Fringe & Purge » guest reviewers

Hip Shot: ‘Engaged’

Chris Swanson — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:00:29 +0000

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 cause and follow them.”

Chris’s take: Just so we�re clear, the first thing you might want to know about the Victorian Lyric Opera Company�s production of Engaged is that it is not an opera but a straight play.� Written in 1877, Engaged was a comic hit by W.S. Gilbert, the wordsmith of Gilbert and Sullivan.�As such it has all the elements of a Victorian light opera except music.

The plot centers on Cheviot Hill, a young man of property, who somehow manages to fall rapturously in love with every woman he meets.�The comic upshot of this is that he finds himself simultaneously engaged to three women: fiery Belinda, who not-so-incidentally is also engaged to Cheviot�s frenemy Belvawney; simpering Minnie Symperson, Cheviot�s cousin; and a Scottish lassie named Maggie.�The trouble is that under a peculiar Scottish legality, he may or may not have unwittingly married Belinda.

As is the case in most comedies, there�s the sense that in the end Jack will have Jill, though it is unclear until nearly the very end which Jack will have which Jill.�Bride-in-legal-limbo Belinda just happens to be a dear friend of Minnie, and while they are waiting, the two of them let themselves be entertained by Belvawney, who declares his passionate love for the woman who doesn’t end up married to Cheviot, whichever she may be.

The production is by-the-book, with few overt signs of directorial imprint.�This, and the sheer stripped-down nature of all Fringe shows, puts attention on the performances.�The one to watch is David Dubov at Cheviot.�There�s a bit of the young Gene Wilder in his performance, which is all about the eyes, the eyebrows, and the folds at the edge of his mouth�all indicators of his own perplexity at the situation in which he finds himself.

See it if: You enjoy works by Gilbert and Sullivan, Oscar Wilde, or Eugene Scribe.

Skip it if: You expect the fully fleshed-out Victorian atmospherics that the Shakespeare Theatre Company would lend to a play of this genre.

Hip Shot: ‘(Snap)shots on a Greyhound Headed Home’

Ann Willemssen — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:00:41 +0000

(Snap)shots on a Greyhound Headed Home

�The Apothecary, 1013 7^th Street NW�

�

Remaining Performances:

Tuesday, July 20 at 6:00 p.m.
Friday, July 23 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 25 at 12:45 p.m.

They Say:� “A seeker embarks on a journey to discover a way home.� Experiencing the beauty and brokenness of internal landscape(s), she must resolve the arising conflict between these to reach her final destination and the love that lies beyond.”

Ann’s Take:� (Snap)Shots documents a moment in the lives of two women on a journey, quite literally on the bus and figuratively through their emotions.�Opening with the pair knotted on the floor, the couple slinks through tangled sequences only to burst abruptly apart.�And so ends the interesting part of the piece.�From here, hearts are broken and teenage moodiness ensues, complete with dancer Kjerstin Lysne writhing on the floor, arms bound in her sweater as she punches her fists to mimic her throbbing heart beats.�

To emphasize the point, in case you�re missing it, dancer Dia Dearstyne dumps a suitcase full of paper cut-out hearts onto the floor.�She tenderly pastes one to her sternum and insists her irritable traveling companion cut her own paper heart to wear.� But, you know paper hearts can�t last forever, and the characters thus�delve into deeper darkness. The unfolding drama is accompanied by projected video footage of blurred car-window landscape.� (Bring your Dramamine.)�

It is clear that collaborators Lysne and Dearstyne, as well as director Melissa Bustamante, set out to show their audience something profound.� To their credit, the women know how to put together smooth sequencing, and they are well-trained technical dancers. �I applaud the efforts they made to develop fresh, poetic material.� But, these efforts do not translate into successes, and the piece ends up instead very straightforward, stale and well, frankly not that remarkable.� Neither evocative enough to engage nor well-crafted enough to impress, (Snap)shots, lands somewhere in the �still under construction� category, leaving us with a half an hour of less-than-impactful imagery trying very hard (sometimes very, very hard) to find its footing.��

See it if:� You want to support young artists as they embark on their first adventures in production.�

Skip it if:� You�re already on the fence about contemporary dance.��

Hip Shot: ‘Cookin’ Up Numbers’

Chris Swanson — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:00:53 +0000

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 which Pi teaches her the value of numbers.”

