Rarely does a show capture my rapt attention from its very first moment.
Sanka, Ya Dead Mon?
The good people at Wild Rumpus Productions should thank the deities of all the varied pantheons they found Manu Kumasi, star of solo comedy Sanka, Ya Dead Mon?. With off-the-chart presence and a natural comedian’s instinct Kumasi is never less than charmingly watchable. Unfortunately not even Kumasi’s considerable talents are able to keep Philip Dallmann’s […]
Mirabilia
It is very rare that a theatre piece is able to overcome negative first reactions, but amazingly, Mirabilia is one such show. Presented as the inaugural production of Eclectic Mayhem Productions, this original fairy tale told largely in mime doesn’t seem like much on the surface. The intended audience is unclear, the sparse bits of […]
The Chronic Single’s Handbook
Travel should take you places—so says the tagline of a major hotel chain (and the Brooklyn-based indie band The Kickdrums). In his one-man show, The Chronic Single’s Handbook, Boston-based writer and performer Randy Ross brings the audience along on his search for love, which takes him across four continents. Unfortunately, after 60 minutes of storytelling, […]
Patterns: A Numbers and Symbols Show
YOU GUYS! THERE’S MATH HAPPENING! Patterns: A Numbers and Symbols Show, begins inconspicuously. The lights dim, and a man started talking. I thought he was a person rushing to get to his seat from the bathroom…turns out he was Gregg Tobo, the guy whose show it was.
Legal Tender
Writing about theatre can be difficult. After all, Theatre is about doing, not talking, thinking or even writing about doing. It is especially difficult to write about a show when a group with seemingly all the right pieces–social consciousness, community focus, history, deep literary roots, high academic standards, the desire to explore new frontiers, etc.– […]
The Continuing Adventures of John Blade, Super Spy
The lengthy title of this spy spoof might lead you to expect a bro-filled battle with a bare bones plot; however that is absolutely not the case with John Blade. The fights, of which there are many, are well executed, but it’s the story and the acting that truly make this worth seeing.
They Call Me Q!
They Call Me Q! ranks among the very best of a large and varied crowd of autobiographical solo shows I’ve seen over eight years of Capital Fringing.
Apotheosis
“Who’s got this card?” Anna Lathrop calls, holding up the nine of diamonds. The woman in front of me raises her hand and Lathrop, the ringmaster of the evening, waltzes over. “But I kinda don’t want you to open it,” the woman adds warily, indicating the box in her lap with a nine of diamonds […]
DCTS Video from Capital Fringe
Hunter Styles explores the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar, alongside videographer Todd Clark, looking to interview an eclectic series of theatre artists about their Fringe shows. The people interviewed here are the faces of only a handful of the festival’s offerings, but they’re an awfully good place to start. Check them out, and more, during the […]
Dance of the Wasp and Spider
In Costa Rica, there exists a wasp that paralyzes spiders. It then lays an egg on the spider’s abdomen. When the egg hatches, the emerging larva lives off the spider’s blood then essentially takes over the its mind. The spider builds a web unlike any it’s ever built before, which will become the home for […]
Haute Mess
After the final curtain of Landless Theatre Company’s Haute Mess, I sit in stunned silence. My mind spins with the outrageous things that occupied the stage in front of me. As my widened eyes return to normal and I manage to close my gaping mouth, I begin to try to piece together what I have […]