Best of the Fest

Live Arts/Fringe picks from City Paper staff

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Published: Sep 1, 2009

There's no funnier way to pay homage to a cinematic masterpiece rife with epic battle scenes and hundreds of actors than to turn it into a one-man show. David Gaines uses masks, miming, acrobatics and Fight Club-style self-beatdowns in his absurdist take on Akira Kurosawa's classic, Seven Samurai.

—Brion Shreffler

Sept. 9 and 14, 8 p.m.; Sept. 13 and 19, 5 p.m.; $15, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St.

It's on! One or another of Philly Improv Theater's groups perform pretty much every Fringe night. What to do? You can't see 'em all. (Can you?) If you have to choose one, pick Activity Book. It's one of PHIT's resident performing groups — not to be confused with independent cohorts like Traffic Jelly or Industrial — with a rep for foolishness and hijinks.

—Janet Anderson

Sept. 7, 11 and 13, 7 p.m.; Sept. 17, 8:30 p.m.; $10, Mainstage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.

Driven to bankruptcy by a serial killer affectionately named "The Knife," the titular brothers, played by seasoned actors Michael Toner and H. Michael Walls, try to unravel the mystery surrounding the pub while taking a stab at bigger-picture mysteries (religion, politics, the whole nine) all the while.

—Lauren Fleming

Sept. 5, 2 and 6 p.m.; Sept. 6 and 13, 4 p.m.; Sept. 9 and 16, 7 p.m.; Sept. 12 and 19, 2 and 6 p.m.; $20, Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom St.

Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium seems made for the Fringe; dedicated to presenting classic absurdist plays, it'll continue its 100th-anniversary celebration of Eugene Ionesco's birth with 1952's The Chairs, following its acclaimed February production of Ionesco's silly yet sobering The Lesson. Set in "a lighthouse at the edge of a watery nighttime universe," the Romanian master's tragic farce reveals two old people arranging seating for a presentation that will reveal life's meaning — or not.

—Mark Cofta

Sept. 4-6, 8-13, 15-16, 7:30 p.m., $20, Red Room at Society Hill Playhouse, 507 S. Eighth St.

A frequent Fringer, David "One Man Sideshow" Smith is back with Cirque-ular, a story about circus life's ups and downs. He plays all the characters and does all his own juggling, fire-eating, harmonica-playing, aerial stunting, miming and fire-walking — it's like a one-man Cirque du Soleil.

—JA

Sept. 11-12, 18-19, 8 p.m., $15, Greene Street Studio, 6122 Greene St.

Iron Age Theatre sets its sights on oft-forgotten Founding Father Thomas Paine, the revolutionary who wrote Common Sense, for its one-man Fringe foray. "Thomas Paine matched to a great extent this social-justice bent," says director John Doyle. "We were looking for a figure whose writing was emotionally driven to the core."

—Molly Eichel

Sept. 6, 4 p.m.; Sept. 7 and 9, 7 p.m.; Sept. 13, 2 p.m.; $10, Moonstone Arts Center, 110 S. 13th St.

"I had a very, very dark past," says Miho Kahn, an interior designer by day who makes her theatrical debut in Clean Sheets. She penned the harrowing, autobiographical story of sex, drugs and violence during a writing workshop. "And it all got turned around." In this darkly comedic show, Kahn performs as a slew of characters, communicating the struggles and eventual empowerment of being an artist, wife and mother living in Chester County. "I wanted to have the last word," says Kahn of her confessional-style roller-coaster of a show. "I'm not a writer, but I'm a storyteller."

—Natalie Hope McDonald

Sept. 5, 11, 18-19, 7:30 p.m., $10, The Arts Garage, 1533 Ridge Ave.

With only a handful of productions under their belt, the members of Anthology Project — previously responsible for 2008's Gas and an adaptation of Euripides' Medea staged in a claustrophobic apartment — have already established a reputation for purposefully messy, outside-the-box performance. Their latest show will apply the chaotic principles of the Dadaist movement to a mash-up of dance, music and improv. Come prepared to be confused and maybe amazed.

