>> Head out to H Street tonight to catch a free, jam-packed line-up in the Captial Fringe Festival’s first official preview. The festival itself kicks off July 19, but tonight at Palace of Wonders you can see 20 of the more than 200 productions that will be on offer during Cap Fringe. Performances will include The Lesbian and the Flying Pig, Speakeasy, Love and War: Bard’s Broads, Cautionary Tales for Adults, Arts United, Pretty…

Let’s hear it for the freaks! Beautiful Freaks And Feats Of Wonder’s spectacular sideshow, now playing at the Fringe Festival, relies less on bizarre freaks of nature (though they pay such acts homage during a faux Wolf-girl’s singing number), and more on individuals of unusual and extraordinary talent. This means we’ve got a fire-eater, a sword-swallower, a contortionist and a magician showing us their skills. And oh yeah–some guy pounds a nail into his head….

We’re at the midway point of the Fringe Festival, and we have all of one show opening today. That show is Erica McLaughlin’s Love And Wood, from the Unmentionable Theatre Company. The play’s heroine, Morgan, finds herself in a lover’s triangle between two affectionate men, and struggles to reconcile the intellectual fullfillment she receives from one with the erotic fulfillment of the other. Pretty heady stuff, and if the play’s anywhere near as compelling as…