Sub-Total
2024 Audience Reviews
Member Reviews
The following reviews were submitted by Fringe Member: John Slaight
Company: Broken Wing Productions
Show: The Wind Phone
Venue: The Ribs of Humanity at Campbell Plaza
Just a wonderful show.
A really excellent show about grief with a strong cast. Wind Phone avoids the obvious cliches, and delivers some powerful, and complicated, portraits of the stages of the grief. I thought the middle performance, where a woman finds out her mentor was not the person she had thought he was, but had kind of suspected, was particularly powerful and well done. I’ll admit I didn’t get through the show with dry eyes.
Company: Team Rand-McKay
Show: Dream of Me
Venue: Theatre in the Round
Lovely mix of emotion and concept!
Dream of Me reminded me a lot of an old style science fiction short story, only with with characters who were feeling real human emotions. I thought the cast did an excellent job of portraying a whole range of emotions, as a well constructed story about grief and loss turned into something more. Catherine Hansen gave a restrained, authentic portrayal of grief where other shows might have gone ham. Eric Jacobson was effective as he transited from sweet goof to something else. Natalie Rae Wass was admirable and polished as the humor, and the connective tissue holding it together. I thought the theater in the round space was well used… and the director had a good hand for the touches of horror. I’m torn between thinking the show started slow, or needed to breathe. Overall, excellent show.
Company: Rogues Gallery Arts
Show: Blackout Improv Does Something!!!
Venue: HUGE Improv Theater
Versatile, innovative and polished improv.
Blackout Improv is not a new show, but it is a troop of highly capable performers who find ways to keep each show fresh. The guest performer lead off with a heartfelt, moving, and very funny verse, and the improvers found a great deal to perform off of it. This group made foursquare not just entertaining, but gut-bustlingly funny. All in all, some really excellent improv with some grounded and yet out of left field concepts. (Never thinking of the tooth fairy in quite the same way again.) Also, the musical accompaniment was good without drowning out the action on stage, which can be a concern with some shows, but wasn't here. It also hit the sweet spot of unobtrusive, but adding to the action, which takes real skill.
Company: Smartmouth Comedy Company
Show: In Our Sketch Era
Venue: HUGE Improv Theater
Why Did Grandpa Say That?
Sketch Era was a highly enjoyable show; would be worth going to for the last sketch alone, but there was no weak material. In fact, the sketches were quick moving and were funny for someone who didn't get all the pop star references (save the Swift ones, because I do not live under a large rock.) I appreciated that the show didn't rely on gross our humor or shock value for the laughs. I really liked the wonderful deadpan humor in a whole bunch of the scenes, like the concert rider, the craig's list discount, and the dance scene, delivered with a Kate McKinnon-esque intensity by some of the performers. The writing was highly effective, without either trying too hard or going for easy laughs. I also think the facilitator in the opening scene should keep the ascot, hysterically funny!
Company: WonderJ Studio
Show: Janelle Did You Know You Talk Really Fast?
Venue: Barbara Barker Center for Dance
Warm and Joyful Show.
A lovely flow consciousness from a highly talented perform. Talk Fast was a performer pulling the curtain back for a glimpse of their inner life; it was an enjoyable time that those of us who grew up under the Internet firehouse of pop-culture can really appreciate! Janelle is, as always, a quietly magnetic performer with a wonderful combination of electricity and physical grace; informing that with heat lightening energy of her brain was an enjoyable hour, and a wonderful first fringe show for the reviewer.
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Company: Wet Splat Productions
Show: One Tree HELL
Venue: Open Eye Theatre
Well executed, creative improv, worth your time.
This was a comedy show by some excellent improv performers who used some things not often seen in the type (costumes, props) very well while still maintaining a free form approach. I think the performers did an excellent job of letting each scene breathe, and not overwhelming some very touching character bits with a frantic rush towards the next joke. The conceit worked, and was very funny to see executed so smoothly. Good balance of hamming up the ridiculous (teen drama, plus monsters!) but not going over the top for a quick laugh. Some genuinely heartfelt moments, and a lot of real laughs! Well worth the time to see! Had live music, which was nice, and didn’t overwhelm the performers, and a clever use of a puppet and a trap door. Well worth your time and ticket.
Company: Juliet & Juliet
Show: Juliet & Juliet: Improvised Shakespeare
Venue: Theatre in the Round
A+ improvising
Doing improv well is hard. Duos improv can be harder still. Shakespearian improv, where the improvers convincingly mime iambic pentameter is harder still. Shakespearian improv where there's wordplay in the just-made words is exceptional. Juliet and Juliet does all of these things, with a lightness of touch and confidence that was wonderful to see. Meghan and Sami were simply superb, making engaging characters on the fly, sharing the limelight while each shone at their times. This was a real tour de force of improv, and of a particularly difficult kind of improv.
Company: Alex Church
Show: Dutch: Made in America
Venue: Open Eye Theatre
Clever, incisive, and surprisingly light touch!
I can understand having reservations about a political show at Fringe. They can be heavy-handed, didactic, and over the top. Even someone whose appetite for critical takes on Ronald Reagan is bottomless could be daunted! But that would have been a mistake, because it's a different and thought provoking take on the man's inner demons, and it's excellently and engagingly staged. The play runs quickly, gets its point across without hammering one over the head with it, and is very funny. A show where Ronald Reagan, doing a comedy routine with an FDR hand puppet, has the puppet hand go rouge a la Dr. Strangelove has its over the top moments. But it is carried by the theatrical skill with which it is staged. Alex Church, who plays Reagan, embodies the man well inspite of not looking like him; the hair and facial expressions sell it. Stephanie Kahle, who plays all the other characters in the play, sells the roles with skill and a real enthusiasm, and makes the various characters distinct from each other. Nancy Reagan is played with a certain glee that really sells it well. The costuming works well, the set is minimal but effective, the sound design carries and supports the story without overwhelming it. Teaching a Fringe venue can be an adventure, and the people not on the stage deserve credit for this piece as well. Overall, a smartly written and well performed play; some real restraint as well. (The title character lit from below in red one scene says what it says without needing dialogue to beat you over the head.) The only criticism I'd have is that Jimmy Carter as a cowboy is not something I really see, even if I see where the writer was going with the comparison.