Beckett fans and others are waiting to see WAITING FOR WAITING FOR GODOT at the Fringe Festival this month
Multiple downtown locations
FringeCENTRAL: 27 Second Ave. between First & Second Sts.
August 9-25, $15 in advance, $18 at the door (some events free)
www.fringenyc.org
The New York International Fringe Festival features theatrical works that are just that — offbeat, quirky, experimental, and unusual dramas, comedies, musicals, and solo performances that exist on the fringe of conventionality. The seventeenth annual event takes place in eighteen downtown venues from August 9 through 25, with myriad productions that look to the past, present, and future of theater, paying homage to such playwrights as Shakespeare, Beckett, and Williams as they offer strange, serious, and surreal takes on humanity. Below are ten of our favorites, listed alphabetically and based on such reliable reasons as title, pedigree, topic, logo, or just for the hell of it.
Alabama Bound
Earlier this year, we saw Southern Discomfort, an entertaining one-woman show in which Elisabeth Gray played six characters in seven vignettes about life in the south. Alabama Bound, in which writer, director, and producer Charlotte Higgins plays five Alabama women, is a presentation of Southern Discomfort Productions, which apparently has no direct connection whatsoever to Gray’s show. (White Box, August 14-18, 25)
cal and grey
We’re suckers for titles set in lowercase letters, so we’re looking forward to Becca Schlossberg’s tale of two men rebelling against the powerful state. (Teatro Circulo, August 10-11, 14, 22, 24)
En Avant! An Evening with Tennessee Williams
The works of Mississippi-born playwright Tennessee Williams never quite go out of style; in the past year or so, there have been major, and minor, versions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, The Two-Character Play, Vieux Carré, and In Masks Outrageous and Austere. In En Avant! William Shuman embodies the enigmatic southerner who lived a rather dramatic life. (CSV Kabayitos, August 9, 16-17, 20, 23-24)
Free Desiree
Amontaine Aurore’s one-woman show about a pair of sistahs in the ’70s celebrating black pride boasts a “Seattle funk soundtrack,” which can never be a bad thing. (Jimmy’s No. 43, August 10, 12, 15, 18, 22, 24)
Wei-Yi Lin stars in play about Japanese porn star Ai Iijima
I Am a Moon
The Japanese love their porn, and who doesn’t love Japanese porn? Zhu Yi’s play honors adult video idol Ai Iijima, who tried to put her sexual past behind her and enter more mainstream society. (Lynn Redgrave Theater, August 9, 12, 14-16)
Mercedes Benz Awkwardly
Yes, FringeNYC loves it some sex shows, and this Melbourne Fringe People’s Choice Award winner stars writer Hannah Williams as pole-dancing stripper Mercedes Benz. (Teatro Circulo, August 20-22, 24)
Mash-up of Shakespeare and Stoker should be a bloody good Fringe pick (photo by Neal J. Freeman)
The Nightmare ‘Dream’
We had a blast this past spring at Living Dead in Denmark, a mash-up of Hamlet and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Shakespeare heroines battled evil zombies. The Nightmare ‘Dream’ brings together the Bard’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, presented by the appropriately named Bloody Shakespeare company, which calls this “the original douche teen vampire drama.” (Theater at the 14th St. Y, August 11-12, 15-16, 18)
Rubble
This story of a comedy writer, played by Bruce Vilanch, who is trapped in an L.A. earthquake with a series pilot on the line comes from the great Mike Reiss, who wrote, produced, and/or cocreated such animated classics as The Simpsons, The Critic, and Queer Duck. (Players Theatre, August 10, 14, 22, 24-25)
Stranded on Motor Parkway
In 1986, we were fortunate enough to find ourselves at Shea Stadium on October 27, as our beloved Mets battled the hated Red Sox in Game Seven of the World Series. Dan Fingerman’s new drama is about a family that has been torn apart by death but just might be able to get back on track if the Mets can pull things out. (Teatro SEA, August 9-10, 13, 15-16)
Waiting for Waiting for Godot
Don’t tell us you don’t absolutely love this title. Chris Sullivan and Dave Hanson star as a pair of understudies discussing life, art, and more while awaiting their big moment in Hanson’s ingenious riff on the Beckett classic. (Kraine Theater, August 21-25)