—Lauren F. Friedman

Sept. 5, 9, 12 and 19, 7 and 9 p.m., $15, Northern Liberties Community Center, 700 N. Third St.

Three jumpsuited workmen put the finishing touches on a new house for sale, but the radio says the housing market's dead, so they take up residence themselves, putting on (and trading off) the roles of mom, pop and junior, and setting about the quotidian enterprise of constructing a home life — pausing along the way to bicker about attending a neighbor's foreclosure party and to read aloud from the "great lost novel," Desert of Hallways, which appears mysteriously on their doorstep. Such is the coherent illogic of the Western Narrative Co., whose screwball musical investigations into the stuff and nonsense of Western civilization (as viewed from Western Philadelphia) are, as writer-composer-performer Adam Brody puts it, "Melan-campy": playful in their poignancy, affecting in their absurdity and unflinchingly extravagant in their earnestness. This new, all-singing post-identity politics glam-folk-pop melodrama (inspired musically by "a bit of Hedwig, a lot of Bowie") is a treatise on the emotional economics of homes and houses, pondering the effects of the real estate crisis on the business of domesticity, and vice versa. Performed in the glorious blue sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church, it's sure to make you feel at home — or else make you glad you're not.

—K. Ross Hoffman

Sept. 10-12, 18-19, 7 p.m., $10, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St.

Barrymore-nominated director Ozzie Jones explores the "perverse relationship between stars, the public and the press" in this first U.S. production of Joe Penhall's Dumb Show. Barry (Phillip Brown) is a TV star whose best days are behind him when he receives a surprise visit from bankers Liz and Greg (Emma Gibson and Tom Tansey, founders of Stripped Bare Theatre Co.), who offer to shower him with money in return for his endorsement. Jones cites inspiration from Michael Jackson, a man who "gave the public his childhood and was then mocked for the last decade of his life."

—Felicia D'Ambrosio

Sept. 10-11, 8 p.m.; Sept. 12, 17 and 18, 8:30 p.m.; $15, L2, 2201 South St., 2nd floor

Finally, sighs DysFUNctional Theatre founder Ruchama Bilenky: Havana-born Maria Irene Fornes' seldom-seen avant-garde feminist play Fefu and Her Friends will at last be performed! Bilenky founded DysFUNctional to bring obscure female-oriented works to Philadelphia, producing three other well-regarded plays but delaying, since a 2006 cancellation, Obie-winner Fornes' absurdist comedy. Bilenky, Kate Black-Regan (IRC's The Lesson) and six other actresses collide: sharing, lying, loving and provoking one another and the audience to question societal roles and, in a way Bilenky calls "quirky-schizophrenic," our roles as human beings.

—MC

Sept. 14 and 17, 10 p.m.; Sept. 15-16, 8 p.m.; $10, Plays and Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place.

When Walking Fish Theater CEO Michelle Pauls writes that she's offering a twist on already-busted fairy tales, it might sound like an unnecessary pileup. But Pauls' B. Someday troupe is offering its first family-oriented, audience-interactive show with child actors (Lena Kelsall, 8; Michael Trainor, 11) mixed into the adult-performer (Asaki Kumura, Mike Smith; ages not given, ha ha) melee. The kids and their elders penned the script together and may need the crowd's assistance during an "audition" for "Philadelphia Idol." Drop all F bombs before you arrive.

—A.D. Amorosi

Sept. 5, 12 and 19, noon; Sept. 6 and 13, 2 p.m.; $5, Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Ave.

