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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 Edge of Our Bodies
GROUP: Theatre Exile
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Tue., Sept. 11, 7 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 23
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Adam Rapp (Red Light Winter) captures with startling intimacy the vulnerability and insight of a teenage girl at the threshold of adult experience. Somewhere “just beyond the edge of what we know. Where the skin contains us.” A Philadelphia premiere directed by Matt Pfeiffer, starring Nicole Erb.
WE THINK: The Edge of Our Bodies presents a tale — perhaps a tall one — told in the first person, by Bernadette (Nicole Erb), a 16 year-old girl who leaves her boarding school to give some unexpected news to her boyfriend in New York. Initially reading from a journal, she shares the windmills of her mind about a series of encounters, which reveal her to be precocious, vulnerable and confused; she wants to be noticed and invisible at the same time. Or maybe not. Bernadette is an aspiring writer and she might be making the whole thing up.
It’s a keen portrait of an anguished teen, with a dash of meta-theater tossed in, and if you’re drawn into Bernadette’s drama, you may find the meticulous nuance of playwright Adam Rapp’s script quite poignant. Or, you could lapse into ennui and think this is all just a bunch of whining from a poor little rich girl. I found it a bit of both. Erb’s delivery is intentionally dry, with occasional flickers of energy, the script seems dark for the sake of dark, and that gets tiring.
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 Big Nude Pinhole Shoot
GROUP: RA Friedman/Tsirkus Fotografika
GENRE: Photography
ATTENDED: Tue., Sept. 11, 9 p.m. at Ven and Vaida Gallery
CLOSES: Mon., Sept. 17 at The Rotunda
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Meet the artist and sign up to bare it all, make some amazing art, and get a free archival print as artist RA Friedman uses primitive photographic tools to fashion a dazzling tableau. Tsirkus Fotografika, (Tsirkus.org) or the "Photographic Circus," was founded in 2008 by artist RA Friedman and is an ongoing non-profit, public arts project based in Philadelphia, PA, designed to bring the creative process directly to communities and document populations at their most lively. Since 2010, Tsirkus has been working toward doing multi-figure nude public shoots using pinhole photography. The 2012 Fringe event is the first.
WE THINK: If you didn’t sign up to be snapped by Friedman — Philadelphia’s premier photographer dedicated to ages-old techniques, film stock and experimentalism — you can’t act voyeuristically at his nude Sept. 17 shoot where all but a pinhole of light will shine through the darkness of the Rotunda. That doesn’t mean you’ll miss out completely. Last night, a klatch of Philadelphia models, professional and novice, signed up anonymously to have their naked selves photographed by Mr. Friedman. Once there, they got a glimpse of Friedman’s rotogravure-like techniques as applied to other naked models, wedding participants and cabaret/burlesque performers. Those photographs will stay on the walls of the Ven and Vaida throughout September.
—A.D. Amorosi
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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: Le Mirage/Dead City Philly
GROUP: DysFUNctional Theater
GENRE: Rock opera
ATTENDED: Mon., Sept. 10, 8 p.m.
CLOSES: Tue., Sept. 11
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Jenny is alive. Claudine is a ghost. They're lookalikes who want the same man. Who will win his love? Based on Georges Rodenbach's 1892 novella, Bruges la Morte. Re-imagined as a rock opera. Set in Philly. Debuted at Fringe 2011. Includes new songs, added scenes. Back by popular demand.
WE THINK: The love triangle is just about the oldest plotline there is, so how do you make it fresh again? Well, making the spurned woman a ghost whom her ex is obsessed with bringing back to life is one way to go. This is director/writer/bandleader Janet Bressler’s supposedly partly “autobiographical tale,” told through the music of Sylvia Platypus, a rock band that here functions as character, narrator and Greek chorus. And the music is worth a listen: 14 catchy, original songs featuring Bressler’s high-energy performance and Etta James-low vocals, an impressive variety of bagpipes played by Charlie Rutan and guitar from prog-rock veteran Bill Barone. The ballad “Claudine 2,” especially, and “If It Don’t Kill Me First,” co-written by Bressler and the prolific Scot Sax, will stick in your head for hours. The other highlight is Lesley Berkowitz, performing a profoundly creepy modern-dance interpretation of Claudine’s ghost, lurching across the stage and slithering onto the floor. Now, the downside: The clunky acted scenes between the songs, which sometimes felt like half-assed interstitials and other times dragged on way longer than the relatively straightforward plotline required. Also, the constant slideshow of photos and video projected behind the performers, though it occasionally helped to advance the story, more often had the feel of either a karaoke backing video or someone’s wedding PowerPoint. Still, it’s easy to see why Dead City was revived and expanded for a second year at Fringe; if they bring it back next year, we hope they’ll lose the slideshow, keep the necrophilia.
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: HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical
GROUP: eXposed Theatre Company
GENRE: Musical Theater
ATTENDED: Mon., Sept. 10, 7 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 16
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: eXposed brings you the classic American tribal love-rock musical, HAIR
, in an eXciting new production that pushes the boundaries of the
audience and actor relationship while eXposing the still present results
of war and back-door politics. Join the tribe this fringe and let the
sunshine in!
