The Philadelphia Fringe Festival is still going strong as it rounds out its second week of performances. The festival takes place in myriad locations throughout the city, with their main hubs being the Fringe Arts building on Race Street, Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City, and the MAAS Building in Kensington. These spaces are wonderfully able to capture and house the frenetic and lively energy that fringe shows often have, and are adaptable for all different types of art and performance.
Nosejob (Lightning Rod Special)
Nosejob is a memory play that follows Devon (Lee Minora) as she recounts a fragment of her experience in a religious college. At Devon’s school, a trend called “burying” has become an unfortunate experience the women of the school are encountering. This show uses the religious story of St. Aebbe the younger to juxtapose the attempts to combat unwanted sexual advances from the men of the college. St Aebbe the younger was an abbess who, to avoid being sexually assaulted by vikings, used a razor to chop off her nose, disfiguring her and making her undesirable in the eyes of the vikings.
Nosejob is kind of a mixed bag of a production. Technically, it is great. The set by You-Shin Chen, costumes by Rebecca Kanach, lights by Mike Inwood and sound by Kathy Ruvuna are all top notch. All of the elements work in unison to help aid the narrative, and work well to aid in the expediency of the story from one scene to another. The use of lockers in particular is rather creative and entertaining. Performances and direction are also pretty solid. New Fringe Arts CEO Nell Bang-Jensen stages the show in interesting tableaux, and continuously injected a sense of urgency throughout the show.
Where this show stumbles is in the script itself. It feels all over the place, and can't seem to fully focus on the story it wants to tell. Is it about a group of four college women trying to combat sexual assault on campus? Is it a will they/won't they romance between two young coworkers? Is it about vikings and St. Aebbe the younger? The show doesn't seem to fully know, and tends to rely on a few well-trodden tropes to try and connect these patchwork pieces together. I must note also that in 2024, it’s a bit odd to use two men being intimate as a punchline, even if there is some slight nuance to it; it felt forced and unnecessary. Don't misunderstand though, this Nosejob is definitely not botched: it has its funny moments and talented people working on it, but needs a bit more polishing within the text itself.
Nosejob runs at Theatre Exile (1340 S. 13th Street) until September 21st. Tickets can be purchased here.
Pirate Queens (Brooke Shilling)
Who doesn't love pirates?! Brooke Shilling’s Pirate Queens tells the stories of Mary Read and Anne Bonny, two famous (or infamous) female pirates who were also lovers during the “Golden Age of Piracy”. The show consists of three performers presenting this story on a small wooden platform with minimal props. It is a style of theatre that I find can do more of a disservice to a piece, as it limits the performers and storytelling somewhat. The story that Shilling is telling is really interesting, and the constraints of the stage don’t allow it to fully bloom and be as accessible to an audience as it could be. It also doesn't allow these characters to be fully explored in a truly meaningful way. That being said, the three performers (Brooke Shilling, Elena Nahrmann and Connor Hogan) all give funny, engaging performances. Nahrmann in particular, as Anne Bonny, adds a complex subtlety to her characterization that makes her story all the more interesting. There are also some really fun audience interactions, especially the ending as Shilling invites the audience to dream up happier endings for these two iconic women. Overall, this engaging script could stand to benefit from a larger scale production that helps to fully capture the fantastical life that these women lived.
Pirate Queens ended its run on September 14th, but you can keep up to date with Brooke Shilling here.
John Jarboe: The Rose Garden (The Fabric Workshop and Museum)
When John Jarboe came out as trans, her Aunt explained that it made total sense, as John had eaten her twin in the womb. Since then, Jarboe has been exploring this revelation with last year’s Rose: You Are What You Eat, examining through the lens and style of a cabaret performance. This year, Jarboe (with a whole bevy of talented artists' help) has created an immersive multimedia installation examining the complex thoughts of having eaten a twin in the womb, and how that intersects with her own gender experience. What is being presented at The Fabric Workshop and Museum is a truly one-of-a-kind exhibition. Weaving through several rooms in a house, and guided with gentle care by both Rose and John, this exhibition pulls back the curtain on the complexities of gender identity. The visuals are striking and paired exquisitely with original music, that creates a visceral reaction both grandly moving and strikingly intimate. It truly is a wonderful exhibit, and I cannot recommend enough.
