Kinky Washington director Francois is staging her own adaptation of the Marquis de Sade’s Philosophy in the Bedroom, the play-within-a-play of Fringe’s In the Company of de Sade. The opening is like the blue version of A Chorus Line. At auditions, she gauges actors not by their readings, but by having them recount their most wild sexual experience. They had better be comfortable getting a little dirty. All roles require nudity, contact between both sexes, periodic STD tests, and there’s no time for anyone not comfortable fucking in front of a 300-person audience. Getting cast is a dream come true for some, at times a bitter pill for others to literally, um, swallow.
An early rehearsal that includes a full-cast orgy does wonders for troupe chemistry. But doubts about whether the hardcore pornography they’re about to engage in counts as the pursuit of art or not begin to creep in. Threatening postcards from a God-loving, conscientious objector to the graphic rendition of the play within this play they have planned lead to jitters as opening night approaches.
Timothy R. King’s In the Company of de Sade is certainly not for the squeamish. The extremely graphic and sexual nature of the play is quite shocking, even for Fringe. Nudie, “true to script” with simulated sex performances of Philosophy in the Bedroom have made their way to the theatrical stage. King’s play asks what would happen if the play were done here in modern day Washington—and with no-holds-barred intercourse. Well, we survived Washington Shakespeare Company’s all-nude Hamlet, one of many local references King deftly gives nod to. Fully blocked de Sade must be the next logical step.
It’s a promising first time out for King, an actor taking his first stab at writing and directing. (He also produced the play on his own.) He assembles a universally strong and large-for-Fringe cast of nine players for the work.
Fresh off the movie theater shooting in Colorado, a final sequence that sees one of the actors turn a very realistic looking pistol at two of his cast mates and then several audience members is confusing and the epitome of bad taste. Was it coincidentally part of the original production? Added to further provoke? The former is more likely (and means it could have been edited out), but either is plausible.
In the Company of de Sade goes out of its way to make a point about what qualifies as art, the challenges facing live theater today as it competes with electronic media, the interference of perceived religious virtue, and the right to push envelopes. For that, the libertinism of the Marquis de Sade, the extreme sexual depravity, the devotion to the pursuit of pleasure that transitions quite easily to the gross sadism, is an opportune vehicle.
Remaining performances: July 25 at 10:15 p.m., July 26 at 8:15 p.m. and July 29 at 2:30 p.m.
Fort Fringe – Redrum: 612 L Street NW
The Every Fringe Show You Want to See in One Fringe Show Fringe Show
In a way, In the Company of de Sade is more of the every fringe show you want to see in one fringe show fringe show than is The Every Fringe Show You Want to See in One Fringe Show Fringe Show. De Sade shows a little skin, has exposure to gay stuff and makes central use of simulated oral and anal sex. But de Sade—it doesn’t have chickens. Fringe Show is out to parody the recurring themes, trials and tribulations of performing in and watching plays at the Fringe, declare that incorporating chickens into your comedy is a quintessential part of the festival.
The Just Barely There Theater Company Theater Company—yes their name is as equally and mockingly irreverent as the title of their show—selects “chickens” as one of the three words they’re permitted in describing their genre. I thought perhaps it was self-deprecating dig at their spoofing of others. But no, they end their play squawking around like chickens. Gratuitously partially nude, stream-of-conscious clucking chickens sputtering profanity.
It’s quick and fun enough. The punchlines, though fairly obvious, keep the knowing audience lauging throughout. Yes we all know the Fringe theaters are in seemingly otherwise abandoned buildings that lack air conditioning. But how could you lampoon the Fringe and not go for that one? Some of the musical numbers are even quite catchy. Just ask the technical director, who is quietly singing along from the soundboard in the back of the Bedroom theater space.
Remaining performances: July 29 at 2:15 p.m.
Fort Fringe – Bedroom: 612 L Street NW
