FRINGE REVIEW: This Town Is A Mystery

In some ways, this is territory as unfamiliar even for seasoned experimental dance/theater audiences as it is for the brave, enthusiastic families.

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FRINGE REVIEW: This Town Is A Mystery

POSTED: Saturday, September 8, 2012, 10:10 AM

Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!

SHOW: This Town Is A Mystery

GROUP: Headlong Dance Theater

GENRE: Dance/Theater/Experience

ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 7, 7 p.m.

CLOSES: Sept. 22

BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Every home is a universe. This Town Is a Mystery combines local performance and dinner in four Philadelphia homes. Created over the course of several months by Headlong and each home’s residents, the dance works are performed by the residents in their own living rooms — transformed into a fully teched stage — with no professional performers.

WE THINK: In some ways, this is territory as unfamiliar even for seasoned experimental dance/theater audiences as it is for the brave, enthusiastic families — in my case South Philly's Aryadereis (Teheran-born father, Roxborough-bred mom and three delightful, utterly rambunctious kids) — who serve as both hospitable hosts and slightly tentative but wholly captivating amateur performers. But it's also such a human and heartwarming thing, to be welcomed into this home, to get to know these fascinating folks and hear their astonishingly powerful stories, that to evaluate it in terms of art feels nearly beside the point. It's clear, however, that the lively post-performance potluck is as crucial a part of the experience as the "show" itself, and possibly the more memorable part.

—K. Ross Hoffman

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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