Happy Fringe, everyone! I’m excited about the festival but I can’t say I was all that excited by Dorks on the Loose. Not sure what’s going on with that subtitle. Sketch comedians Phaea Crede and Becca Jones are indeed awkward, but they just don’t seem entirely at ease with the whole acting thing. Part, but not all of it is the dorkiness they are trying to portray.My hunch is that these two are friends from New York who got together to think up crazy scenarios, and then one day decided to act them out. In front of people! In Washington!
Except – oops – they trip over the very simple opening line: “Hello, New Y-I mean, Washington!” Right. Capital Fringe, ladies. The audience forgave them, and the awkwardness and mild humor continued through several sketches-Eastern European pop stars with a missing lead singer (“It’s metaphor!”), Ladies’ News (“Today in sports: Someone threw the ball”) .. until we hit a genuinely funny take on a cell phone with a personality. The phone (Phaea) offers relationship advice, and when the owner (Becca) doesn’t show enough appreciation, the phone warns, “I am going to text-message racial slurs to your boss.”
Between scenes, Phaea and Becca pretend to be running from the cops for identity theft. Each crossover ends with a siren and red light before the two performers start lip-synching to eclectic songs.
So Dorks on the Loose is quirky and sometimes fun. If tickets were five bucks instead of fifteen, and if theatergoing was slow right now, I’d say give it a shot. But it’s Fringe, which means there are likely plenty of other ways to spend your time and money. My recommendation: See Dorks on the Loose if you have an hour to kill between other shows-think of it as a zany crossover.
Running Time: 50 minutes
Tickets: Dorks on the Loose
Remaining Shows: Fri, July 11 at 8:30 pm . Sat, July 12 at 7pm . Sun July 13 at 4pm . Sat, July 19 at 3pm . Sat, July 19 at midnight.
Where: Warehouse Arts – Beyond, 1017 7th Street NW, Washington, DC
If you missed the final running of “It I Awkward” on Saturday (7/19) at midnight, then you missed some of absolutely the best of Capital Fringe. I didn’t see any of their previous shows this year, and under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have seen this show (partially because of the review above). There were no other Fringe shows going on and I had nothing else to do (on a Saturday night… maybe because I am a dork too), so I figured how bad could it be? Frankly, the “free beer” sealed the deal and I attended this show hoping for something less than painful. What I got (in addition to a free beer) was a laugh until your sides hurt, firing on all cylinders, hilarious show.
This particular show may have been fueled by the “free beer” or perhaps the performers cut loose because it was their last show of the festival. Whatever the reason, on this night the Dorks on the Loose broke out with extended adlibs and insane antics that had the entire crowd rolling in the aisles with laughter. I literally peed myself, just a little bit, during the evil cell phone bit. Phaea Crede and Becca Jones were in the zone during this performance and indeed captured what was no doubt hoped for if the reviewers hunch that “these two are friends from New York who got together to think up crazy scenarios, and then one day decided to act them out. In front of people! In Washington!” is true.
It is one of my fondest hopes that Dorks on the Loose will return to Capital Fringe next year and will be able to capture the energy and magic of their last show this year in all of their shows next year. If they can reproduce the quality of this show in the future, then they would be able to sell out any venue every show.