The for evening shows, I met up with
dreamshark and Richard, and we saw two great Fringes! As has been the case several times, the one I was sure would be good was, and the show following that turned out to be a pleasant surprise.Then, after eating dinner at the Bedlam Theater (Fringe Central) and mulling over whether to go to the fifth show or not, I got directions to the theater, and decided to try for it. Parking was difficult downtown, and I barely made it. I'm glad I did that show in the last slot. But... when I got home I discovered that I had completely spaced the show I had scheduled. *whew* I was lucky the show was on when I got there, and am luckier that the show I missed can be made up tomorrow, with only a little juggling. Now that I've rambled, here are the Day 3 reviews as posted on the Fringe web site, with LJ comments. (And I spoke with the Fringe's web guy, who says you can use quotes in the title of the review. Many of my titles are lines pulled from the play, and can finally use the quotes, and maybe they'll go back and put them in the reviews I've already done.)
Among the Oats **
Contemplating Mortality From A Box
Dreams and elections in a box of oatmeal 22 steps wide. Well acted absurdist bickering has some good moments but never really comes together.
My Hovercraft is Full of Eels ****
Ringing the Liberty Bell March
High School kids do some of my favorite Monty Python bits, with original animations. While uneven, I got caught up in it and laughed and clapped rhythmically with family members. The live band rounds them up to four stars.
I was amazed that High School kids were so much into Monty Python. I did an interviews with the 18-year-old who did the adaption. The kids didn't get it all right -- the sketches were blackouts, not the no-punchline flow of the circus -- but I was laughing as much as I was watching them do material that they clearly loved.
The Cody Rivers Show Presents: Stick to Glue *****
Every Finger Choreographed
The Cody Rivers Show is brilliant as usual. On a bare stage with two stools. two people create an office, an alien landscape, and a ton of laughs. They never stop, and one sketch abruptly becomes the next, perhaps to be referenced later. More dance than comedy and more cerebral comedy than you think can fit in the time slot. How DO they remember all that?
One of the sketches was a long segment of them saying sentences backwards. I only caught some of it, of course. I wish they'd release a record/mp3 so we could listen over and over...
Mortem Capiendum *****
"Don't make beautiful things dirty"
Hysterically funny send-up of a Depression-era Medicine Show. The con men squeeze an amazing amount of laughs from their attempts to separate you from your money, and from capturing the devil. Sometimes metaphysical and sometimes on the dark side, the show is well-written and superbly acted.
dreamshark liked this better than Cody Rivers, and I admit it probably had more yuks per minute, but it kept hitting all my buttons: Unlikable people doing unlikable things. There was overlap with The Spaceman Chronicles, which I didn't like. That I laughed a lot and gave it five stars is a great honor.Herocycle ***
"Watch him fly"
The many lives and near deaths of Evel Knievel are related by an aerial trio who swoop and hang in all manner of positions. The biography works, but less successful is the attempt to make him a hero in the Joseph Campbell sense.
Thirteen Fringes, counting a dress rehearsal but not counting the showcases, and four of them got the coveted five star rating (though one was really four and a half, but the web site only allows whole numbered stars). Three four star ratings. That's a remarkable start, with more to come.
