Washington’s 2013 fallFRINGE, the fifth annual autumn iteration of the unjuried theater festival, begins this weekend. A much smaller affair than Capital Fringe in the summer with much less hoopla, the festival showcases a handful of shows that sold out their June runs. It also invites back several companies that participated previously and have created something new to bring to the table. There are 13 productions in all running through November 17. There will be 80 performances in total, all taking place in the theater spaces that are part of the Fort Fringe complex on the 600 block of New York Avenue NW. The Baldacchino tent bar is traded in for the BaldacchinoINDOOR bar. And we’re ready for a theater festival!
DCist caught a good portion of the seven shows that will be enjoying encores this month. And we’ve seen enough of these things to give a pithy take on the descriptions for the rest.
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Godiva Dates & One Night Stands was a top pick for me this summer. I spent my “best of the festival” vote on this hilarious, raunchy, rollicking one man show. Regie Cabico is a pro at his craft and weaves his stories of sleeping around into “a tour de force of poetic virtuosity and comic gold.”
I was less sold on H Street Housewives, though it was hard to find a seat during any of its shows at Redrum. The Bravo-inspired reunion show was just asking to be imagined for the hip Northeast DC neighborhood. The alteration just works so well! Many of the obvious jokes could be satire for a gentrifying neighborhood anywhere, but a central plot surrounding streetcars and Clarendon is enough to carry Housewives to its finish line.
Tell-Tale, a riff on an Edgar Allen Poe classic, took home the audience choice award’s best drama award. Well, they describe it as a riff. DCist contributor Alexis Hauk, who spent her summer Fringe hours reviewing for our friends at the City Paper, saw it “more a mesh of more recent pop culture vampire lore, with elements that recall Buffy the Vampire Slayer and True Blood” on which she wanted to press the mute button. Pitchin’ the Tent, more of the body rocking, crowd-pleasing ilk was a more enjoyable hour.
We haven’t seen Sheldon Scott’s work on the Fringe stage before though DCist has noted work he’s done several times in our weekend picks section. He brings a one-man storytelling show to the festival in Shrimp & Griots, his story of coming-of-age in the South.
He Smokes with Mirrors doesn’t give much away from it’s cryptic description. Their version of puppetry, present this summer in Clocks, suggest they put on some pretty neat special effects in the form of fitting together pieces of cardboard.
There Is a Happiness That Morning Is offers the most proactive one liner in their description. “He thinks last night was a scandal? Yawn./One cock in a pussy on the lawn” seems to frame a grassy tryst between two William Blake scholars.
And there are the shows about dying and salvation from the genes of an immortal jellyfish. The show about dancing naked, but don’t expect nudity. The latest twist on Shakespeare.
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Tickets to each show are $20, or $15 if you still have your Fringe button from this summer or want to buy one. An free opening party tomorrow night will feature live bands, DJs, and an All-Souls-Pot-Luck starting at 8pm at Fort Fringe.
