A bunch of strangers sit, all waiting for the same thing. There are a few scattered conversations, but most communication consists of slight post-eye-contact nods and tight smiles. We’re each trying to maintain a small private space while sharing a larger public space, and then without warning this guy enters with a lot of hustle and bustle, loudly hawking CDs and DVDs. He’s got a light comedic touch, and charms us for the next few minutes, and then we’re off. The show has begun.
UNDERGROUND EPISODES carries us from Olney to past City Hall and then back again, a new performance for each stop. We get a preacher, a sweeper, a homeless woman, and an angry young man. Mothers desperate to find their missing children, an alcoholic looking for redemption, and women celebrating that they can finally marry each other. They all talk in poems, half-spoken and half-recited, sometimes direct and sometimes inscrutable, spouting lines like, “We come in variations of color, but none primary.” They draw us in to their stories, and then leave. Soon, we’re back where we started, a bunch of strangers sitting together in a room. But what a trip! [Philadelphia Art Alliance] September 12-13, 2014; fringearts.com/underground-episodes,