Review: CAPITAL FRINGE FESTIVAL Preview Night

With more than 130 different productions being staged over three weeks at 20 different venues, the Capital Fringe festival can be an overwhelming undertaking.

To ease the avalanche of choices coming next month, Fringe has produced not only a 66 page catalog cross referencing the possibilities, but throws a one night preview in which more productions are staged in one night than some theater companies mount in several years.

Of course each of the 21 acts in this year's preview at the Fringe Arts Bar headquarters Friday only had four minutes to work with. Go any longer and as one elder storyteller found, the red overhead lights go on as if a fire alarm. But everybody pretty much stuck to their time.

As Fringe founder Julianne Brienza said at the outset, these glimpses can be "real random."

"I don't know what's going to happen," she said. "Some may be amazing, some might be horrible. You be the judge."

And so we were, as people sought seats or fought to make way to the limited performance space, the evening actually worked, as Fringe does, on a surprisingly orderly schedule.

Brienza said one theme of the festival this year was making friends, hence its "Hi! I'm Fringe" on each of its buttons. But friendliness may have gone too far when noise in the barroom more than once overwhelmed any theater trying to happen in the adjacent stage.

Just one of the planned acts dropped out, either because they weren't ready, had last minute stage fright or got lost among the many other acts on their way to the stage. As it turned out, 20 was enough.

You got the idea that what was presented in the preview wasn't curated. Its contents won't likely reflect the whole of the fest, as producers who may have felt four minutes couldn't do justice to any part of their show would just as soon decline. Or maybe some weren't ready.

Still, it was worth noting that there were a lot more dance pieces and bluegrass musicals than one might have predicted, two bitter women drinking martinis and only two Shakespearean variations (though a third one was the one that was planned and disappeared).

The preview night began and ended with brash glam performances that suited the site's penchant for confetti bombs that just kept going off.

Let's get an idea of the four minute presentations with Twitter-sized assessments:

Jeffrey Johnson, "A Romp Around Uranus with Special Agent Galactica" In pink wig and sparkles, Johnson sings a Shirley Bassey-style theme to what looks to be a campy sci-fi musical with a groan inspiring title. Handed out fliers during the instrumental break, in which a recorded Fred Schneider of The B-52's raps. How'd he get him to do that?

Derek Hills, "Prison Break, Incorporated" Here's an example of how four minutes don't quite get the point across. But this seems to be a game show about breaking out of jail. Or not.

Luigi Laraia, "Too Close" A dramatic monologue from a man stuck in an elevator is read from the script. The bigger detraction was that he read it away from the microphone, making it hard to hear.

Uncle Funsy Productions/David S. Kessler, "One Mutual Happiness" In which Kessler does a comic monologue about officiating a wedding, backed by a bass drum and ukulele. Looks amusing.

The Coil Project, "It Will All Make Sense in the Morning" A play about one's dreams has some of the surreal imagery one associates with disturbing nightmares. When one character appears with blood on his hands, another aspect of Fringe is represented, horror.

Ellouise Schoettler, "Ready to Serve" A nurse tells of her harrowing duty in World War I many years later. She was the storyteller who went over the alloted time, but she also riffed on an inattentive audience member texting. "We didn't have telephones then."

Jane Franklin Dance, "Wash Over You" The first of the three dance companies of the night wore plaid and added theatrical declarations about living in the West.

THE Theatre Company, "House of Yes" A martini drinking women is not very welcoming when her brother brings his fiancé home for the holiday. One of the more interesting cuttings presented.

DanceArt Theatre, "Fractals" A seven-piece dance group presents interesting patterns and shapes in group works.

Pinky Swear Productions, "Over Her Dead Body" The theater group behind Fringe favorite "Cabaret xx" and its many sequels moves to something else, a bluegrass opera collecting old murder ballads.

Mary Toft Players, "How to Give Birth to a Rabbit" This folkie song cycle concerns the eighteenth century British woman who roiled Britain with a wild claim. By seven different singer-songwriters.

Steve Coffee and Friends, "Rain Follows the Plow" Another original bluegrass opera, this time about the Dust Bowl, in full cowboy attire.

Danny Baird & Meghan Stanton, "ROMONOV" An original electro-pop concert from the Tsar's family, to set the tale straight. Some good singing.

Darius McCall, "One Man Romeo" The one Shakespeare variant in the preview (there are at least a handful in the fest) has McCall rising from the dead following the famous play to explain himself. Working without a microphone made it unclear. But it was at least one of the few serious theatrical representations of the night.

Erik Mueller, "The Computer That Loved" A monologue about a man with unusual parents and OCD, who gets into computers but can't seem to crack roman. Reciting the numeric value of pi was a preview highlight.

Dodgeball Theatre, "Macbeth in the Basement" Stern young people in camouflage at desks seemingly reciting lines from "Macbeth" loudly. Attention-getting but hardly indicative of what the play is about.

Lights, Theatre Action! "Confederates" A drama about the South's consideration of taking the capital at a turning point in the Civil War, with plenty of local place names.

MOVEIUS Contemporary Theatre Company, "Glacier: A Climate Change Ballet" Lovely dance to electronic score by women in white garments, neither of whom seem to melt quite yet. The preview came without the planned video projection.

Southern Railroad Theatre Company, "Death Be Not Loud!" The second play excerpt about an aggravated woman with a martini glass in her hand, this one stews about her ex husband.

Tia Nina, "Juiced" A three piece glam dance group dances exorbitantly in glittery costumes, eventually squirting the audience with hand-held water cannons. Followed immediately by the confetti bomb that signals the end of the night, it's a little like tar and feathering for the audience.

The Capital Fringe Festival is July 7-31 at various venues in Trinidad, H Street and downtown D.C. For more information, go online.

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