There probably wasn’t a show that got more buzz or love at Capital Fringe 2012 than DC Trash. DCist, like every other outlet, had great things to say. I was late to the party and, by the time I caught up with that buzz, shows were sold out or I couldn’t avoid conflicts. So I made sure to get to DC Trash’s prequel, Fish Outta Water, early this year. And so our Fringe reviews begin.
Washington native Ron Litman spent a few decades with improvisational and experimental touring theater groups, putting on solo shows, and doing bit movie roles in Los Angeles until circumstances brought him back to the District, where he took work as a trash collector. He won universal praise for the picture he wove in DC Trash, replete with characters, costumes, song parodies, and an articulate, incisive, and unique send-up of race, gentrification, and transformation in the District of Columbia.
Litman’s Fish Outta Water examines what he was up to before he ended up back in D.C. as a garbage man. When his wife walks out on him and moves to the Midwest, he says goodbye to L.A. and follows her to Wisconsin to be closer to their two kids. Sweat forms on his brow, bursts of spit catch the microphone, and light glistens off his shades as he belts out the show’s eponymous and catchy opening song, pulling in the audience immediately. His motorcycle garb is soon lost in favor of overalls, as he — a coastal, judgmental, Jewish, non-theist, teetotaling, non-gun owning, cursing guy — goes about seeing if he can really reinvent himself in a city that’s smaller than his old neighborhood, boasts three or four churches on every corner, and has residents that think they’re being cussed out when he cordially exclaims, “Get the fuck outta here!”
DC Trash was a treasure at the Capital Fringe because of the local perspective it offered. That and Litman’s talents. In Fish Outta Water, he continues to expertly send-up the community he’s living in. Local audiences will be less invested in western Wisconsin than Washington. But that allows more time to focus on Ron’s trials and how he doesn’t quite fit into his far-off new digs. His skills at observing and dissecting his target, as well as those that inhabit it, are again on full display.
You’ll want to buy Litman a beer if you run into him at the Fringe bar. Folks in La Crosse, Wis. may have had trouble relating, but there are few people out there that are sharper, more approachable, or make for better conversation. And for those that missed DC Trash in 2012, it’s being performed the last Saturday of the festival. Get tickets before it sells out again.
Remaining performances:
Friday, July 19, 10:15 p.m.
Saturday, July 20, 5 p.m.
Sunday, July 21, 8:30 p.m.
Friday, July 26, 8:15 p.m.
Warehouse, 645 New York Avenue NW