Playwright John Stanton came up with the idea for Happy Hour one afternoon three years ago while downing beers at Fergie's Pub. "These two guys next to me were just talking, hilarious stuff," says Stanton. "And I knew I had a play." So did Madhouse Theatre Co., which is serving it up with a shot of comedy, pathos and booze. Under the direction of Allison Heishman, four actors (Saturday Night Special and Late Night Snack sketch-comedy veterans Rob Neddoff, Gregg Pica, Megan Slater and Colleen Corcoran) saddle up to the bar to re-create an all-too-familiar after-work scene where barbs fly, matches are made and the day's stresses are diluted with a heavy dose of adult beverages. But behind the martini sipping and beer guzzling is a quirky play about strangers' tenuous relationships. Audiences also play a supporting role, so don't be surprised if the guy sipping a lager next to you is the star of the show.

—NHM

Sept. 8, 10, 15 and 17, 6:30 p.m.; Sept. 9 and 16, 10 p.m.; $15, Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom St.

Imagine if you will the on-point cultural reportage of Laurie Anderson minus all the overrehearsed tech-savvy sarcasm but plus the freneticism of Lewis Black, if only he were pinned behind a desk — and you wind up with monologuist Mike Daisey. A big man with a big hurt, this NYC dweller sucker punches the newsy macabre in the face with each pretty-much-unrehearsed production. His six-hour Great Men of Genius will go unrivalled in its take-down of smarties L. Ron Hubbard, Bertolt Brecht, P.T. Barnum and Nikola Tesla. 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com was so literarily wonky it became his first book. If You See Something Say Something places all witnesses of every stripe on alert. But How Theater Failed America might be his riskiest move yet as it takes on the stage itself, from the Great White Way to your city's Fringe dramatists. Dailey shouts down American drama for blowing its birthright from Shakespeare on down to Arthur Miller. As for The Last Cargo Cult, Daisey recalls his time in the South Pacific, and how the zealous religiosity of island inhabitants — worshipping things left behind by WWII U.S. soldiers — is somehow connected to our current financial straits. Who knew?

—ADA

How Theater Failed America, Sept. 4 and 5, 8 p.m.; Sept. 6, 3 p.m.; The Last Cargo Cult, Sept. 10-11, 8 p.m.; Sept. 12, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sept. 13, 3 p.m.; $25-$30, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St.

Mascher Space Cooperative's INFLUX series offers a wide variety of new dance works by on-the-cusp Philadelphia choreographers with nothing in common other than a willingness to interrogate boundaries. Watch for new pieces by Bidisha Dasgupta, Michelle Stortz, Daniele Strawmyre and Meg Foley, who dances with Nichole Canuso and directs Moving Parts.

—LFF

Sept. 10, 8 p.m.; Sept. 13, 6 p.m.; $10, Mascher Space Co-Op, 155 Cecil B. Moore Ave.

A metaphor for insomniacs' nightly struggle to finally get some sleep, Insomnaeria presents aerial circus performers tangled in cloth hanging from the ceiling. There's an equal sense of vexing struggle, as they battle with gravity, and grace, alluding to the realm of slumber and dreams to which they'd like to abscond.

—BS

Sept. 11-13 and 18-20, 8 p.m., $10, Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, 5900A Greene St.

Playwright Todd Cardin had this play's title down before he even started writing it. Ostensibly about a kid searching for a prom date in the titular decade, Cardin says it's more a slice-of-life in an era before texting and social media. "It's a story that could be anytime," says Cardin, "but these kids [have] Flock of Seagulls haircuts."

—ME

Sept. 4, 8, 10 and 11, 8 p.m.; Sept. 5, 2 and 6 p.m.; Sept. 6, 2 and 8 p.m.; $15, Shubin Theatre, 407 Bainbridge St.

The newly formed Earth Speed Productions has developed a fictionalized, mythologized meditation on Amelia Earhart's final flight that includes a band of accordion-wielding musicians playing odd, original compositions. With a reverence for experimentalism and a heavy dose of poetic license, MEELEY tells the doomed aviator's tale and weaves in an unexpected love story, a prescient main character and wonderfully surprising text written by Earhart herself.

