On the Fringes
By Justin Sondak in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 18, 2005 10:12PM
This time of year, it seems you’re either on vacation or thinking about it. For those of you lucky enough to be in the first category and lucky enough to Wake Up in the City That Never Sleeps, consider taking in a show at The New York International Fringe Fest. Chicago companies are once again well represented, and you might be the lucky first to see another offbeat hit.
Chicago at FringeNYC:
The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen, Greg Allen’s antidote to insufferable academic lectures, gets another go with its original cast. Chicagoans get their last glimpse of the show tonight at the Neo Futurarium, complete with condiment fights, tragic suicides, and overzealous intellectuals.
In song and dance, GayCo’s Weddings of Mass Destruction probes the comic minefield that is the gay marriage issue. Tonight's the final benefit performance of the “homo-larious” hit tonight at the Lakeshore Theater.
Before the Band Geeks took the stage, Single Box Turn provided the long-running Little House on the Parody. Shiny and happy enough for fans of the Laura Ingalls Wilder classic, campy enough for everyone else.
Bailiwick Rep’s early summer hit Marlowe looks back at the sharp-tongued playwright’s turbulent, and sometimes overlooked, career.
WNEP Theater drew an early time slot, with the final two performances of their bizarrely endearing Soiree DADA: Neue Weltaffen happening this weekend. The show’s an angry repost to social hypocrisy, bound to have an audience in the East Village.
The brash, risk-taking, hard-to-find Trap Door Theatre unleashes The Crazy Locomotive on Chicago this weekend and on New York next week. Stanislaw Witkiewicz’s play takes on the media machine upon which we’re all gorging (don’t try denying it…), Trap Door’s production brings it into the 21st Century.
From late night at Second City to the Athenaeum to NYC’s Players Theater, Chicagoan Joe Latessa’s A Lesbian in the Pantry is going for the big time. Remember An Indian in the Cupboard? Neither do we. Consider this the GLBT version.
Don’t feel left out if you’re staying in town. Chicago’s most impressive, sleep-deprived fringe festival—the Abbey Hoffman Died For Our Sins Fest—kicks off tomorrow afternoon with a peaceful march from Daley Plaza to the Mary Arrchie Theater, where they’ll camp out through Sunday night. Past festivals featured Sock Puppet Showgirls and the Hypocrites’ one man Othello (title character portrayed by a Mr. T bobblehead). We can only speculate what this year will bring.
Images courtesy of FringeNYC and the Mary Arrchie Theater.