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.)

Crashing Home
Harman Center - Forum

Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 26 @ 3:00 pm
Sunday, July 27 @ 12:00 Noon

They say: “Voted “Pick of the Fringe 2007,” WEERD SISTERS brings back singer/songwriter Annie Johnstone and choreographer/poet Diana Tokaji in a feast of words, dance, live music, and song. Expect chilling beauty - voice and muscle: Raw, ripe, “funny, intense.” (Takoma Voice) With David Jernigan, jazz bass; and Mattias Rucht, drums.”

Sheffy’s take: With the clock running out on CapFringe ’08, I’ve been combing the blogs to chart a roadmap for my final few hours. Even though the alluring blurb for Crashing Home in the festival guide is right on target, I didn’t know what to expect. But Fringe is about experimenting, and I’m glad the nearly 70 people in the audience ranging in age from 7 to 70 were not deterred by the less-than-stellar review posted elsewhere. The multi-cultural WEERD SISTERS showcase musical and creative talent in a program of four unrelated pieces that feature live instrumental music, original poetry, dance, and vocals.

I must admit I’m usually inside-the-box when it comes to theater: I prefer characters with names, a plot, and at the end of the day, I expect there to be some meaning. But this was no theatre (it’s the Harman Center for the Arts). Crashing Home is more akin to a jazz concert—while I didn’t learn anything, I enjoyed each piece, and the show left me in a relaxed, peaceful mood.

Although Diana Tokaji’s vibrant energy was the glue holding everything together, the show lacked unity and focus. Yet each individual element—from Chinwe Enu’s soaring operatic voice harmonizing with Annie Johnstone’s rich alto to Tokaji’s choreography to a primal drum circle to David Jernigan’s string base—resonated with an innate beauty. The verdant costumes and lighting design and the nature video projected during the last piece imbued all with organic overtones. The silent rainstorm featured in the finale left my spirit feeling cleansed. What this show lacked in coherence, in made up for in Zen. And just like good theater, there’s plenty to discuss afterwards as everyone leaves with a different impression.

See it if: You’ve been heretofore avoiding that “experimental” genre from the festival guide because it conjures images off-beat college kids in turtlenecks and black lipgloss lying on the floor in a circle in total silence interrupted intermittently by shouts in Esperanto (and no, don’t anyone steal that idea for next year).

Skip it if: You can’t call it poetry if it doesn’t rhyme (don’t get me started on Homer’s Iliad “poem”).

The Passion of Persephone

Remaining performances:
Friday, July 25 @ 6 PM
Saturday, July 26 @ 11 PM

They say: “Hades has captured the Goddess Persephone and tied her up to keep her from leaving the Underworld. When her mother Demeter discovers why Zeus won’t rescue Persephone, Demeter wreaks a terrible vengeance . . . Greek myth updated to modern times: A work-in-progress, presenting the last two scenes of Act I.”

Suzyn’s take: As the blurb notes, Passion of Persephone is still a work in progress, so perhaps it’s appropriate that it has the feel of something that’s still deciding what it wants to be. The advertising materials play up the S+M focus, suggesting those mediocre Anne Rice S+M novels about Sleeping Beauty. There’s some of that in this show, which is also a rock opera, and at times there is a bit of winking farce.

Primarily, however, the show seems to exist as a vehicle for the leading lady/librettist/composer/instrumentalist/producer Rosanna E. Tufts. Tufts plays Persephone, and is at the center of the show. Tufts’ performance showcases her voice, which is indeed very good. That said, her acting leaves something to be desired. She has little chemistry with Hades and they frequently sing about how attracted they are to each other, yet have bored-looking expressions while doing so. At one point Persephone sings about Hades when he’s offstage and she achieves a quiet fire in that scene that was absent when Hades was actually there. It is as if she finds the idea of Hades more striking than the reality, which in a sense is the most accurate part of Tufts’ portrayal of a naive young woman in love. Also, Tufts is a bit past the maiden stage. A male friend of mine described her as the “MILFiest Persephone I’ve ever seen.”

