As you may or may not know, my nephew Luke is studying musical theater at my alma mater, and Luke has been talking about his role in one of the four Fringe plays. He made it sound weird and wild, and I was up for something like that Friday night.
But my expectations were low. They shouldn't have been, because I've been to several productions at UWSP over the past two years, and almost without exception they've blown me away, shown me the power of live theater and generally given me a different perspective on interesting subjects including the obsession that often accompanies great art, Irish culture in the late 1800s to the political struggles at the beginning of the AIDS crisis in New York City. ("A Normal Heart," still thinking about that one.") The latest production I went to was "A Streetcar Named Desire," which was so good that I thought the movie starring Marlon Brando paled in comparison.
But The Fringe was going to be something different, I told myself. I guess I was expecting the level of writing that my classmates and I produced in a scriptwriting class in 1989. I wrote a movie about a young naive kid going off to college, and frankly, it makes me cringe even thinking about it. And my script was probably one of the top third in the class. Most of it was trite stuff, either, boring, stupid or pretentious, or in my case, all three at once. My prejudice is that a college kid simply doesn't have enough experience to write with depth. Passion, yes. Originality, yes. But meaning? Well, maybe. Of course it didn't help that Luke prefaced the performance by saying, "It's a little long."
Within the first 10 minutes of the first performance, my close-minded perceptions came tumbling down.
Play 1:
"Where the Green Things Grow"
Written by Tom Bebeau
Directed by Zach Woods
This short play was about what happens after a 17-year-old decided to break into an older neighbor's greenhouse to steal a flower to impress a girl. In a very short time, we learn the kid is insecure and geeky, that his father was a jerk. The neighbor is a widower who deals with his pain by nurturing plants.
What I most liked about this play was that it developed deep, rich and funny characters in such a short period of time. My only quibble, if I have to find one, is that the dialogue about Harry Potter was a bit off. Wouldn't a bright a 17-year-old such as Michael progressed a little deeper into geekdom than Potter? Or am I doing an injustice to the Potter world?
Play 2:
"Commitment"
Written by Abigail Hencheck
Directed by Eric Norton
This play was about an elderly woman living on her own, and at an age where her daughter wonders if she needs more help. Rose Mary, the elderly woman, is a kick of a character, and Hanna Gaffney made the most of her character. Her flirting with the sheriff was terrific.
The conflict of the story comes shortly after Rose Mary's daughter, Kathleen, marries a man, Richard, who has a college-bound daughter. Richard tries to convince Rose Mary to loan him money for his daughter's education. When she refuses, he tries to have Rose Mary committed to a home to gain access to her money.
This play, too, captured me. Both "Where the Green Things Grow" and "Commitment" were strong because they were able to mix the nuances such as grief, caring for elderly parents, insecurity, etc., with humor.
I really liked "Commitment" because you never know if Rose Mary foils Richard through dumb luck and ignorance or whether she cannily set Richard up. Quibbling criticism: Kathleen comes off as smart and strong -- it seems to me that she could have seen through Richard and called him on it. I might change her character to show her so blindingly besotted with Richard that she couldn't recognize that he was a class A ass. As it was, she stood up to him on money matters. Wouldn't she surely stand up to him when it comes to the care of her mother?
Play 3:
"Baby Steps"
Written by Erica Figurin
Directed by Lauren Kacere
I liked this play the least among the four, not because of its quality in writing or acting, but more because of its theme. It was a melodrama about a couple, Dan and Haley, who have struggled to have a child. Haley especially yearns to be a mother, and is ecstatic when she finds out she's pregnant. Dan is happy, too, but at the same time he's feeling the guilt of having an affair.
Just not my cup of tea, frankly. It had all the elements of a Lifetime movie, from what I understand, since I've never watched a Lifetime movie. There was tragedy in the play, when a car accident injures the couple and kills the baby, and Dan realizes that he loves Haley and his life with her.
Quibbling criticism: I don't think the affair worked. It makes Dan, played by Tom Bebeau, who wrote "Where the Green Things Grow," to be too much of a jackass, and I think such a person who would carry on an affair, tell his girlfriend about his wife, and simultaneously work to prepare for a baby would be too far gone into self obsession to come to the realization that Dan did. I think it might have worked better if Dan simply didn't want to have a kid, and instead is having an affair with a job, or something like that. Make him go through the motions of preparing for a child, then realize it's what he wanted after its too late.
Play 4:
"Donner Party"
Written by Hanna Gaffney (who was great as Rose Mary in "Commitment)
Directed by Kelsey Yudice
Here's where the weirdness that I expected came in, and, of course, Luke was in the middle of it all. Because of the title, I expected something set in the old West. Instead, what we got was a truly original combination of slapstick, gothic themes, British humor a la Bertie and Jeeves and Oscar Wilde, and horror.
Donner is an upper crust Englishman who is weird, funny and, you think, crazy. Luke was typecast. (He's not English, though.) Donner invites some friends over with a scheme to quell a disease in which the afflicted tear the limbs off of other people and eat them. I was unclear about the nature of the disease. Did it make the sick stronger, to allow them to rip arms off? Or did make others weaker, so their limbs were easily tearable. At any rate, the thing degraded to Three Stooges type of action in which arms and legs were torn off and blood spurted around. And it was great.
My quibbling criticism: I still don't get the disease very much. But really, were you supposed to?