—LFF

Sept. 8 and 10-12, 8 p.m., $10, Circle of Hope, 1125 S. Broad St., 2nd floor

It sounds so dorky, but I'm telling you now: Monsters of Podcasting will be the funniest 1.5 hours of Fringe. The night features two sets of oft-disembodied voices made flesh in Philly for the first time. I prefer the calm, clever improvisation of the guys in You Look Nice Today to the blunt, hyper riffing of Jordan Jesse Go!, but there's plenty to love about both. The aforementioned Jesse, by the way, is Jesse Thorn — self-named "America's Radio Sweetheart" (shudder) — host of The Sound of Young America (heard locally on WHYY). One day before he becomes a Monster, he'll interview the respectably hilarious Paul F. Tompkins for a live version of the show.

—Patrick Rapa

The Sound of Young America LIVE!, Sept. 16, 10 p.m., $15, Mainstage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.; Monsters of Podcasting, Sept. 17, 10 p.m., $15, Mainstage at the Adrienne.

Like a butterfly emerging from her cocoon, this series of murals on Second and Race streets will evolve daily, beginning from just one single image and expanding throughout the Fringe's run. Featured artists include Sean Stoops and Space 1026-er Bonnie Brenda Scott.

—Carlene Majorino

Ongoing, free, 219 Race St. (closing reception Sept. 19, 9 p.m., free)

"Somewhere between sleep and awake," four women in white pajamas seek answers ("nuda veritas" is Latin for "the naked truth") that elude them, exploring memories of love, lust and heartache. And what a terrific cast — Melissa Lynch, Laurie Norton, Christie Parker and Barrymore Award-winner Charlotte Northeast. Inspired by an ethereal Gustav Klimt painting in which a naked woman holds an empty mirror up toward the viewer, Melissa James Gibson's Nuda Veritas asks, What do we see in the mirror: the truth, merely our own image — or both?

—MC

Sept. 5-6, 8, 10-11 and 13, 6:30 p.m.; Sept. 9 and 12, 9 p.m.; $15, Walnut Street Theatre's Independence Studio on 3, 825 Walnut St.

These Philly festivals have conditioned us to expect daring and unusual work, but Operetta should challenge even the most jaded Fringer: More than three hours long, with 22 actors, nudity, Polish translated in supertitles, fashion, dancing, camels and general mayhem, this adaptation of Polish master Witold Gombrowicz's satiric comedy has mind-blowing potential. Operetta tells the story of beautiful Albertine, pursued by two men determined to dress her while she just wants to be naked, but director Michal Zadara (a wunderkind in his native Poland and — surprise! — a Swarthmore College grad) says that though the musical explores old revolutions (Poland's tumultuous 20th century, from expatriate Gombrowicz's 1960s Argentine perspective), it also addresses today's revolutionary potential. "The thing about revolutions," he says prophetically, "is that we don't see them coming. ... Operetta is foremost a play about the elite running out of ideas." What could be more American, more now, more dire and more ripe for satire?

—MC

Sept. 10-11, 7 p.m.; Sept. 12, 3 and 7 p.m.; Sept. 13, 3 p.m.; $25-$30, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St.

Sketch troupe High Dramma resurrects old faves from its first season (like the Two Andres, two thugs who host a home and gardening show). Zac Ross, co-producing artistic director, says his company offers a little bit of everything — singing, dancing, rapping, Spider-Man. "We're trying to push the limits of sketch comedy," says Ross. "We don't just do potty humor and gay jokes. We are about making fun of everyone."

—ME

Sept. 4, 5, 18 and 19, 9 p.m.; $15, Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Ave.

Slowly they enter the performing space, dancers dressed in neutral colors, each carrying a large tree branch on shoulders or head, moving cautiously. There is some danger involved should someone's branch fall or ram into someone else. They're accompanied by video images of trees and water and soft natural sounds. This is not a Celtic ritual involving woodland maidens, although it looks a bit like that. It's a dance form created by Merian Soto, which she calls branch dancing. Soto has staged branch dances indoors and in the woods, locally and all over the country. "I've been working with branches forever," Soto says. "The dances came to me after I turned 50. I started walking in the Wissahickon. It became a practice for me, a way to focus my mind and body by paying attention to what was going on around me." Each branch dance is slightly different, and all have an improvisational element. "You can try to choreograph," Soto says, "but branches have a mind of their own."

