David MacDowell Blue

Up until seeing this show, The Grail Project, I had only seen one piece of theatre dealing with the legends of King Arthur that seemed actually "good." Now I have seen two! I had never also heard of this specific troupe/ensemble, the Theatre Movement Bazaar, aptly named and based on this show at least belonging in those theatrical troupes I follow eagerly! Written by Richard Alger, directed by Tina Kronis, this show re-invents/de-constructs the tale of Camelot and the Quest for the Hol... full review

Imagine a fascinating nightmare--one of those fundamentally disturbing ones that blends all kinds of things in a weird brew of elements that somehow make kind of bizarre logic. Now suppose a nightmare more-or-less fostered by the challenge comedian Bill Mahr put out for Donald Trump to prove he was not the son of an orangutan. Now imagine someone staging that nightmare. You now have Orangutan by Troy Deutsch. The whole thing takes the form of a monologue by Trump's mother (Kristina Mueller)... full review

I do love a dose of the paranormal or mystical or science fiction to throw life into sharp relief. Transference by Jim Blanchette proves to be exactly that. A teacher named Jessica (Lisa K. Watt) attends a therapy session, this time trying to use hypnosis to cure her smoking. Her therapist Dr. Herbert (Esther Mira) tries to reassure her, calming the nervous woman down. Eventually she does hypnotize her and BOOM! Jessica remembers all her past lives. All of them. And in every single one, sh... full review

Beyond doubt the cast of this play are all energetic, talented and possess genuine charm. Director Susan Dalian shows skill at using a tiny space while maintaining the energy needed. However, this script's very real potential needs work. This is an early draft of what might well be an excellent comedy. Right now, it wanders around the situation as well as the characters without diving very deeply into either. Worse, it doesn't seem like a play at all, but more like a sitcom. The same char... full review

Two character plays with multiple scenes have a problem maintaining momentum. Sex With Strangers by Laura Eason has a potential solution to this--simply, the costume and set changes are minimal, and initially non-existent. More, the characters as written leave us not only interested in what happens next, our interest grows. More than our interest, our investment because this play is no polemic but rather an exploration of an intense relationship--its birth and perhaps its end. Certainly it co... full review

I've been telling friends that The Same Room is "No Exit but with a happy ending." This usually inspires a laugh and the question "So heaven is other people?" Well, yes. So is hell. Plus the full range of everything in between. Two young women literally end up thrown (by who? or what?) into a room. We and they pretty soon realize they are dead, outside of time and space as we understand it. Nobody knows what happens next, but they must somehow handle it. In this work, the two are anything... full review

Seems like this year's Fringe had a huge number of one person shows. Probably no more than usual but I seem to have seen more of them this year, with Nephew of the Universe one of the last. It had nearly all the ingredients of a good such--humor, a sense of a personal arc and lessons learned, an interesting backstory. But I did not feel sucked into this story, and maybe the reason was one of scale. This story tells of a kid brought into a "religious group" (some say cult) and his eventual lea... full review

Every notice how humor so often feels uncomfortable? The reason is simple enough--even when we laugh with someone, rather than at them, laughter tends to feel cruel. Whether a pie in the face or an unbelievably uncomfortable job interview, our reaction is to people's suffering. But the best laughter includes laughing at ourselves, not out of denial but recognition of our own faults, our own need to deal with pain by making it into something else. Squirrel!!! pretty much does that with the sto... full review

It bears says--I have had a very nice Fringe this year. Wrote only one pan, with two mild disappointments, but the rest of the shows I've seen veered between just plain good to soul-shakingly excellent. Most, though, have also proven...well, heavy. No complaints! Still, no use pretending this delightful variety show didn't act as a breath of fresh air! So much fun! So many laughs! Such a delightful array of different talents on display! My personal faves were the skits, partially because ... full review

We all have our journeys, our own terrors and regrets, victories and failures, accomplishments and lessons learned. Nine times out of ten this makes up the substance of nearly any one person show, so the question comes up--how akin to our own lives does this person's story feel? Sink or Swim accomplishes this very well in the most straightforward way--by sharing what happened, how he felt, and in an engaging manner let us in on his life. His methods proved clever, even interactive (btw the man... full review