutes and drums combined with colonial and contemporary instruments will take you to a time long forgotten but yet to come. Their music and melodies will take you on an imaginary journey to the land and culture of the old and contemporary people of the Andes.”

Brett’s take: First of all, let’s be clear: This is a concert, and nothing else. No context or history is offered to enhance the experience; and there are dancers that appear, but because they spend most of their brief time onstage self-consciously adjusting their colorful costumes or falling off the six-inch rise, this performance is all about the music. Luckily, this experienced eight-piece band called Mystic Warriors is plenty capable of rocking the house.

The music is rooted in alternately Latin and Native American polyrhythms, and is most awesome when all but one of the musicians revert to percussion and the gorgeous Tivoli theatre swells with the amped-up, thumping bass. The last musician then glides a panflute melody over that heavy bedrock, and the effect is at once majestic and tribal. Overall, when they played more traditional music, focusing on that percussion and various wind instruments (alternately whimsical and haunting) they fared best, and I was moved; but when they relied more on reverb-heavy and modern processed-sounding guitar, the sound veered dangerously close to Muzak, and I fought boredom.

A final warning: the show started a half-hour (!!) late and ran a full forty-five minutes (!!!!) longer than the 100-minute running time advertised. So, basically, don’t make plans for after this one. Also, the band plays shows often, so if you’ve got a busy Fringe schedule, you might easily catch these folks another time, if their website mysticwarriors.com ever comes back online.

See it if: Jazz-quality musicianship and globetrotting sounds are good for your soul.

Skip it if: The Discovery Channel puts you to sleep. (Even at rib-shaking volume.)