Chris’s take: Becca, the pony-tailed protagonist of Cookin’ Up Numbers, opens the play with Barbie’s lament: “Math is hard!” �She is making a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and needs to measure 3/4 cup of sugar, a task that flummoxes her. �Ah-ha, I think, we shall learn how to use fractions.

Well, no. �We shall not learn anything about fractions from this play. �We shall learn no math at all. �Instead, it turns out, what we shall learn about is the history of mathematics. �There’s a sequence about the evolution of written numbers (“From the alpha through iota / that’s how the Greeks would know ya”), a sequence on the Fibonacci Sequence, and so on. �It’s interesting, but esoteric. �Seriously, a children’s play about base-2?!

I don’t want to be hard on a well-produced performance meant for an audience of children, especially one �that clocks in at a very reasonable 45 minutes. �But I can’t help thinking that this performance is pedagogically off-the-mark. �If the goal is to make a kid see that math is fun and practical, then don’t start start with pi (which is high school-level math, as I recall) and don’t waste time explaining that the bi- in bicycle and binary is Greek. (Incidentally, it’s Latin.)

The audience I was part of was overwhelmingly adult, and unfortunately that was as it should be. �The talking numbers, and the “pi” man wearing a pie as a hat are aimed at the Sesame Street demographic, but the content would all be better suited to an Elderhostel seminar.

See it if: You are a vindictive math nerd parent.

Skip it if: You are that parent’s child.

Hip Shot: ‘The Squeaky Wheel SQUEAKS!’

Sophia Bushong — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:30:17 +0000

The Squeaky Wheel SQUEAKS!

Venue:� Goethe Institute- Mainstage

812 7^th Street NW

Remaining Performance:�

July 17, 2010, 5 p.m.

They say:� “What if someone walked into surgery and awoke paralyzed-never having been warned of this risk? What if someone not only survived but also endured the horrors of disability with hope and humor? What if that someone traveled, worked, entertained, returned to school, earned a masters degree, a law degree and got married? What if someone wrote a funny and revealing book about it? Someone did.”

Sophia’s take: If I’d known then what I know now… �So goes the old saying, and maybe it’s overused.� Yet the idea is one worth bearing in mind when structuring any type of narrative, no matter how humorous and admirable the story may be.�The life story of Brian Shaughnessy (actor, writer, attorney, quadriplegic), as he tells it, is full of humor and faith, in spite of the fact that the fates have dealt him a marathon test of physical and emotional endurance.�After becoming paralyzed at age 24 during a surgery gone wrong and losing his fiancee as a result, Shaughnessy did what I think many of us would – spiral into a deep depression and contemplate suicide.� Instead of swallowing a bottle of Valium, he goes back to school and becomes an actor, playwright, world traveler, lawyer, husband and father. “I’m so blessed I should be twins,” he begins, and you believe him.

The only obstacle in the way of following Shaughnessy on his remarkable journey is one he puts there in the beginning of the show: He describes his idyllic Hawaiian wedding for the audience “so that you can get through what comes next.”�By telling the members of his audience that all will be well in the end, before we really know anything about what happened to him, he denies us the possibility (to whatever extent we each are capable) of living vicariously through his words, and understanding what he went through.�The thing about digging deep within one’s self to find faith and keep hope is that you have to do it without knowing what amazing people and experiences lay in store.�Simply telling the tale as it actually unfolded may have been more impactful, in the end.

Shaughnessy is at the peak of his powers when speaking of how his family dealt with his paralysis, especially his father.�The strong and reliable father, who cries out his grief and helplessness in a parking lot, alone, is a tragedy many families have seen play out in the face of any number of tests.