The music is fine, though the songs sound very much alike. I found myself wishing a little bit more had been done with the direction. The lights could have gone down a bit as Demeter sings about the sun fading, for example. Also, there’s a lot of standing in this opera. Some of that is because they have a large cast in a small venue, but even when individuals are on stage alone, the actors don’t move around much. A notable exception is Sara Stewart, whose Demeter moves very naturally. Stewart chewed the scenery in a satisfying way that suited her character, particularly after she took off a large goofy hat that obscured her face for much of her first scene on stage. Her voice was impressive as well, and I will look for her in future shows.

Michelle Mullany, Lily Fay Tufts Prothuro and Ayana Fenton do an excellent job as the dead children in the underworld, singing with charmingly sweet voices and appearing convincingly dour.

Again, the show is a work in progress. I suspect a lot of the problems will be ironed out by the time it is a full length show. I saw it with three friends and two of us were interested in coming back when the show is performed in full. Still, like Persephone’s Hades, right now this show is a lot better in theory than it is in reality.

See it if: You’re into Greek Drama, Rock Opera or the combination of the two, which works surprisingly well.

Skip it if: “Dick Cheney” is your safe word. The show takes itself a little too seriously for that.

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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The Warrior by Jack Gilhooley
Flashpoint Mead Theatre Lab

Remaining performances:
Wednesday, July 23 @ 9:00 PM; Friday, July 25 @ 8:30 PM
Saturday, July 26 @ 5:45 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 7:00 PM

They say: “Tammy is back from two tours of duty in Iraq. All she has to show for it are PTSD and a broken marriage. Her filmmaker friend thinks she deserves a forum. Roll camera!”

Majeedah’s take: Having close friends and family members affected by the current war, this play is extremely touching and applicable to my life as well as to that of others I love, honor and cherish dearly.

The remnants of Tammy’s life are held within a military issued travel bag which she has carried through her first and second tours in Iraq. Upon an invitation from an old high school friend to begin a documentary charting her experiences during the Iraq war, the mementos within the bag spark a dialogue of fury which Tammy has suffered.

Through a series of streams of consciousness to tearful rants and flashbacks, Tammy highlights her transition from sanity and stability to what remains of her delicate self and deteriorated life. Her daughter, Stephanie, the essence of purity, truth, and reality becomes that to which Tammy desperately clings and lives for.

There are a number of stories and conflicts riding under one play, each of which may warrant a life of their own. Within 75 minutes, playwright Gilhooley addresses various traumas that await soldiers upon their return from the war including psychological disorders, deteriorating marriages, religiosity and conflict with one’s own country.

The play is a great piece but I felt that it was a bit too structured and too ideal. Because Tammy is unstable and suffering from PTSD, there could have been more unpredictable unraveling in the play’s conclusion. It is a powerful summation of the traumas that soldiers confront upon returning home from any war. Each item from the bag is a story in and of itself. Enough cannot be said of this play whose relevance extends from World War II, which Tammy discusses, to present day wars and conflicts, each of which will continue to destroy the minds and lives of those who have purportedly “won” the war and those who have perished in any manner.

See it if: If you enjoy great plays and being engaged.

Skip it if: If you have no interest in dialogue regarding the traumas that war brings about.

InstaPlay
The Universe

Remaining performances:
Wednesday, July 23 @ 7 PM; Friday, July 25 @ 10 PM

They say: “InstaPlay is an improvised one act play. No props. No costumes. No Script. You write the first line, and we’ll make up the rest. Right there. On the spot. Our story takes place in [location] where every day [main character] begins [his/her daily routine]. InstaPlay. Instant Gratification.”

Marianka’s take: First, full disclosure: I am a director and practitioner of movement and multimedia improvisation (though obviously not of this group). I love the form and know how challenging it is. The beautiful part, for both the performers and the audience, is walking that tightrope and taking those risks.

On Saturday, the members of 5-6-7-8 stayed on the tightrope with aplomb.

Before the show, the audience was asked to write some trigger words on cards. The cast, of fascinatingly varied shapes and sizes, picked one at random and created hilarious characters, situations, and relationships within a story of a human trip to Mars, the Martians being less than pleased.