WE THINK: HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical relives a time of bandanas, tapestries, incense, and peppermints (just to pay tribute to the classic Summer of Love anthem by The Strawberry Alarm Clock). Complete with a live band jamming to a psychedelic soundtrack of protest and pot smoking, tripping and transcendental meditation, this musical turns on, tunes in, and drops out to the vibes of our nation’s most far-out generation — the hippies of the late 1960’s.
The story revolves around the lives of a group of hairy and high youths partaking in the counter-cultural, sexual revolution that defined their time. While most of the group buys into their drugged out and draft dodging lifestyles, one member comes to terms with reality (through an acid trip, ironically enough) and realizes he must leave the holy orgy to buckle his boot straps and ship off to ‘Nam to fight for his country. What ensues is a story emblematic of a generation who tried to let the sunshine in during one of America’s darkest hours. The cast completely obliterates the fourth wall, interacting with the audience on a magic carpet ride to 1968 that will leave you with a strong urge to clap along and put flowers in your hair.
—Max Pulcini
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: Iminami
GROUP: PuppeTyranny
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Mon., Sept. 10, 8 p.m.
CLOSES: Fri., Sept. 21
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: As a devastating iminami plunges Earth into chaos, the last vestiges of scientific reason flee to the moon Enceladus in a post-apocalyptic drama of two worlds. The creators of the “transcendently bizarre” Water Bears in Space bring you a new sci-fi epic replete with puppets, aerialists, and a live score.
WE THINK: Iminami is the Japanese word for mega tsunami, the cataclysmic event that kicks off this wonderfully weird production about post-apocalyptic Earth-dweller Rene Junot (Kate Black-Regan) and her moon-based confidant Interplanet Janet (Mary Wood). The aerial acrobatics, video scenes, and elaborate puppets enhance the strangeness of this already spectacular tale, the third from Philly Fringe vet C.W. Kennedy, who made cosmic waves at last year’s fest with Water Bears in Space.
Rene and Janet’s desperate desire to exchange situations keeps Iminami from becoming too silly of an affair though. Credit goes to Black-Regan and Wood for performances that give an otherwise absurd play about derangement, drugs, and domination some heart — or as attendees soon discover after a remarkable chain of events — meat.
Backed by bassist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster, Bob Mould tore through Sugar's 1992 classic Copper Blue, start to finish, with no words in edgewise. After that he played a few from his new album, Silver Age and a threw in a little Hüsker Dü, too. Bob sounded great, like Sugar in its prime. Way back when, I saw Sugar and Magnapop in Philly but I can't for the life of me remember where that show was. The Troc? Nick's? Anybody remember?
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: Jawbone Junction
GROUP: The Twisted Tail
GENRE: Music
ATTENDED: Sun., Sept. 12, 10 p.m.
CLOSES: Sept. 23
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Legends of the Arkansas Delta pool halls and juke joints, Junction rocks Philly for the first time in a three-night stand at The Twisted Tail. Their brand of pure Southern rock-’n’-roll is the perfect way to end a night at the Festival with some booze and cheap thrills. Try not to lose your panties.
WE THINK: It’s easy to poke fun at Southern rockers, and really, Southerners in general. Their dress, the way they talk and their mannerisms come off as goofy to us up here. But the whole “Southerner” thing can really miss the mark if it isn’t hammed up enough. Let’s see some spittoon-hackin,’ bourbon-sippin’ drawled storytelling if you’re going to act like one. When Jawbone Junction took the stage they knew enough to hit some Southern classics from Marshall Tucker Band and ZZ Top, but they didn’t quite hit the cow’s ass with the iron. Sure, the story about a lead guitarist dying after getting food poisoning from a pulled-pork sandwich was great. But the rest of Jawbone’s residency better have more backstory for the band because a couple quips between songs just didn’t take us far enough down home.
—Brian Wilensky
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: Ghost Sonata
GROUP: Homunculus, Inc.
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Sun., Sept. 9, 2 p.m.
CLOSES: Sept. 16
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A vampiric cook. A mummy in a closet. The ghost of a wet-nurse. An elderly enigma set on revenge. And a messianic student who stumbles into the collapsing web of cruelty, greed, and lies uniting these characters. Join the struggle for salvation in this eccentric and immersive adaption of Strindberg.
WE THINK: The dissonance between the grim Ghost Sonata and the spectacular late-summer weather may have been too much to overcome. The cast bears no fault for alienating the audience; Hugh Trimble, in particular, is riveting as the extraordinarily sinister Old Man. As The Student, Patrick Scheid earns our empathy, which should make it all the more jolting when we learn the depth of the horrors visited upon him and the secret society he longs to join.
But maybe the company set its expectations of the audience too high for its “immersive” adaptation of August Strindberg’s 1908 chamber play. We could believe, with little trouble, that the creepy residents of a cursed condo complex belonged in the darkness of PhilaMOCA, but though the room had been staged to erase the physical boundaries between cast and crowd, we 21st-century dwellers were feeling way too good to fully settle into the space, and too eager to flee back into the sunny afternoon the second the house lights came up.
—M.J. Fine
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