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Archive: September, 2012
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: The Artists’ Women
GROUP: YeuxVeuxBelle Collective
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept 14, 8 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 16
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Follow Camille Claudel on her journey into madness guided by the women of different artists throughout history. These women congregate in timeless Paris, France and share stories of love, betrayal, fear, and envy as they live with their artists and battle the muse, who will always come first.
WE THINK: With all due respect to Jonathan Richman, Pablo Picasso must’ve been called an asshole at some point. Monet, Duchamp and Rodin, too. All of the artists in The Artists’ Women are assholes, and their women — muses and artists in their own right — don’t come off too well, either. They’re prone to tantrums that undermine their talent, are called “bitch” and “cunt,” and, in Camille Claudel’s case, are locked away in an asylum. All great artists are tortured, this overlong production argues. But here it’s the audience that suffers most, subjected to a nearly three-hour parade of rageaholics, martyrs and drama queens who couldn’t come to a consensus on whether to play it straight or camp it up.
—M.J. Fine
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: The Gate Reopened
GROUP: Brian Sanders' JUNK
GENRE: Dance
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 14, 10 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: The Gate Reopened takes over Pier 9, a municipal warehouse on the Delaware River that is nearly 100 feet wide by 535 feet long and where international steamers once docked. Inside this massive structure The Gate has been built anew as a 20-foot high cylindrical octagon. With theater-in-the-round seating, audiences encircle the eight dancers in what has become a futuristic, post-industrial, post-apocalyptic coliseum. Performers suspend, rebound, propel, ascend, hover, mount, hang, and free-fall all for the sake of The Gate. Like a giant jungle gym for the insane with spinning ladders, moving walls, water, and breathtaking formations of bodies, The Gate Reopened is an exhilarating feast of exciting physicality and creativity, elegantly served up with beauty and wit.
WE THINK: This is another of Brian Sanders’ trademark sexy thrill rides that makes you think, “Did he/she really do that?” It’s packed with precarious, ingenious stunts that put his toned corps through the physical wringer, as they spin, climb, backbend, free-fall and otherwise cavort about an industrial playground/cage-match set. A reimagining of an earlier work that drew big crowds at the 2003 Fringe, this version is even more spectacular. But those who recall the former show’s famed "flying boobs" routine (involving two topless women spinning around on a suspended metal ladder) can rest assured that part’s back, and it still makes you go wow.
Yet The Gate Reopened is more than just breathtaking physical stunts. There’s a glorious artistry that captivates your senses. You’re taken away from the everyday, to be whisked off into a world that’s dark and mysterious and full of fantastic beautiful imagery. Sanders' shows always spark a good buzz, and this one’s no exception.
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: EvictionProof PeepShow Home
GROUP: Vashti Dubois and family
GENRE: Interdisciplinary
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 14, 7:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 16
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: The EvictionProof PeepShow Home is a multi-disciplinary performance art project about a house fighting to stay with its family—a combination show home, peep show, fire sale, and protest. The show artfully tackles the issues of foreclosure and eviction in Philadelphia.
WE THINK: While a lot of this year's Fringe programming seems to include literal nudity, there's a different sort of nakedness on display at Vashti Dubois' Germantown home. There's an unflinching sincerity as strangers are welcomed in by the Dubois family. Every room in this house has its own story. One contains the project "We Are You, You Are We," where, upon entry, visitors have their photo taken in an attempt to fill in the gaps of the fractured family portraits on the walls. The living room proves to be another arresting scene. It looks grand on the surface, but it's also the heart of some very deep scars. The family is gathered here and airing out their grievances. Voices of dissent build on top of one another until finally being silenced by Vashti, the matriarch. This is a look at how a house handles losing its tenants. It simply holds on, and tries to maintain its identity. Children were made here, and they were raised here. It has been the site of both good times and dismal occurrences alike. The show may be ending, but this house has staying power.
—Chris Brown
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: Antony & Cleopatra: Infinite Lives
GROUP: The Porch Room/The Underground Shakespeare Company
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 14, 8 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 15
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A play-within-a-play version of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. An Egyptian expatriate gets caught between two revolutionaries—her fiancé, an activist director who tries to upend his commissioned Shakespeare production, and her brother, a nationalist fresh from the violence of Tahrir Square.
WE THINK: Not so much a play-within-a-play as a neat little play trying to sneak out from underneath and then merge with a much grander play. Perhaps a molecule too ambitious and definitely 15 minutes too long, its heart is still in the right place and its cast is excellent. Bonus points for acknowledging that many people find the line “The poop-beaten gold” to be hilarious.
—Rodney Anonymous
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: You Don’t Say
GROUP: Tangle
GENRE: Circus theater
ATTENDED: Thu., Sept. 13, 8 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 15
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A trapeze, a rope, a dinner table. Tangle's aerial acrobats explore relationships and resist the pull of gravity in this dynamic circus-theater show. When a group of friends gather for an evening, they misread intentions, intensify attachments, avoid calls, and splice lines of communication.
WE THINK: If Hazel should invite you to her next dinner party, you may want to pass. There’s a lot of tension, ex-girlfriend drama and hurt feelings — plus everyone else will be way better than you at aerial acrobatics. Tangle cleverly interweaves this silent drama with feats of flexibility, strength and skill performed on trapeze, rope, aerial silk and other props. Aside from the sheer terror/awe of watching the pregnant Deena Weisberg take gracefully to the trapeze and self-mocking girls-at-a-dinner-party sound pieces, the fun is watching relationships resolve (and then dissolve) as the women swing through the air and then, often as not, leave one another hanging.
