Tongue & Groove’s team is pretty fearless, and though the performance has some slower moments, they’re quick to cut off a bit that isn’t working and move forward. Musician Carol Moog sits off to the side, riffing on a harmonica whenever she decides a scene has ended.
View More SECRETS (Tongue & Groove): Fringe Review 41
Can you imagine 19th-century Moscow transported to contemporary Philadelphia, and Leo Tolstoy’s Russian angst-laden tragedy Anna Karenina transformed into a wacky local comedy? Luckily for Fringe audiences actor/playwright Chris Davis could.
View More ANNA K (Chris Davis): 2014 Fringe Review 40
A collaboration between three inventive local playwrights, SAFE SPACE provides its audience a Fringe adventure: a choose your own adventure.
View More SAFE SPACE (Apocalypse Club): 2014 Fringe Review 39
From a toe-tapping Peet Seeger sing-along to a head-banging rock and roll number, dozens of unique performances crowded the World Café Live Stage for PHILLY SONG…
View More PHILLY SONG SHUFFLE (Xtreme Folk Scene): Fringe Review 38
Conversations are not always comfortable, but when Colie McClellan had an issue with a Phindie review, she decided to start one.
View More The Conversation Starter: A Fringe show, a reviewer’s word choice, and why it’s good to talk
Hannah Van Sciver examines the difficult connection and disconnect between two Millennials in her original work MARBLES.
View More MARBLES (Hannah Van Sciver): Fringe Review 37
Named after a Mark Rothko painting cycle, Castellucci’s piece is a sort of abstract impressionism on stage
View More THE FOUR SEASONS RESTAURANT (Societas Raffaello Sanzio): Fringe Review 36
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME . . . A MUTE PLAY captures the narrative, message, emotion, and beauty of its literary source without speaking a word
View More THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME . . . A MUTE PLAY (The Renegade Company): 2014 Fringe Review 35
“You don’t have to like classical music, but you have to like beer,” sings a lonely bassoon player in the charming SPEED DATING TONIGHT!
View More SPEED DATING TONIGHT! (Poor Richard’s Opera): Fringe Review 34
A combination of sketch, stand-up and improv comedy, THE WINGMEN PRESENT: THE NEIGHBORHOOD sets out to deliver a lively and fun night for its neighborhood audience.
View More THE WINGMEN PRESENT: THE NEIGHBORHOOD (The Wingmen): Fringe Review 33
Short, sweet, and a little bit uplifting. STAND BACK I’M GOING TO UKE is an enjoyable evening of old-timey music.
View More STAND BACK I’M GONNA UKE: AN EVENING OF OLD-TIMEY MUSIC (Seth Reichgott): Fringe Review 32
Each night, a new actor opens a manila envelope and reads the script for the first time. The spontaneity of the performance allows the author to engage with the audience from miles away and years ago.
View More WHITE RABBIT, RED RABBIT (Nassim Soleimanpour, performed by Mary Lee Bednarek): Fringe Review 31
One way to focus on the extraordinary eloquence and drama of Shakespeare’s language is to eliminate all visual distraction, and that is precisely what John Schultz has done in TILL BIRNAM WOOD—a rapid-fire 55-minute adaptation of Macbeth that is performed before a blindfolded audience.
View More TILL BIRNAM WOOD (John Schultz): Fringe Review 30
A morally ambiguous and deeply political tale of two cultures clashing when an American photographer comes to stay with a family in rural Iran.
View More BROKEN WING (Pantea Prodctions): Fringe Review 29.1
Robin Malan’s iHAMLET, a stripped-down contemporary one-man adaptation of Hamlet, is performed in The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre’s Fringe production by one impressive woman. Actor/musician/composer Melissa Dunphy displays a remarkable command of the non-linear script, not once misspeaking a word of her 55-minute solo performance.
View More iHAMLET (Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre): Fringe Review 28
HUMAN FRUIT BOWL draws audience members into the mind of a nude model as they witness an open depiction of this model as an aware and vocal object.
View More HUMAN FRUIT BOWL (Andrea Kuchlewska and Harmony Stempel): Fringe Review 27
Compelling in its investigation of untruths, half-truths, white lies, omissions, and embellishments, WOULD I LIE TO YOU? left me with questions. What is a lie? Is something a lie if we lie only to ourselves?
View More WOULD I LIE TO YOU? (RealLivePeople): Fringe Review 26
Trajal Harrell’s TWENTY LOOKS comes in a selection of lengths and sizes, and although the Presented Fringe version of his solo show runs extra small, at a mere 25 minutes to a 25-person audience (hence the XS in the extended title), you will be reminded that good things come in small packages.
View More TWENTY LOOKS OR PARIS IS BURNING AT THE JUDSON CHURCH (XS) (Trajal Harrell): Fringe Review 25
This Neighborhood Fringe show, directed by Sean Connolly, transpires in the murky basement of an old church in Manayunk. The space lends an ideal sinister atmosphere to a play which, like many psychological thrillers, is more intimation and suspense than action.
View More SPLATTER (Manayunk Theatre Company): Fringe Review 24
Imagine if Frank Herbert’s “Dune” had been adapted not by David Lynch but instead by the Mummers. That’s not too far off from what we get with SEPHRO: EARTH’S REVENGE.
View More SEPHRO: EARTH’S REVENGE (Fantasy Weavers): Fringe Review 23