How Shaughnessy would prevent this set of circumstances from afflicting other families is a question he leaves unanswered in The Squeaky Wheel SQUEAKS! It’s hard to believe this writer and lawyer has no opinions on how the medical profession should improve its process of disclosing the risks of surgery, or of what steps our society could take to provide better services for the disabled.�At 45 minutes, The Squeaky Wheel has time to spare for answers. I hope Shaughnessy will consider offering them — he certainly has the ears and the respect of his audience.

See it if:�Personal narratives about the triumph of the human spirit will intrigue you.

Skip it if:�You’re looking for solutions, in addition to experiences.

Hip Shot: ‘Shirley Dreaming’

Dee Moondi — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:00:29 +0000

Shirley Dreaming

Where: The Apothecary (1013 7th St NW)

Remaining Performances:

Saturday July 17, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday July 18, 11 a.m.
Tuesday July 20, 7:30 a.m.
Thursday July 22, 10:00 p.m.
Saturday July 24, 1:15 p.m.

They Say: It�s a magically realistic musical comedy about what happens when a starry-eyed graduate with a singing habit is unknowingly put in charge of a failing children’s book company.

Dee�s Take: This was a pleasant experience.� Despite some glitches (a lengthy opening song, an obnoxious antagonist) writer/director Tyler Budd�s Shirley Dreaming is a quirky, playful story that appeals to a peripatetic imagination. Through interplay between Shirley and her co-workers, the audience is transported to the realm of dreams.� There they find a macabre children�s story about cannibals, a husband whose soul in trapped in a cat, and a whimsical open sea battle.

The play opens with a frenzied monologue delivered by Boss Bass, which was disturbing.� It was incomprehensible: She rambled on incessantly, barely pausing for breath in her hysteria, then exited.� WTF?

Soon thereafter, and mercifully, we are introduced to Shirley Childs.� Shirley (Joani Maher) sings about the entry-level job she is beginning that day.� This song is rather lengthy for my taste, however Maher does a wonderful job.� She sings sweetly, never hits a sour note, makes appropriate decisions as an actress and frankly carries the show with the help of Steve.� We meet Steve (Adi Stien) after Shirley arrives on the 49th floor.� He immediately falls in love with her and proceeds to make a fool of himself, much to the audience�s amusement.� The rest of the story includes interplay between the office staff:� Ivy the Intern, Bass�s evil sidekick; Wanda Butt, a cracked out old lady; Steve and Shirley.� Ultimately, Shirley Dreaming is a delightful musical comedy about a young woman finding her way in a world of idiosyncratic characters.

See it if: You enjoy a strong female lead who sings well, and a cute story with adventurous and curious meta-tales.

Skip it if: You dislike hyperactive, loud antagonists, or have no imagination.

Hip Shot: �Galactica in Irrelevant Acts of Entertainment�

Sheffy Gordon — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:35:39 +0000

Galactica in Irrelevant Acts of Entertainment

The Shop at Fort Fringe, 607 New York Ave. NW

Remaining Performances:

Tuesday, July 13 @ 10:00 p.m.
Friday, July 16 @ 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 17 @ 12:45 p.m.
Friday, July 23 @ 8:15 p.m.
Saturday, July 24 @ 4:00 p.m.

They say: �DEAD ON! IMPRESSIVE!” –DC Theatre Scene. “An uncanny, SUBLIME creation!” –Charles Busch. “This agent’s act is SPECIAL!” –Washington Blade. Spanning the range of standards to stand up, rock and roll to slapstick (sic), an evening with this Special Agent and her boys is one you won’t want to miss. And one that you will tell all your friends to go see!�

Sheffy�s take: Milli Vanilli was the first album I ever bought with my own money, earning them a special place in my heart.� After their lip synching fall from grace, my friends shamed me for continuing to listen. (Oddly, it wasn�t my questionable taste in music to which they objected.) I protested it was still music, regardless who sang it, and come on, they had been fooled, too.� Then there was Whitney Houston�s Superbowl-gate.� Well, Galactica and her Boys not only take the shame out of lip-synching — they elevate it to a thrilling art form.

