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It probably says something regarding American postsecondary education that Eric Jaffe interviewed 65 men about their college experiences and failed to come up with a single fascinating anecdote for his Fringe show. Throughout the hour, Jaffe makes vague reference to...
AL LAFRANCE: I THINK I’M DEAD
About halfway through Al Lafrance’s I Think I’m Dead, I wrote in my notebook: “Things are happening. And he’s talking really fast. But nothing matters.” Then Lafrance turned it around. Big time. In this autobiographical solo, Lafrance covers a lot of ground: the...
POLY QUEER LOVE BALLAD
Like a modern romance, this show feels like it’s making up its own rules as it goes along—and that’s a beautiful thing. In Poly Queer Love Ballad, Gaby (Sara Vickruck) and Nina (Anais West) fall in love with one another—but Nina is bi and poly and Gaby is “the...
JAN & PEG’S RITUAL SACRIFICE
Jan and Peg would like to remind you that this is nota cult. "Not a cult!" the hostesses burble, as they prepare for the Supperware party we've been invited to. (Supperware is like Tupperware, but with more pentagrams.) They also stress that this is nota pyramid...
MARTIN DOCKERY: DELIRIUM
The less acrobatic it is, the better it gets. Fringe storyteller Martin Dockery’s trademark style can be fun. He’s got a raspy, enthusiastic voice and he flaps around so much that sometimes it looks like he’s trying to take off. When he's building a narrative, Dockery...
FORGET ME NOT – THE ALZHEIMER’S WHODUNNIT
"Getting old," retired detective Jim (Rob Gee) muses, "is a bit like getting mugged." Jim is losing his mind and it's coming at a bad time, since he has one final case to investigate: his wife's suspicious death in a dementia ward. Gee is an elastic performer who...
BIG SISTER
Big Sister is intelligent, relevant, charmingly performed—and a lot less satisfying than you’d expect. Playwright Deborah Vogt explores her relationship with her sister Naomi, who lost 75 pounds as an adult. Naomi performs the solo show, which is written in her voice,...
JASPER IN DEADLAND
This glorious musical retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice explodes out of the starting gate—and almost self-destructs on its high-octane ambitions. Jasper loves Agnes. Agnes dives off a cliff. Jasper follows her into the underworld. Divine shenanigans ensue. The...
BLACKBIRD
In Blackbird, playwright David Harrower invites us to witness a deeply unsettling conversation. The lasttime they met, Una was a 12-year-old child and Ray was a 40-year-old child abuser. After 15 years, Una has shown up at Ray’s office to try to understand how he has...
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