Theatre
#fringenyc - Insurmountable Simplicities
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 07:54Insurmountable Simplicities lived up to its name. It was insurmountable and it was simplistic. It earns one of the criticisms most hated by high school kids, "Fails to live up to potential".
Indeed, the performance has great potential, and the actors do what they can with a lame script. The show starts off with a 'Zombie Sleeping Pills' skit. The idea is fascinating; a woman gets on a plane and takes a 'zombie sleeping pill'. This pill completely shuts off down her consciousness and she enters what feels to her, like deep sleep. Yet it leaves her fully responsive to converse with the man sitting next to her, who is a bit freaked out by the idea. With the scene set and the actors apparently ready to explore this concept, the skit ends and they move on to the next skit.
In this, an insignificant bookkeeper is visited by a man from the future who has come to interview him about how he became such a great writer. The man is disappointed not to find any great clues about what inspired the writer. No great books of literature line his shelves, no inspiring views, moments, or anything else is left. In his disappointment, and hurry, the man from the future leaves behind a book which contains the writer's complete work. The young man copies these and they end up being what makes him great. Like with the first skit, this one ends right where it has the potential to become interesting.
Another skit is of a man who has possibility added a poison to his wife's cake. There is antidote, which has bad side effects if taken when the poison has not been ingested. The man explains to his wife that he decided whether or not to add the poison based on his prediction of whether or not she will take the antidote, yet he does not reveal his prediction. Should she, or should she not take the antidote. Yet again, with the interesting problem set up, the performance moves on to another conundrum.
I'm probably forgetting some of the skits. When they moved to a tedious exploration of word play, such as the liars paradox, I found myself counting the number of green LEDs on the emergency lighting. Yeah, it was that bad.
Insurmountable Simplicities had so much potential. It could have been three or four different interesting plays. Instead it was none. Maybe some day a man from the future will return and give the author the option of rewriting it. I hope so.
#FringeNYC - The Battle of Spanktown
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 08/17/2010 - 09:41After seeing two plays about disasters, two plays about maniacs bent on destruction, two plays about poets struggling to get their visions heard, and one about triumphing over family dysfunction, it seemed to be time to watch something more whimsical.
When I read the description of The Battle of Spanktown, with words like hallucinatory and bawdy, I had my doubts whether this would be a good show for me. A drug induced exploration of sexuality isn't high on my list of preferred theatrical topics. Yet at the same time, the description talks about a battle betwixt the Mole and the Badger. The website and the first review I found which describes it as a delightful 18th century picaresque led me to suspect it might be closer to a children's play. Indeed, there were various kids in the audience Monday afternoon.
The play did have some bawdiness, particularly questioning what else Ben Franklin had dangling besides a key at the end of his kite and references to his diplomatic efforts that exposed him to various diseases. Yet they were of such a sort that younger minds probably wouldn't have picked up on them.
I must admit, I am not your typical theatre critic. As a general rule, I disdain talking about method or analyzing scripts. Despite having majored in philosophy years ago, explorations into the aesthetics, sociological themes and all that stuff does little for me. Analyses of props, sets and costumes does even less. To me, the success of the play is measured in part by how much it makes me consider ideas I haven't approached in the past, but more importantly, in how engaged I become in the play. How many times did I look at my watch? Did I find my eyes looking at the machinery of theatre instead of the play itself?
The Battle of Spanktown did not make me think. By that standard, it was a wonderful whimsical waste of time. However, I was looking for whimsy, and I found it very enjoyable. More importantly, it was over too soon, a sign of true success.
If you are looking for serious theatre, look elsewhere. If you are looking for enjoyable theatre, consider The Battle of Spanktown.
#fringenyc Day Two
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/16/2010 - 12:00I took much of yesterday off, not seeing any plays and only doing minmal writing. Today. I am on the train back to New York and have some time to write my summary of Saturday on my cellphone.
I've already written about the three best shows I saw on Saturday. Richard 3 was amazing. When Katherine Met Kimleigh was a special performance, particularly coming so soon after Katherine'swonderful production of My Dad is Crazier than Your Dad.
The Beatitudes
Yet I also found time for some other shows. The Beatitudes was a thoroughly enjoyable show that set the words and music of the beat generation to dance. I love the beat poets as much as I love William Blake and I was pleased to see this production succeeded where Eternity In an Hour failed. The performance did meander, but it was only fitting given the meanderings of the beat generation.
(UN)Natural Disaster
The other performance I attended was (UN)Natural Disaster. It wasn't a disaster, but it was there first taste of the fringe my middle daughter experienced and I wished the faire had been better. Perhaps I was jaded after seeing the great production of The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival. (UN)Natural Diaster spent too much time with the performers running aroung shouting random fact about natural disasters. It wasn't particularly engaging.
Afterwards I had a nice Indian dinner with my daughter and we tried unsuccessfully to get tickets to Hamlet Shut Up, which sold out while we were waiting in lne.
It was another great day at the NYC Fringe Festival and I hope to get a few more in before heading off on vacation.
Richard 3 at #fringeNYC
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/16/2010 - 07:35I am not a big fan of staged violence and my music tastes lean more towards folk than punk, although I must admit there is some pretty violent folk music if you listen closely to the lyrics. For theatre, I love modern adaptations of the classics, especially Shakespeare. I'm also a big fan of political theatre and I've previously written about the political background of the director of Richard 3.
So, I approached the Less Than Rent Production of Richard 3 with a high level curiosity. A post-apocalyptic rendition of Shakespeare's Richard the Third had the potential to be amazingly good or amazingly bad.
It was great. There were a few rough spots for me as I had problems making out some of the lyrics of a few of the songs they intermixed in the performance, but that did not detract from the amazing experience.
Here in Connecticut, we have Linda McMahon, CEO of WWE running for U.S. Senate. She has defended the staged violence in their productions as following a soap opera theme. I think that is a disservice to soap operas. Her productions are worthless.
If McMahon had any class, any culture, any artistic sensibility; if she sought something higher than soap operas while holding on to the gore, she might aspire to a production like Richard 3. But the young troupe from Less Than Rent Productions has more raw talent, more highly directed energy and much more credibility to pull off a masterpiece than all of McMahon's domain could ever dream of.
There are some great performances at FringeNYC this year, but of the plays I've seen so far, Richard 3 is at the top of the list.
Side note: Normally, I post my music reviews on Monday. Richard 3 makes a great use of music in their show, including a very creative use of "On Eagles Wings", so I'm considering this my Music Monday post as well.
#FringeNYC Notes
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 08/15/2010 - 21:33I'm setting up this page to list my notes of what's hot and not, as well as links to reviews, buzz, etc. So far, I've seen ten shows and hope to get many more in soon. The plays are grouped together by different categories (Shows I've seen, shows I hope to see, other reviews and plays that sold out early). Within each category, I am sorting them roughly by how interested I am in them. I've been trying to update this page regularly as new reviews come out, but this is far from an authoritative list of all the reviews. If you have notes or comments, please let me know.
Updated 8/17 1 PM