Firstly, I�ll fess up to being among those at the Fringe preview debating whether they were lip-synching or in fact flawlessly covering �Superstitious� � all I knew was I had to see the full length show.� How does a drag queen and her three boy-toy back-up singers hold your attention for 85 minutes?� By mixing it up with a cabaret of rock, blues, country, gospel, and jazz, and even delivering a brilliant comedy sketch.� They didn�t miss a beat from Stevie Wonder to Stevie Nicks. (Apt lyric: �Sings a song sounds like she�s singing.�)� The crystal-clear acoustics (really, Fringe?!) fed into the illusion of live music.� Before long, I went from trying to catch any s�lip-ups to completely forgetting they weren�t belting it out.� And it really doesn�t matter.� They bring it on with their energy and verve.� The flamboyant choreography sizzled, and the sequined costumes were, well, FABULOUS!

The boys put the flame in Flamenco, but they don�t hold a candle to Galactica�s flair.� Her talents transcend the glitter of her lips: She embodied each vocalist down to every breath and bat of an eyelash.� Her timing was impeccable � when Ella Fitzgerald scats a tune, she gets a little leeway to rest and breathe, but Galactica relives every syllable by heart and doesn�t miss a breath. �(Okay, it may not have been Ella � a song list would have been appreciated). �But like Galactica�s hot pink hair, each irrelevant act was pure cotton candy.

See it if: You yen for an intimate Dolly Parton concert, but are looking for more affordable tickets. You won�t be disappointed.

Skip it if: You like your Galacticas preceded by Battlestars.

Hip Shot: ‘The Water Plays’

Ian Buckwalter — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:00:43 +0000

The Water Plays

The Shop at Fort Fringe, 607 New York Ave. NW

Remaining Performances:

Sunday, July 11, at 1:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 15, at 8:15 p.m.
Tuesday, July 20, at 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 24 at 1:30 p.m.

They Say: “What makes the ocean special is it can kill you at any time. Three plays: A man sinks with his feet in cement. Two lovers drift in a rowboat. A woman lost at sea, alone. Drowning is no laughing matter.”

Ian’s Take: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, playwright (and prior Fringe & Purge contributor) Brett Steven Abelman offers up this triptych of short plays about soul searching in the face of� high-seas demise. The sum total stretches the limits of acceptable Fringe running length at 100 minutes, but starts and finishes strong enough that as long as the Shop at Fort Fringe doesn’t get too sweltering, you’ll probably forgive the production the long, dull lull of its middle third.

Things start off with the show’s pithiest segment, Bathyphobia, a one-man monologue featuring the stream of consciousness of a man (J.W. Crump) descending to the bottom of the sea with his feet encased in cement. The poignant and funny rant gets progressively less lucid and increasingly impressionistic as he sinks to inky depths and the pressure and oxygen deprivation take its toll on his rational mind.

This is followed by the somewhat tedious The Water First, in which a couple (Tiffany Garfinkle and Nick Jordan) spends what feels like six months in a boat we wish was leaky, dancing around undefined events in their past that have led them to this point. There’s only so long that you can sustain this kind of mysterious dialog, which drops progressive hints about Cam’s criminal actions and Drea’s illness, and the play runs about twice as long as that. Everything is revealed in the end, but by that time you’ll have pieced it together for yourself and long since hoped the star-crossed pair had jumped overboard.

Up last is Dolphinless, the show’s most complex, visually inventive, and strongest portion, about a party girl who wakes up alone in the water after she either fell overboard or the yacht she was on succumbed to stormy seas; she was too inebriated at the time to recall. A life vest is keeping her afloat, saving her for, as she laments, “a short, blunt life of terror.” Aishie (a fierce and funny Bridget Garwood) debates herself, the imagined visages of her big sister and her older self, and even the sea itself as to whether she should bother trying to make it to shore to return to the failings of her life or just slip out of the flotation device and end it all now.

