Bigger, Stronger, Greener, Same Length as Before: Cap Fringe '09 Previewed
Chief among those improvements: Geographic harmony. The five locations that will host Fringe performances this year are all within a few blocks of one another. Here's a map. So if you’re settling in for an afternoon and/or evening of experimental theater, you can spend your ‘tween-show breaks at what’s now being called the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar rather than on the Metro.
Yes, like the Batmobile, the Festival’s permanent “Fort” at the corner of 6th St. and New York Ave. NW has undergone manifold enhancements for its second tour of duty, including the addition of six taps stocked with brews ranging from $3 PBR to $6 fancy-pants beers. There will also be sandwiches for carnivores and vegetarians alike. More importantly, the Fort has three performance spaces now (four, if you count the bar itself) instead of one: The Shop, The Bedroom, and Redrum will all host concurrent shows within The Fort, making it the Studio Theatre of Fringe venues.
Organizers also trumpeted the Festival's Green Plan, which encourages attendees to take public transit, pass on or recycle your programs, dispose of bottles and cans in the receptacles provided, and lots else.
As before, tickets are priced to encourage you to see more: $15 a head for all shows ($10 for the concerts at the Fort), but with volume discounts ranging from 4-for-$50 to the $300 All Access Pass. And yes, you need that $5 Fringe button again for admission to any venue except the gypsy bar, though if you buy a multi-show pass, they’ll throw in the button gratis.
We’ll (mostly) refrain from remarking upon the show previews, which ranged from inspired to wish-I-could-unsee-that awful. That’s Fringe, Baby. There were plenty of things that appeared quite worthy, if ill-suited to being excerpted and/or performed in a loud bar. It’s worth noting, however, that whole subversive, Fringey affair began with some sangin’ for the savior, with Rosita Mathews of Let’s Sing Gospel 101! leading the packed saloon in “King Jesus Is All.” It takes all kinds, does the Fringe.
The 2009 Capital Fringe Festival runs July 9-26.