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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What: OmegaBand
Who: You
Where: The Baldacchino (607 New York Ave NW)
When: Tonight, 10 PM – 11 PM
How much: $0
Why: Why not?

The Naked Party
The Shop at Fort Fringe

Remaining Performances:
Friday, July 25 @ 10:30 PM; Saturday, July 26 @ 11 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 2:30 PM

They say: “A hot new play that gives an intimate and honest look at exactly how much there is to lose when you decide to reveal yourself. The Naked Party takes nine students and strips them of their costumes, armor (and inhibitions) in order to fully see themselves for the first time.”

Brian’s take: All right, I’ll admit it. I may have been to a naked party or two. Ok, fine, and by “two” I mean two dozen. And maybe, just maybe a handful of those were held in my living room. So what? I’m not ashamed. We nibbled sashimi and rhapsodized about Kant, you know, normal Saturday night stuff. Hell, the New York Times covered a naked party I helped host–that’s gotta lend a guy some credibility, right?

Maybe not. However, I do feel particularly qualified to offer my opinion of The Naked Party, which has been selling out the Shop at Fort Fringe. There are elements of the show that work very nicely, such as a conceit by which every party-goer gets time in a closet to undress while airing their inner feelings. Likewise with the staging–maneuvering 9 actors around a space as small as the Shop with quite a few set pieces is no easy task, and playwright-director Jason Schlafstein manages to minimize traffic jams while keeping the picture dynamic and balanced. And I have to give a shout-out to Guitar Guy, a character that might have been forgettable had not Rob Shand done such a superb job engaging (and, at all the appropriate times, blissfully disengaging) with the silliness around him. Plus he reminds me of about 15 of my buddies rolled into one.

It’s actually quite remarkable how Guitar Guy, who has very few lines and integration with the main action, emerges more fully than some of the more prominent characters. My first thought upon leaving the theater was that Schlafstein should excise a character or two–Julie, perhaps, or Jordan, who both seem to represent the same moral conundrum. But the concept for this play poses a logistical dilemma: it requires a quorum in order to put the party in “naked party,” and each member of this quorum, if the play is to reach its potential, must be more fully fleshed out.

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Thousands of Years—Rome
Flashpoint – Mead Theatre Lab

Remaining performances:
July 24, 9:30 p.m.; July 25, 6 p.m.; July 26, 1 p.m.; July 27, 12 p.m.

They say: “Thousands of Years—Rome takes a Roman Legionnaire and a Senator’s daughter from their 1st Century parting in the Roman Forum to their 21st Century reunion there. They participate in the Roman conquests of Britain and Spain, the Renaissance, Unification of Italy, Nazi occupation of Rome, and the Iraq war.”

Ted’s take: Like the rape of the Sabine women or the reign of the Emperor Otho, this is an hour and change that I will never, ever get back. The accompanying wherefore, however, is hard to peg. Calling the play historical romance is an insult to that already debased epithet; calling the whole thing a vacuous cliché would be an insult to vacuums.

Take Dead Again, mix it with a little Forrest Gump and a touch of Quo Vadis, then toss in the “never let go” moment from Titanic, and you’ll have a good sense for this piece. Spanning twenty centuries (and making each look at its watch and squirm), Thousands of Years traces the ill-starred love of Octavia and Marius (or, after 800 A.D., Mario) through various pitfalls and entanglements including but not limited to:

• war
• sickness
• poverty
• bad luck
• “Daddy don’t approve”

and, last but not least,

• a toothsome, barely-clad Boadicea, to whose military superiority, leather undergarments, and general sexiness Marius eventually responds by making lotsa whoopee…

…thus spawning future hordes of Marii for the reenactment ad nauseum of said pitfalls and entanglements. The acting is difficult to watch, not merely because of the technical glitches in a technically spare show (before every gunshot scene, the audience hears whisper-shouts of “Two shots or three?” “It’s three.” “Three gunshots?” “Yes, three.” “Okay! Three gunshots”…and then the effect),* or even because the term doesn’t necessarily apply—it’s difficult to watch because one likes and feels for the actors nearly immediately, as one never can for the characters in whose service they toil.

