Sub-Total
2023 Audience Reviews
Member Reviews
The following reviews were submitted by Fringe Member: Cheri Johnson
Company: THEATRE23
Show: Coyfish
Venue: Augsburg Mainstage
An engaging show
I went to “Coyfish” on Tuesday, August 8. Through the dialogue and monologues of two actors, the play explores online dating, both the special and immediate intimacies it allows and the secrets it allows us to keep, secrets that can make moving the relationship into the real world frightening and even potentially dangerous. I really liked the staging of this lovely, engaging play. In a show about technology, there was something profoundly effective about the simple, analog set (an easel pad with dates written on it in marker, with the pages flipped in turns by the actors to show the passing of time; a rack of clothes one of the actors changed into when the lights dimmed between scenes), and the way the actors voiced not only the text they share but all the accoutrements (“Dot dot dot”; “winky face”). Both performances were strong—I felt for and was rooting for both of these endearing characters—and the show was well-paced, owing to both the actors and the script, which effectively brought in pieces of both characters’ backstories. The tension built to a strong climax, too. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ending, which felt a little abrupt. And to me, it didn’t sufficiently grapple with everything that happens in that tense and emotional climax. But endings are difficult. I’m very happy I saw this.
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Company: Ken Takata
Show: Butts in Seats: How to Get People to Attend Your Shakespeare Production by Having Musical Settings for the Lyrics in His Plays. Numerous Examples Included.
Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre
Loved it
I loved this show. Affecting arrangements, wonderful performers. In Takata’s original arrangements of both lyrics and text from a selection of plays (Sunday’s performance included As You Like It, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello), he confronts a problem I’ve often noticed in Shakespeare productions: that the spots where the production team struggles to figure out what to do with a Shakespeare musical interlude are almost always some of the most awful and awkward parts of the show (someone throws a guitar at the one cast member who said he knew how to play it; another wispy-voiced cast member warbles an odd tuneless melody while the audience squirms and prays it will be over quickly, etc.). Takata makes the case for using these musical interludes to not only draw an audience to a show (a catchy and evocative song written by a real composer and performed by professional musicians can powerfully express both the dramatic content of the play and the flavor of a production when included in a promo video), but to emphasize particular moments and relationships that might pass by too quickly if they’re staged in the usual way, such as the friendships and bonds between the female characters in the plays. One of Takata’s haunting settings of the “Willow” song in Othello is the best I’ve ever heard, and I love the idea of setting to music Puck’s final monologue to the audience in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Highly recommended.
Company: Imaginary Podcast Network
Show: Let Me Say This About That
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
A fun improv show with a lot of laughs
Lots of laughs! All three of the performers had an open-hearted and inviting presence on stage that inspired robust—and often very funny—audience participation (special kudos to the audience member near the front row who responded to Jarvis’s request for imaginary advertisers for the imaginary podcast with “Radio!”). Jarvis, who plays the podcast producer, is a self-described newbie to this side of the stage (during the show credits, Jarvis mentioned that “I’m a tech-boy in real life and [Meyer and Sheridan] asked me to play a tech-boy here.” But Jarvis nonetheless played a great deadpan—with excellent pregnant pauses—to podcast hosts Meyer and Sheridan’s fabulous antics in the first section of the show. The first section was my favorite; things got a little muddier in the second and third sections. I found myself missing the energy both the performers and the audience seemed to get from interacting. And when Jarvis got ensnared by the improvised plots into playing campier roles, the gulf between their acting experience and the experience of Meyer and Sheridan made for some moments that felt a little lopsided and confused. I enjoyed the performance, though. I’ll definitely seek out these actors’ shows in the future. Watching this one felt like being at a party with the funniest people in town.