Sub-Total
2026 Audience Reviews
Member Reviews
The following reviews were submitted by Fringe Member: Ego Barrymore
Company: dancing arms
Show: Space Company
Venue: Mixed Blood
Fringe-y Corporate Existentialism
- What worked: I saw this at 10 with a very small house, and I have a feeling Emma/Mom could make a large audience feel just as intimate as the performance we were gifted. This corporate orientation-cum-crisis has some really perfectly timed turns to stay one step ahead of our expectations in the back half. The suggestion box was so poignant it made me cry, especially when my suggestion (which I had written with zero context beyond an intentionally vague prompt) was read, as was everyone else’s in our house. - What didn’t: May turn off some audience members who don’t like having to make their own interpretive leaps at the end. I’m not one of them. - Verdict: Very Fringey, ymmv but I loved it. I was moved. 5 Cats.
Company: Big Blue Theatre
Show: A Dark Gotham Knight's Dream
Venue: Theatre in the Round
Bright Spots, Batman!!
- What works: the fun these actors are obviously having onstage is infectious. This massive-for-fringe troupe of young (I think college, or JUST post-college aged) actors deliver remarkably committed performances harkening to the 1960s Adam West Batman series (except, inexplicably, a Christian Bale Batman). There’s an added investment provided for the audience by giving every patron three wadded up pieces of paper deemed “Wacky Fun Balls” to throw at any of the actors at any time. You couldn’t retrieve your ammunition once it was spent, which means you’re paying extra close attention to make sure you strike at the ripest opportunity. The actors did a great job reacting whenever they were hit, especially Batman, Mr. Freeze, and Commissioner Gordon. - What doesn’t: these characters ultimately don’t really fit in the Midsummer narrative; a round hole square peg situation. What we’re left with are almost-parallels that I think would work better if we could parse the dense dialogue better. Translating campy Batman dialogue into campy iambic pentameter must have been difficult (several VERY forced instances throughout, which do occasionally work for humor), and getting the show down to an hour is an accomplishment, but I had to stop trying to figure out exactly what was said so that I could instead keep track of what was happening. - Verdict: 3.5 Cats. I’m excited to see what this company does next.
Company: Little Apple Theatre Company
Show: The Importance of Being Eternal
Venue: Open Eye Theatre
Coagulated.
- What worked: really solid utilization of the bright red house curtain in the theater behind the proscenium. Staging everything downstage of that smartly limited your playing space to something appropriate. Really fun performances by Adam Rider and Grace Barnstad. - What didn’t: Your four vampires had three different accents? Two British, one American, and one Audrey Hepburn in a methadone clinic? Wasn’t this set in Transylvania? Aren’t these vampires you’ve pulled names for from France and central/Eastern Europe? Why are they British now? It was just distracting. The lighting design was also insanely bright for the inner sanctums of creatures allergic to light. No thoughts of low lighting and some practicals to set the mood? By the end I was begging to give these bloodsuckers their day in the sun because this fringe mashup/parody goes for the lowest hanging find-and-replace fruit. It’s just references upon references to various vampires inserted into Wilde. Nothing about either the original text or vampire mythos is illuminated by combining them in this way, and we find ourselves waiting for the next flat pun. It’s just boring. Which begs the question: why even do this in the first place? - Verdict: 1.5 Cats. Competent enough to avoid being a train wreck which would have maybe been more fun to watch, instead was a chore to complete.