Deer Head

Oh, the inanity! Deer Head is off the wall. It's also highly recommended if you're into well-crafted short-form comedic theater. Director Josh McIlvain has a gift for creating improbable situations that keep getting more absurd, then end with a well-placed punch line. He uses spare, well-chosen props and sharp acting to draw you into outrageous scenarios played out by kooky characters. A lover's duel unlike anything you've seen before and an inspired spoof on genealogy and prejudice are among the gems here. Bravo to the entire cast for making these whackjobs so worth watching. —Deni Kasrel

More Mouvements für Lachenmann

Choreography typically involves coupling movement with music, but Xavier Le Roy's More Mouvements für Lachenmann was more often about subtraction than addition. Lachenmann's music is spare and concentrated, reducing each instrument to its essential sonic properties: the scrape of strings, the resonant knock of wood. Le Roy's three pieces, co-presented by Bowerbird, experiment with stripping even those elements way to focus on gesture and intention. During cellist Andreas Lindenbaum's solo performance of "Pression," the lights fade out, leaving only sound; the entire last third of the string quartet "Gran Torso" is performed with instruments laid aside, leaving the audience to imagine the sound that each waved arm or scratched knee implies. It also leaves a great deal of uncomfortable silence for frustrated fest-goers to vent their indignation — which is fascinating in itself. —Shaun Brady

One City Under a Groove

For those old enough to have lived in the hippie-dippie era of the '70s, One City Under a Groove may conjure a flashback. It's an homage to the times when girls just wanted to have fun. The Pink Hair Affair expands its ranks for this performance, bringing in a bunch more besties; when they duel with Star Wars light sabers, stretch out in yogic moves, do the hustle or spoof disco days, they're all clearly enjoying themselves. —Deni Kasrel

Play

Somewhere between a seductive choreographed dance and an intuitively improvisational movement piece, Play operates with the Western civilized sway behind Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's technique and dancer Shantala Shivalingappa's classical Indian (Kuchipudi) form. Subtly screened elements (chess playing, hand waving) appear behind them as they tease, battle giant puppets and act sexy (not crudely) through what could be the inspiration of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. —A.D. Amorosi

The Radio Show

The Radio Show (pictured above) is special. Choreographer Kyle Abraham saturates his cast — and the audience — with wonderful music (Gladys Knight and the Pips, Dionne Warwick and more). Abraham dances, and he's a sinuous and seductive mover. He calls what he does "Abraham.In.Motion," and boy is he ever. Eight excellent dancers perform, as well, accompanied by everything from hip-hop to classical. Great music, great moves and marvelous lighting. It's easily apparent why the show won a Bessie in NYC. —Janet Anderson

Straw, Stick, Brick

The first words of this sibling collaboration make a poetic promise that the 45-minute play fulfills: "My bedtime stories," muses Eric Scotolati as the unnamed storyteller, "were Pharaoh's shopping list." His ruminations flow from calculating the labor required to build the pyramids with his grandfather to issues of family, relationships and, as the fairy tale title reference implies, building a safe home. All through, he toils to complete a project that might balance what's missing in his life. Mesmerizing and moving, Straw, Stick, Brick says much without pontificating. —Mark Cofta

Traces

Certain much-touted Live Arts shows proved to be inscrutable, disorienting, even painful to sit through. But there were winners, like 7 Fingers' Traces (pictured, right) an exuberant, high-energy event that lives up to its hype, with agile acrobats running through contemporary circus feats, tumbling, swinging and otherwise bounding about chairs, poles, huge hoops, skateboards and more. There's quite a bit of very cool derring-do. And it doesn't hurt that the cast of seven are all young and adorable. Think of it as the antidote to alienating art. —Deni Kasrel

The Witch in the Wood

Dark Star's inaugural production employs Czech-style black light theater to create a lovely pantomimed 20-minute fairy tale set to music. Stephanie Aurora Long's charming production makes magic in A&D's Gallery's tiny black box, as eerily glowing archetypal masked characters, frightening creatures and seemingly solid objects whirl around us in the dark, creating low-tech, low-budget visual effects that blow that Potter kid away. —Mark Cofta

For more information, visit livearts-fringe.org.