In all three plays, Abelman floods his scripts with water-bound metaphors: the water as escape, as limitless possibility, as inescapable wasteland, dangerous and infinite. He balances the symbolism with enough humor to keep it from taking itself too seriously or being too overbearing; it just might have been a good idea to cut the middle segment.

See It If: The melancholy-yet-menacing siren song of the sea calls to you. Or you’re just a bargain hunter looking for the best minutes-per-dollar deals that Fringe has to offer.

Skip It If: You always thought Meat Loaf was kind of full of it when he claimed that “Two out of three ain’t bad.”

Hip Shot: ‘Cavers’

Derek Hills — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:00:05 +0000

The Mountain, 900 Massachusetts Ave. NW

Remaining Performances:

Saturday, July 10, at 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 11, at 6:15 p.m.
Thursday, July 15, at 10 p.m.
Wednesday, July 21, at 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, July 24, at 9:30 p.m.

They say: “A collapsing farmhouse sits atop a wondrous cave with the potential to make the American Dream reality. Unfortunately, it’s filled with cave monkeys, evolutionary theory, messy property rights and other human beings. Can dreams still come true?”

Derek’s Take: Cavers pits dreamer against dreamer in a slapstick saga packing more intrigue than a Shakespearean court. At issue: What to do with the cavern beneath Gertie Stoval’s farm? Gertie (Raven Bonniwell) sees riches in the stalagmites strewn across the stage and concocts various schemes, ranging from nuclear waste storage to underground �French bike races,� to monetize her find. It’s too bad, then, that her plans are beset by competing claims.

Turns out that the sub-surface rights to her property belong to a corporate behemoth, and a rogue researcher � in league with a grad student (Vanita Kalra) in Gertie’s employ � intends to turn the space into a bio-conservation zone. Throw in the aspirations of a would-be actress and the gurgling specter of a sewage facility leaking right into the cave, and Gertie’s hopes seem beyond reach.

The story stuffs an avalanche of themes into its 75 minutes. If you’ve ever thought a moment about issues concerning resource exploitation versus preservation, creationism versus evolution, and striving global capitalism versus small-town religious values, take heart: so has the playwright, Mark Rigney. His well-crafted if overwrought script gives the actors plenty to work with, if only fleetingly, given the breakneck pace of the story. Cavers, after all, is played for laughs.

Bonniwell delivers a spirited performance as the willfully iconoclastic Gertie; her squeaky drawl and incessant stomping underscore Gertie’s defiant if batty belief in her dreams. Her fervor � �I will get my share� is her refrain � is matched by the haughty elitist rantings of her nemesis, the biomedical researcher Polly (Aubri O’Connor). Kalra, in drag as the grad student Charlie Tuggle, excels as the pivot around which Gertie and Polly circulate. Loyal to his friend Gertie, but devoted to science and his blossoming career, Charlie alone is allowed to reconcile the competing aims of the characters and find balance.

It’s just this balance that’s lacking in the rest of the story. Rigney, in failing to make hard choices with the script, saps an otherwise intelligent and fanciful story of its impact. All that’s left is an exhausting pile of jokes and plot points.

See it if: You enjoy a whirlwind critique of modern times.

Skip it if: You’re overwhelmed by the byzantine twists of over-edited summer blockbusters.

Hip Shot: ‘iSchool Musical’

Adam Gorod — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:00:34 +0000

iSchool Musical

Source
1835 14th St., NW

Remaining Performances:

Saturday July 10 @ 8:00 pm
Friday July 16 @ 8:00 pm
Saturday July 17 @ 8:00 pm
Friday July 23 @ 8:00 pm
Saturday July 24 @ 2:00 pm
Saturday July 24 @ 8:00 pm

They Say: WIT’s hit show iMusical creates and performs and instant musical inspired by Glee, High School Musical . . . and suggestions from the audience.� Every note, lyric, character and line of dialogue is improvised in this hilarious and subversive sensation.