Information for John Jarboe: The Rose Garden can be found here, where they also have several useful content warnings.
Poor Judge (Pig Iron Theatre Company)
Admittedly, I was not very familiar with the work of indie rockstar Aimee Mann, but that didn't stop my enjoyment of the experimental and thoughtful Poor Judge. Told through a series of abstract vignettes, Poor Judge uses the music of Aimee Mann to explore and contextualize ideas about illusion and disillusionment. An ensemble of 7 take on the artifice of Aimee Mann (thick rimmed glasses and a beachy, ombre wig) navigating the complexities of her lyrics and the dissection of these ideas and concepts in visually striking ways. The incorporation of visual media is particularly wonderful, as it is used to effectively punctuate ideas or jokes. Director Eva Steinmetz is masterful at using the space on the Wilma stage in exciting and fascinating ways. Pulling together all these vastly different moving pieces is no easy task, and yet it runs so incredibly smoothly that it feels common sense that these disparate art styles should work so well together.
Where this show really shines though, is in the music and the performances. Vocally, this is one of the best sounding shows I’ve ever seen in Philadelphia. The first time the ensemble sings as one, the wall of sound that is created is breathtaking. Alex Bechtel’s arrangements and music direction truly shine, leaving this critic desperately wanting them to release a recording of these songs with this cast. The performers are also accompanying themselves, which is impressive in its own right, never mind the truly splendid execution of staging while playing. At the heart of this ensemble piece is a truly magnetic performance by Dito van Reigersberg. From the moment they walk onto the stage, and take up the blonde ombre wig, they are instantly captivating. In a show that is positing ideas about artifice and illusion in Hollywood, their performance is so brazenly open and honest, that it strips away all artifice and stands in direct opposition to the harsh ideas the show is exploring, to masterful effect.
Poor Judge is not a show to be missed, and will hopefully have a long and fruitful life after this festival is over. It is currently at the Wilma Theater (265 S. Broad Street) For tickets and more information, visit here.
within/without (Jungwoong Kim)
Exploring the intricate complexities of living life as an immigrant, and the constant search for home is no trivial matter. Artists Jungwoong Kim and Germaine Ingram utilize their own experiences with sound and music to recount their feelings on these topics through styled movement and poetry. Kim, an immigrant from South Korea, derives a lot from culturally important songs and rituals, while Ingram explores through music, as it shifted throughout the latter half of the 20th century. While both artists are mining interesting ideas, this piece felt more like a show still in an exploratory phase, rather than a concrete statement on any given topic. It felt a little all over the place, without having enough connective tissue, other than the performers obvious friendship and affinity for one another. Kim’s movements and choreography are engaging to watch, and develop well within the context of what he is trying to get across. Ingram’s poetry is profound, but her choreography had too similar of a vein throughout, and didn’t feel like it went on the same journey that her words did.
within/without has one more performance on September 22nd, at Christ Church Neighborhood House (20 N. 2nd Street), tickets can be found here.
Penis Envy (Becky Bondurant)
The 2016 Presidential election had extreme ramifications, and was a time where a lot of people were confronted with some profound truths about how scary and intense this world can be. In this solo show, monologist Becky Bondurant recounts her experiences while being pregnant and giving birth to her daughter during that tumultuous time. Bondurant proposes some interesting thoughts and opinions about the state of politics, and how where we are currently feels eerily similar to 2016. Ultimately though, this piece fell a little flat. The minimalist approach of keeping Bondurant sat throughout the monologue felt strange, especially given that there were several moments where it felt like she wanted to move. Also, as Bondurant was reading from the script directly, her voice frequently fell into a repetitive cadence that took a lot of steam out of what she was saying. There were many moments where the entire pace of the show screeched to a halt as we watched Bondurant find her place in her text, and it did the piece a disservice. There were also some attempts at levity and humor that didn’t quite land, and felt slightly out of place. What Bondurant was trying to say is both valid and important, and her viewpoint is something that I think a lot of people could identify with, but it ultimately got lost in what felt like a lack of preparation in presentation.
Penis Envy played at the Yellow Bicycle Theater (1435 Arch Street, 2nd Floor) until September 15th. To follow what Bondurant does next visit here.
Thus ends the second week of the 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival! Am I exhausted? Yes. Am I excited to see more? Also yes!
Keep an eye out for next week’s round up, and go see a show!
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