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FRINGE DAY 4

Today was my seven-show day. It’s past 1 am, and I have to write 7 mini reviews tomorrow morning before my first show at noon. So I’m resorting to point form here.

* Something I’ve never seen at the Fringe before: a show like Duel of Ages, which consists of six separate duel scenes. Definitely a late-night kinda show.

* Something I’ve never seen at the Fringe before, part II: Producer Derrick Chua not wearing his customary all-black ensemble. I believe his shirt was green!

[This just in: apparently Chua’s shirt yesterday was grey, not green! (Maybe it was the weird lighting in the Factory?) He told me he does own “shades,” i.e., grey and white. And he was wearing grey because he knew he was going to an outdoor show in the blazing sun. Stay cool, Derrick, whatever you’re wearing.]

* Something I see too much at the Fringe: lame Shakespeare adaptations like The Dream, a banal adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream set at a summer camp. We’re talking community theatre here.

* Something I hope never happens to other Fringe actors: losing their voice, like Mark Andrada, who’s currently in two shows (10,000 To Flight and Expiry Dating). He was whispering when I saw him in the audience for Heart Job.

* Something I hope never happens to other Fringe critics: being singled out by an actor publicly requesting a good review onstage. Which happened to me at Tippi Seagram’s Happy Hour. It was more like The Embarrassing Hour, since Tippi wasn’t very good.

* Something that makes BYOV shows so amazing: actually using the progression of time to add ambience to your show. Yabu No Naka Distruthted is performed at a parking garage off of Beverly. The show begins near dusk and you can see everything fine. By the end of the show, night has fallen, and that cloak of darkness surrounding you adds to the play’s overall sense of mystery and the inability to know something completely. Brilliant.

* Something I hope gets picked up by a local producer: BASH’d, one of the best Fringe shows I’ve seen in 10 years of Fringing.

* Something I hope gets remounted at the Gladstone: The Gladstone Variations. Apparently the show’s sold out all their pre-booked tickets for both variations. Only tickets available are by waiting in line on same-day of the performance. Note: seeing that each Variation has a max of 30 tickets, those will be pretty limited. Best bet: Wednesday’s 2 pm performance.

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