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: Falstaff
GROUP: Poor Richard’s Opera
GENRE: Music
ATTENDED: Thu., Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 15
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Ladies beware. Shakespeare’s delightful yet disgusting Falstaff seduces and swindles via modern technology and social media in Poor Richard’s Opera’s take on Verdi’s timeless opera about love of all kinds at all ages. Sung in Italian with inventive English super titles.
WE THINK: You don’t have to be an opera aficionado to be utterly charmed by Poor Richard’s take on Falstaff, which marries a traditional vocal approach with modern touches. Under Siddhartha Misra’s direction, the fresh supertitles incorporate screenshots of text messages, tweets and a few short video vignettes. José Andrade is repulsive, pathetic and ultimately relatable as Falstaff, who gets his comeuppance after trying to snag two rich ladies with identical texts. Also worth singling out are Maren Montalbano as the crafty, comic go-between Dame Quickly and Rebecca Brinkley Nannetta, an ingenue in sweatpants. The Trinity Center for Urban Life resounds with their voices, and Ting Ting Wong’s brisk piano is all the accompaniment they need.
—M.J. Fine
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: The Hoarder’s Child
GROUP: Blue Scarf Collective
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 14, 1 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 15
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A one woman play about things we consume and stories we tell ourselves: a child lives alone amid left behind stuff. Acting out an interruption to her routine, she reveals a violent past and the horrors inhabiting her space. Her yearning for contact takes us on a journey of humor, pathos, and hope.
WE THINK: In The Hoarder’s Child, Joanna Sycz plays a girl of indeterminate age as she wakes up one morning amid the detritus accumulated by her dead mother, surveys her filthy conditions, and splits her attention between memories of the woman who raised her and snatches of overheard conversations between the new owners now standing outside her door. In her notes, playwright Heather Jones draws parallels between obsessive-compulsive hoarding behavior and our society’s general tendency to overconsume. It’s a connection worth exploring, but one that goes completely unaddressed in Jones’ play. In fact, running closer to 35 minutes than the advertised 45-minute running time, The Hoarder’s Child barely addresses anything other than the stunted development of a person who inherited everything and nothing — and even that rings false.
—M.J. Fine
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: RUB
GROUP: Gunnar Montana and Jazmin Zieroff
GENRE: Movement/dance
ATTENDED: Thu., Sept. 13, midnight
CLOSES: Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Get hot, heavy, and hard for art. Performance erotica glazed with grunge, booze, and cigarette butts. Sit back and indulge while “experienced" rule breakers steam up the windows and tear down your morals. Be prepared.
WE THINK: The vintage-feeling, smoked-stained Latvian Society turns out to be the perfect venue for RUB, Fringe’s racy modern dance spectacle of writhing, oiled-up bodies.
Featuring four dancers and comprised of a series of thematic shorts, the show is at once dark and humorous, seductive and thought provoking. It is creatively exotic without being pornographic (except when mockingly so) and leaves the audience with a different kind of appreciation for the body as a vehicle of art. Where some of the quick costume changes and industrial props made transitions a bit choppy, the talented dancers and spot-on set design, lighting and soundtrack well made up for any of those hitches.
—Courtney Sexton
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: Creditors
GROUP: Philadelphia Artists' Collective
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Thu., Sept. 13, 8 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 23
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Past and present collide in Strindberg's Creditors, an intimate performance at the historical Franklin Inn. This searing drama examines the costs of love, jealousy, and the weight of our pasts. Presented by the PAC (Changes of Heart), and starring Krista Apple, Damon Bonetti, and Dan Hodge.
WE THINK: PAC specializes in inspired revivals of lesser-known, seldom-seen classics, and their riveting intimate production of Creditors is as emotionally violent as their vast and bloody Duchess of Malfi two years ago. The Franklin Inn Club's cozy library, seating fifty just inches from the action, hosts a stylish, sexy thriller about suave Gustav (Bonetti), who by his own admission gets into sculptor Adolph's (Hodge) head and "jams a stick in the works," poisoning his love for wife Tekla (Apple), an independent author on her second husband. "The last person a man should trust is his wife," Gustav purrs, and even while we chuckle, we know that when it comes to love twisted by jealousy, no one is above suspicion. While nudity and spectacle pull more attention during the Live Arts-Fringe Festivals, Creditors shows that nothing succeeds better than genuinely acted, smartly directed, down-and-dirty drama.
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: Silken Veils
GROUP: Leila Ghaznavi and Pantea Productions
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Wed., Sept. 12, 7 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 15
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Nominated for a Fringe First for best new work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (“Magical and Enchanting 5 stars!” - The Scotsman) Silken Veils combines Rumi poetry, puppetry, animation and Iranian history. Darya questions the value of love as she relives her chaotic childhood during the Iran-Iraq War.
WE THINK: At first, audience members may wonder if Darya — having just fled her wedding into a storage closet — has lost her mind, or if she’s just lost in her memories, as her dead brother returns to life, bringing with him her parents and childhood, all represented both through puppets and the silhouettes of never-seen cast members, acting behind a backlit screen. But Silken Veils quickly reels you into the story behind the story: how Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 and later the Iran-Iraq War tore apart a family, slaying some with landmines and others with sheer grief. It’s no light subject matter, this investigation of whether to love in a world with so much loss is a futile endeavor. But the clever use of projected animation, dance, poetry and marionettes and other puppets makes it an exciting and unpredictable ride.
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