—JA

Sept. 16-18, 7 p.m.; Sept. 19, 2 and 4 p.m.; $25-$30, ICE BOX Projects Space, 1400 N. American St.

One word is everything for this long-form improv trio. The premise is simple: Audience members arrive and yell out random words, one of which inspires the entire 30-minute act. This year, the comedians are adding two hourlong shows to their repertoire — either they'll split the hour into two shows, allowing the audience to inspire them twice, or enter unprecedented territory and riff off a single word for 60 minutes. That's next-level.

—Chris Monigle

Sept. 4, 5 and 8, 10 p.m.; Sept. 10, 8:30 p.m.; $10, Mainstage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.

Henry Darger, a reclusive Chicago janitor, released his pent-up fantasies, hurt feelings and imagination writing a work of fiction — 15 volumes and 15,145 handwritten pages long, discovered long after his death in 1973. He illustrated the work with highly imaginative paintings; his subjects included religion, child abuse and some imaginary ladies he called the Vivian Girls. This famous work of outsider art might seem difficult to translate into a two-act musical, but recent UArts grad Jamison Foreman has done just that. Parallax Theatre Co. has spent the last year "doing a lot of cabaret work," notes artistic director/founder Ryan Touhey, "in an effort to fund this project for the Fringe. This launches our first season." Realm of the Unreal is staged behind the Broad Street Ministry sanctuary in a multilevel area with archways, balconies and small rooms. Expect movement ("I wouldn't call what we do dance," Touhey admits), music (piano) and singing, plus projections of Darger's artwork. Adds Touhey, "It's all very Wizard of Oz."

—JA

Sept. 4 and 7, 8 p.m.; Sept. 5, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sept. 6, 2 p.m.; $15, Broad Street Ministry, 315 S. Broad St.

Felipe Vergara's Something with Wings showcases interpretations on the classical myth that God is dead. The Colombian director, who's finishing his MFA in directing at Temple, says he'd like to see audience members "think about [their] place in this world, this society." Featuring 13 Temple students and recent grads, the show, says Vergara, is "a meditation on God."

—Chelsea Calhoun

Sept. 9-10, 8 p.m.; Sept. 11-12, 15-19, 8 p.m.; Sept. 13, 2 p.m.; $15, Fishtown Collective, 1425 N. Front St.

Anna Watson and Frank Brückner are both German actors. But it wasn't until a chance meeting at a Philly coffee shop that the two decided to collaborate on Watson's stateside debut in Teenager: Anne Frank, a one-woman show that delves into the isolation and angst of young adulthood in war-torn Germany. "The focus is not on the Anne Frank most people know," explains Richard Watson, the actor's husband. Instead, the show explores mother-daughter relationships and first love. Watson performs in an 8-by-8-foot cube set atop the roof of an apartment building with sprawling city views, symbolizing the character's captivity coming of age in Nazi Germany.

—NHM

Sept. 10-13 and 15-18, 8 p.m., $15, Parkway House, 2201 Pennsylvania Ave.

Improv isn't moldy, but most of it fits what artistic director Bobbi Block calls a "comedic, wacky-silly" mold — except Tongue & Groove. In her continuing efforts to elevate public perception of unscripted theatrical performance, Block's calling it "spontaneous theater": an hourlong realistic, physical, seriocomic exploration of romantic relationships, guided by an innovative format but inspired anew each night by secrets shared — anonymously — by the audience.

—MC

Sept. 10, 11 and 17, 7 p.m.; Sept. 13 and 19, 5 p.m.; Sept. 18, 9 p.m.; $10, The Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.

