2 Reprises: In PURSUIT of the ENGLISH Rose and DISORDEr
Venue: Goethe-Institut – Mainstage

Remaining Performance:
Saturday, July 24, 11 a.m.
They say: “Laugh, cry, fall in love, with a cockney and a hoarder! 2006 CapFringe sell-out ‘English’ recreates Rose’s wit and pathos surviving Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing’s Post-War London. ‘DISORDEr’ humorously exposes PakratPatty’s Collector-itis and Disposophobia — [...]

Engaged
Venue: The Mountain, Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church
Remaining Performances:
Friday, July 23, 8 p.m.
Saturday, July 24, 3 p.m.
They say: “Gilbert’s precursor to Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest, an entanglement of engagements, inheritance stipulations, and Scottish/English class dichotomy. This farcical comedy follows the shameless flirtations of a cad, and the train wrecks that both [...]

At its simplest, 7 Lessons on Suicide is about a man who intercedes after he learns (through a suicide note delivered too soon) that his former long-term girlfriend is about to kill herself. Stanley locates Hannah at a party thrown by a group of soon-to-be suicides, but when he intervenes the hosts tie him to a chair to prevent him from preventing them.

Cookin’ Up Numbers
Venue: The Mountain – at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church
Remaining Performances:
Tuesday, July 20th 8 p.m.
Friday, July 23rd 6 p.m.
They say: “Think numbers are only useful to balance your checkbook? Join Becca, a junior baker facing a dreaded math test, on a musical and visual romp through history, nature and art, during [...]

The premise of Case 22 is that a group of actors are improvising and rehearsing the story of an abused child, and her lack of good legal options. An actress slices herself and slumps to the ground, while the other actors marvel at her Method acting and commitment to the role. Is she putting on an act, or killing herself

Laurel and Hardy. Nichols and May. Lemmon and Mathau. Cheech and Chong. Phaea and Becca. It’s not simple matter to explain what makes a comedy duo work: personality, chemistry, timing, and intellect are merely the more obvious variables. Loose dorks Phaea and Becca come off as an odd couple—one more conventionally tall and dorky, one at first glance too cute and cuddly for satire—but the chemistry is undeniable and the timing is spot on. Imagine your young teenage daughter and her best friend who finish each other’s sentences, then fast forward 15 years.

The idea of a fringe is to make a space for that which lies outside of the theatrical mainstream. This is exactly the sort of work for which the Capital Fringe Festival exists, and it puzzles the heck out of me that there seems to be no audience for this show, no choir for me to preach to.

There’s a popular story that shortly prior to his death, Thoreau was asked if he had made his peace with God. He replied, “I didn’t know we had quarreled.” This anecdote passed through my head as I was watching Lincoln and God, which might easily be renamed Lincoln Not Quarreling with God.

Whoever wrote this—whoever “Hiawatha Lopez” really is—he, she, or it has a sort of mad talent for the odd twist of language and logic that you might expect from a Shakespearean fool. The catch is that you wouldn’t want the fool writing the whole play, and you wouldn’t want to listen to no voice but the fool’s for two hours.

This show wasn’t on my official blogging itinerary, so I’ll keep this brief. This one-woman show is fun and ultra-kinetic: Every imaginable detail of the story that can be turned into motion is turned into motion. There are elements of mime, dance theater, and plain-old groovin’ to the music.

See it if: You like watching Shrek, or aerobics videos.

Skip it if: The analogy of a girl who loses her voice to a woman in a bad relationship (or two, or three) makes you want to switch the channel to Spike.