The Washington Post, in its rather mindless promotion of this piece, exhorts readers: “When in Rome, Love as Romans Do, Over Again.” The proper epithet for my money? “Sic transit gloria…over and over again.”

See it if: You’ve always wondered why “bodacious” means what it means.

Skip it if: You believe, as I do, that reading a facing-page translation of Livy might provide a more titillating, better staged, and adequately lit experience.

*It bears acknowledging that the reviewer saw the show on opening night, and that these glitches may well right themselves in successive performances.

I Like Nuts! (The Musical)
Studio Theatre

Remaining performances:
Saturday, July 26 @ 4:30 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ Noon

They say: “Horatio likes nuts. He really, really likes nuts. Join Horatio and a cast including a Robot, a Pirate, a Vampire, and two Squirrels on a musical quest for nuts, knowledge and Norwegian fish balls. Including the musical numbers ‘Girls Don’t Like Adventure,’ ‘Everyone I Know is a Moron,’ and many others!”

Brian: Hey Ted. I like I Like Nuts!! I like I Like Nuts! a lot!

Ted: I’m not surprised. Why did you like I Like Nuts! so much, Brian?

Brian: Well you see, Ted, the show was a true expression of itself. The players were as earnest in their mounting of this goofy spectacle as Horatio Hornbeam (played with plain-faced nut naïveté by Nick Greek) was in his quest to follow the sagely nut guru’s orders, help Rob the Angry Squirrel find his long-lost nut tree, bring a robot, vegan vampire, pirate, and a guy named Gary all the way to Norway, and then soak up enough nut-knowledge to get his dream job at the nut factory.

Ted: Wow. You used the word “nut” like forty times there. Way to go.

Brian: What did you like about the show, Ted?

Ted: I liked the old dude.

Brian: Oh, you mean Jeff Baker! Wasn’t he super?

Ted: Beyond super. That guy transformed from faux-Hindu guru to disaffected nightclub owner to doddering old codger to overenthusiastic, anaphylactic neighbor faster than you can say “anaphylactic neighbor.”

Brian: Did you know that I’m actually a prophylactic?

Ted: What? You’re a condom?

Brian: Nipples!

Ted: Excuse me?

Brian: Nipples! I loved the part with the nipples!

Ted: Oh, you mean the scene where they twisted and tweaked and titillated each other’s–

Brian: Shhh! You’re going to spoil it for everyone! Why don’t you tell us something you learned from the show.

Ted: Oh, well, yes, I Like Nuts! was very educational. I think the most important lesson I learned was about all the things that aren’t nuts, including (but by no means limited to) coconuts, polka dots, corn, and “very small rocks.”

Brian: Yeah, all that was news to me as well. To think I’ve spent all these years putting polka dots in my brownies.

Ted: I love your brownies.

Brian: Thanks dude.

Ted: What was the most important thing you learned from the show, Brian?

Brian: I learned that despite mediocre singing and lagging tempo (they did it faster at the preview a few weeks back to grander effect–you can check out the video below to see for yourself), a show can still be more fun than a barrel of freaking monkeys.

Ted: Yes. It was an exercise in taking one thematic joke and actually making it sustain an hour’s worth of entertainment. The SNL skit-to-movie formula in successful action.

Brian: So, what’s the take-home, Mr. Ted?

Ted: I’d say see it if you want to renew your faith in the non sequitur.

Brian: Touché. And I’d say skip it if you’ve misplaced your epipen. Or if your co-worker used it to get high last Tuesday night and still hasn’t gotten you a replacement like he promised.

Ted: Um, yeah. I’ll get on that.

After the jump: that video we were talking about.

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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.