In the upper recesses of Fort Fringe is a room where Jack Torrance could have very well hacked someone to death with an axe. So naturally, the good folks at the Capital Fringe Festival saw it as an ideal space to put on plays.
Shot and edited by Matt Bevilacqua.
The play is a clusterfuck of ideas, and perhaps the acting was a little sub par because the performers had to unload so much other garbage (yoga, tai chi, awkward lesbian kisses, wordy monologues…) in addition to the galumphing (lack of) plot points.
It’s easy to blame the playwright, and I do, but really someone in the cast should have said: “Hey, my character is a total cliché, and so is everyone else’s, and we all whine a lot, even interrupting a wedding to do so. And the daughter’s friends are the mother’s wedding attendants with no explanation. And Emily slaps Sean’s ass while the audience probably still thinks he’s her brother. And the “perfect boyfriend” kisses his way up Mom’s arm for no reason. And if we’re going to write a song full of Yo Momma jokes, shouldn’t we at least use funny ones?”
Roth is on to something, here; she’s created some interesting parallels between father and son. She’s still pushing them at us, rather than letting the us find them — which is why, I think, that scene in which one of George’s dementia-fueled WWII memories combines with Andy’s Nam flashback feels as needless and over-the-top as it does.
It’s Not Easy Being Green
Redrum at Fort Fringe
Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 11 at 2 p.m.
Saturday, July 18 at 10 pm.
Wednesday, July 22 at 7 p.m.
Friday, July 24 at 7:30 p.m.
They say: “Lock five playwrights in oversized compost bins, and demand plays about the expanding ‘green’ movement. What do you get? Mountains of compost, five smelly playwrights, [...]