Charlie DelMarcelle and Mike Dees play crusty father and addled son searching rural Ireland for a 70-year-old love child in Mark Doherty's Trad, a 2007 Fringe Festival hit revived by Inis Nua Theatre Co. (Philadelphia's only company dedicated to producing contemporary Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English plays). Musician John Lionarons plays hammer dulcimer, fiddle, accordion and tin whistle to accompany Trad, which blossoms from loony vaudeville to heartbreaking parable.

—MC

Sept. 3 and 23-25, 8 p.m.; Sept. 4, 8 and 10 p.m.; Sept. 9, 16 and 18, 7 p.m.; Sept. 10-11 and 17, 9 p.m.; $15, The Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.

At last year's Philly Fringe, Brian Sanders/JUNK presented Flushdance, a rollicking movement-based cabaret-style show set to tunes from Flashdance. This year for the Live Arts Fest, he stages Urban Scuba, which could be subtitled Splashdance — it takes place in the old abandoned pool at the Gershman Y. "There's a strange feeling of going back in time," says Sanders, whose cast is suspended above the dilapidated pool for the first half of the program. Sanders says he's playing with how light reflects from the surface: "Water and light play magic. It has a quality that's so special. Monet couldn't stop painting it. That's what I'm looking at — the interaction of bodies, water and light." Of the show's "may contain nudity" clause, Sanders claims he's still figuring it out. "I want to give a sense of purity. But there's purity and there's distraction. If I can make it work, I might do no-holds-barred balls to the wall."

—Deni Kasrel

Sept. 4 and 6, 7 p.m.; Sept. 5, 2 and 6 p.m.; Sept. 10-11, 9 p.m.; Sept. 12-13, 3 and 7 p.m.; $25-$30, Gershman Y, 401 S. Broad St.

The Waitstaff leaves no element of comedy behind during a show that aims to be a mix of all things wild, intelligent and irreverent. Entering its seventh year in Philly Fringe, the troupe just hopes "the audience will laugh enough to justify a night out," according to member Ryan McMenamin. This year's show will be more musically inspired than ever before, and might very well include heavy audience participation. Audience, you've been warned.

—CM

Sept. 6, 6 and 9 p.m.; Sept. 8-9, 13 and 16-17, 8 p.m.; $15, L'Etage, 624 Bainbridge St.

The circus that is Philadelphia morning news is spoofed in Wake Up Philadelphia! as newscasters are ridiculed for focusing on fluff pieces rather than tedious wars and financial meltdowns. Local cheesesteak-lovers feel the brunt, too, as an obese fatty-food purveyor clamors against a trans-fat ban. Amid the humor, though, is a very poignant and very unfunny question: What results if so many people are "informed" through such a laughable, masturbatory daily retread?

—BS

Sept. 5, 18 and 19, 7 p.m.; Sept. 12, 8 p.m.; Sept. 13, 5 p.m.; $15, Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Ave.

Bringing out more than just coffee and delicious Shortis, the third installment of Wawapalooza features nine actors (including a father-daughter team), three short films and seven plays, each of which are just under 7 minutes long. Keen on keeping things short and sweet, the IdRatherBeHere acting troupe examines the concept of "new Philly" (read: hipsters and Whole Foods) versus "old Philly" (read: Eagles fans and Super Fresh).

—LF

Sept. 4-6, 18-19, 8 p.m.; $10, Society Hill Playhouse, 507 S. Eighth St.

It wouldn't be Fringe without some undead action, would it? Modeled after cult zombie flicks and modern camp musicals like Bat Boy, this rock-pop production includes the song "Something to Live For," the ballad "Monster" and the big closing number "Trapped." Warns director and co-creator Joe Nevin, "It's not your grandmother's Les Mis."

—Kristen Humbert

Sept. 4, 5 and 11, 11:59 p.m.; Sept. 6, 6 p.m.; Sept. 8, 8 p.m.; Sept. 10, 10 p.m.; $15, Plays and Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place.

One Less
Range Life
All Atwitter
Bike Part Art Show
Everyman
Green Up Your Act
Charlotte's Web