Adam�s Take: I agree.� Scripted lines are definitely overrated.� You’ve just got to let the words fly off the tongue.� Life is spontaneous and so, too, should be the stage.� Yet the cast of iSchool Musical were good enough to fool the audience into thinking they’d wasted weeks at rehearsals.

Of course, only improv theater could produce a show that melded the tale of an underground drama club at NOVA�s very own Thomas Jefferson High School (one of several audience-submitted elements) with that of an overachieving student who is seduced by a sausage maker-cum-opera singer named Carmen.�� Could these lives really collide?� All in seventy minutes?� Only when there is no chance to think about what should rationally come next.� No time to dwell on the absurdity of the situation.� You just go with it.

What makes this show even more notable is the musical numbers that come when least expected.� Tired of talking?� Just break into song.� The masterful repertoire of� keyboardist/director Travis Ploeger was a big part of why each scene felt stranger than the last.� Washington Improv Theater has been around for a long while, and that experience was evident in the way the� cast worked as a team capable of taking cues from each other and running as far with a joke as possible — miles, it sometimes seemed, until some other unexpected twist is thrown their way.� This made the show not only funny but also engaging, no matter how crazy the plot became.� And the cast was still able to somehow tie most of the loose ends together to pull off an unexpectedly happy ending.

The performance I saw was the 100th in WIT’s iMusical series, (but the debut of the spinoff iSchool Musical) and with improv, there’s no way to know what the next show will be like.�� But if show number 101 is anywhere as good, it would be hard to come away disappointed.

See It If: You believe the best playwrights do their work on stage while the play is happening.

Skip It If: You enjoy watching Hamlet because you know there is only one way for it to end each time.

Hip Shot: ‘Duets’

Adam Gorod — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:30:30 +0000

Duets

The Clinic, 1006 6th St. NW

Remaining Performances:

Friday July 9 @ 10:30 pm
Saturday, July 17 @ 5:30 pm
Tuesday, July 20 @ 10 pm
Sunday, July 25 @ Noon

They Say: A classic musical follows an AWOL soldier hoping to convince a friend that he is the one. A humorous indie-rock story about a guy rekindling an old flame. An soul/rock journey through Dante’s levels of hell with a former lover.

Adam�s Take: Sometimes the heart is best expressed in song.� The emotional pulse of a melody can release feelings buried just below the surface. Of course, it doesn�t hurt if you also have the voice to make a thrush jealous.� Both Bligh Voth and Jonny Price surely do.� Their shared ability to serenade the audience is by far the highlight of the show.

It makes a good effort otherwise, but the opportunity for the voices of the two characters�Girl and Guy�to shine does not come often enough.� Duets is a self-described triptych of three very-loosely themed vignettes that range from a soldier gone AWOL from war to a lost soul left to fight his way through Dante’s hell.� The concept starts out well.� Through song,� we are able to peer into the emotional yearnings of the two characters.� We witness their search for a love that appears to be of the past and unrequited.� Singing by themselves, the characters are clearly in want of something more.� Singing together, their hearts seem to harmonize as well as their voices.

The dialogue has moments of humor, but the wait between them is often tiring and unsympathetic.� The band provides nice accompaniment to the songs and relief when the plot feels stuck.� The acting by Voth and Price was effective, and the sound and lighting helped to cast the scenes.� The three one-acts were directed by Joshua Morgan and were a production of the No Rules Theater Company, a collaboration of artists based in D.C.and Winston-Salem, N.C.� The show peaks when its characters temper their search for love with the lure of a song, despite the occasional lackluster moments.

See It If: You can�t understand why one would write a rock musical about anything other than love.

Skip It If: You hate love or songs or both.