Fringe Festival Reviews: Part V
From 'The Day the Nineties Died.'
Image credit: Callow Youth Productions
Our Freaking Kids Show is a serious Encore contender
By Morgan Halaska
Slapstick humor and banter between adults and children, it turns out, is a proven recipe for popularity. Our Freaking Kids Show was the most-attended Fringe production I’ve been to on my binge, most likely for its appeal to a wide age group. The plot is not unlike the struggle many of these Fringe shows face: how to make a show that people will want to pay to see. The agreed-upon solution? Children. And so, here it is—a play with children that people paid money for. The dynamic between the characters—more specifically between the grown-ups and kids—is zany and highly energetic. Moreover, it’s a cleanly packaged story with mostly politically correct content (unlike the majority of Fringe shows).
U of M Rarig Center Thrust
Friday, 8/12 8:30 p.m.
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My Dinner with Andrew kills--without the blood, guts and gore
By Morgan Halaska
Maybe you’ve heard of Andrew Cunanan and his killing spree—culminating in the death of Gianni Versace—or maybe you haven’t (a minor detail either way). The play features two actors, John Ford as himself and Matthew McIver as Andrew and everyone else in between. It follows a straightforward storyline with a journalistic feel: Ford tells his side of the story in his daily interactions over a 10-month timeframe with a serial killer (although Cunanan's crimes were unbeknownst to Ford at the time). The motives for the murders are still unknown, and that universal question—why?—is and will always be merely subject to the morbid speculation of the sane. The show is creepy and surprisingly empathetic, an experience to which most of humankind can relate.
U of M Rarig Center Arena
Saturday, 8/13 1 p.m.
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Uncle Tom’s Condo is existential, kind of
By Morgan Halaska
Everyone’s a little bit racist—at least that’s what Uncle Tom’s Condo (and incidentally, Avenue Q) propounds. Do you even know what an Uncle Tom is? Written, produced and directed by Greg Nesbitt, the show deals with an array of social issues like racism, prejudices based on gender and sexuality and (of course) politics. It is without a doubt too much to undertake in an hour, much less a decade or century. The staging reflects that lack of direction, and of cohesion between monologues, superhero skits, stand-up comedy and musical ditties. The actors throw a lot of ideas out there to be interpreted at will (but more likely heard and forgotten, based on the sheer volume).
The play’s description asks, “Do you sound white on the phone?” Nesbitt (perhaps intentionally) does sound like a white Minnesotan in most of the acts. It’s something humans are inherently trained to do: categorize and judge another person based on their dress, accent, attributes and so on. Based on our history, the human race has not had a very flattering past and the show makes at least that much clear.
Augusburg Mainstage
Friday, 8/12 10 p.m.
Sunday, 8/14 4 p.m.
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The Day the Nineties Died explores conviction and fanaticism, morality and murder
By Will Wlizlo
When is terrorism sympathetic? And when does activism go too far? The young activists in The Day the Nineties Died, playing at the Augsburg Mainstage, are caught in the middle ground between conviction and fanaticism, between morality and murder.
Much of the play takes place in a hotel room, where four young anti-globalism idealists await their orders to bomb a meeting between the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Maya, the youngest and least committed, is the loose cannon. She mocks the activist organizer, the revered “Specialist,” and invites a pair of visor-wearing frat boys up to the hotel room—to get wasted, and then later, to teach them about the group’s ethical complaints of international capitalism. As you might imagine, the two frat boys aren’t initially sensitive to ideas about hyper-leftist, progressive economic reform.
The screenwriting in the play is very well done—the moral issues are handled carefully and cleverly. Arguments unfold, but eventually the four are able to plant the bombs. Upon returning to the hotel, they turn on the broadcast news, hoping to hear that their bombs worked. Instead, they see a different sort of havoc on the screen: Unknown agents have hijacked two airplanes and flown them into the World Trade Center. The group’s subsequent moral crisis upon seeing the death of thousands of innocent Americans is golden theater.
Augsburg Mainstage
Saturday, 8/13 7:00 p.m.
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Domino's Pizza Saved My Life's perfect pacing and beautifully performed songs make it a must-see production
By Thomas Kwong
A guitar case, a single chair and a one-man show are normally indicative of an impending trainwreck. Dylan Fresco’s set props may give the initial impression that something awful is abut to unfold in front of you, but instead he delivers a fantastic series of autobiographical stories, intermixed with beautifully performed songs that fit within the stories' context without venturing into contrived musical theater. Fresco’s tales start with his youth in a summer-camp theater troupe, wind their way through his family history and eventually to the titular tale of how being in a Domino’s Pizza at the right time saved him from being tear-gassed and arrested. The inescapable theme is one of individual choice and how those choices affect others--and choices yet to be made. Each story maintains this strong narrative and it binds the entire work into a seemingly effortless show.
Much of the credit for the shows strength lies in Fresco’s versatility. He moves quickly between comedy, pensive tragedy and song with no loss in energy or momentum. Fresco's personal and heartfelt tales fill the room completely, drawing the audience in with a honest feeling of intimacy so often lacking in grander productions. Domino's Pizza Saved My Life is an engaging, perfectly paced, meticulously performed work and should be toward the top of anyone's must-see list.
Playwrights' Center
Thursday, 8/11 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, 8/13 1:00 p.m.
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