Reviews from the Fringe

I've seen a few shows now and thought I'd share my opinion of them.  First, I went to see Grimmer Than Grimmer Than Grimm. 

Expect Violence

GTGTG was suitably dark and suitably funny.  The play was written really well and the humor was natural.  The actors all did a great job and the whole production really worked.  I even enjoyed the wicked songs.  I really wish I'd seen last years play depicting other Grimm stories.  May be they'll have more for me next year I certainly hope so! I would definitely recommend it (don't take the little kids).

Then there was Serial . . . which didn't really work.  It wasn't so terrible I felt the need to flee, but it certainly was good.  The play seemed unfocused and ungrounded (meaning I couldn't figure out how the world worked really).  It was in iambic pentameter, which I don't think actually served the scripted and only 2 of the 5 actors really pulled it off as natural speech (Maven and Cook).  The actors playing these parts were the only good thing about the play. Maven was suppose to be death or deaths mischievous cousin or a fallen angel of darkness (would that make you good?), but it was not really clear.  Though my friend whom I saw it with wondered why a emo vampire showed up on LOST.  The character really looked like Edward Cullen + The Crow.  Still it was free, so better than nothing.

Today I saw Shorts.  Where I listened to a South African tell me a few short stories about both his own life and traditional south african folk tales.  I enjoyed it and even laughed out loud a few times (if you know me you know that's a difficult response to get from me in a big crowd).  However, I laugh more when he went off the script then when he stuck with it.  In the end I wish it had all been a bit less scripted, but I did enjoy the show and would recommend it.