The ensemble was obviously having fun tuning into each other and rolling with the punches. To varying degrees they were fast on the pickup and facile with dialog (often multilog–two scenes playing simultaneously or overlapping), although I did wish for more character in the way of defined movement during static conversations and confrontations (beyond the fake face-slapping).

You will not see this play when you go. What you will see is 5-6-7-8’s balancing act of on-the-fly decisions and in-the-moment reactions to a spontaneous dramatic situation. There’s no doubt they’ll be having fun while doing it.

In scripted plays every nuance must to be carefully crafted and shaped. In improvisational performance, as in life, we all take our chances. When it works it is a satisfying conversation. And even when it doesn’t.

A scientist might say, “there is no such thing as a failed experiment; we learn something from any outcome.”

See it if: You’re a cultural risk-taker.

Skip it if: You’re afraid of failing.

Lebensraum
Studio Theatre

Remaining shows:
Sunday, July 20 @ Noon; Wednesday, July 23 @ 7 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 4 PM

They say: “Using a cast of three to play 40 characters, this work is based on the explosive idea that a German Chancellor might, as an act of redemption, invite 6 million Jews to Germany. The logical progression of this artfully drawn script raises the terrifying possibility that history may repeat.”

Marianka’s take: If theater’s genius is to transport you to a different but still plausible world, this play fits the bill. Written by multi-awarded playwright (and screenwriter of the movie “Sunshine”) Israel Horovitz, Lebensraum projects real history into the fictional present and brings “terrifying possibility” into the intimate lives of forty characters with poignancy.

The very young 3 person cast–Sarah Shook, David Olson, Chase Helton–is absolutely dynamite. With minimal but iconic costumes and props, director Cory Ryan Frank deftly maneuvers them through fluid role changes into Germans and Jews of various persuasions, unreconstructed Nazis and clueless adolescents, assimilated Americans and Israeli revolutionaries, plus many more. In a Brechtian turn, each actor also rotates through as narrator during seamless character transitions without ever skipping a beat. The delineation between characters is clear in their lovely, nuanced interpretations–truly a tour de force.

One small quibble: the team should get help on their German and French pronunciation.

Even at 90 minutes, the play moves with lightning speed, but the afterglow hasn’t faded yet.

See it if: You want to be engaged emotionally and intellectually long after it’s over, to experience virtuosic performances (that includes the sound, light, and technical elements), and to be able to say, “I saw them when…”

Skip it if: The above leaves you cold.

Four Rooms Waking
Studio Theatre

Remaining performances:
Thursday, July 24 @ 6:00 PM; Saturday, July 26 @ 9:00 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 6:00 PM

They say: A one-of-a-kind theatrical experience, Four Rooms Waking captures one gripping day in the lives of four sets of unique characters. By turns haunted and hilarious, they will lead you from Algiers to London, New York to Havana - questioning sexuality and nationality, war and liberation. Will love or necessity hold sway?

Chris’s take: One palpable trend in contemporary theater has been the slicing and splicing of multiple narratives. In Arcadia Tom Stoppard cleverly weaves together scenes set in a Derbyshire country manor in 1809 and the present day; in 33 Variations Moisés Kaufman similarly but less cleverly weaves together the life of Beethoven, circa 1819, and a contemporary musicologist’s efforts to unravel the past. In the same vein, Four Rooms Waking tells four stories, each set in a different room at a different time and place: Algiers, 1955; Oxford, 1964; New York City, 1967; and Havana, 1975.

The interspersed short scenes offer glimpses of each of the four narratives, none of which feels fully elaborated. Each story line resembles (but really isn’t) a love story in which a woman desires a man. In Algiers, as the National Liberation Fronts fights to oust the French, an Algerian woman who’s been protecting a wounded French soldier struggles with whether to kill him. In Oxford, an anthropologist dreams of a “birdman,” who embodies her Kenyan lover. In New York City, a closeted lesbian pines for a hometown boyfriend, who unlike her has embraced his homosexuality. In Havana, a woman’s lover comes back from the war in Angola too shaken to readjust. If there’s a thread running through these vignettes it’s the practical impossibility of each relationship.

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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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