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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Fringe Festival 2012: All's Fair

Day: 1

Show: 1

Title: All's Fair

By: Synapse Theater

Written by: Gregory Giles

Location: Rarig Xperimental

Summary: A woman is dealing with the grief of losing her husband, and returns to the carnival where they met as teenagers 35 years ago, and to which they have been returning every year since. Now that her love is gone, she doesn't even know what love is, or what it was that she felt. She tries to recover that feeling through remembering the past (we see the young lovers in a series of flashbacks) and conversing with the spirit of her husband.

Highlights: All's Fair is a sweet love story (it reminds me a little of the Ann Reed song "Love at the Fair") that also explores the idea of memory and how it might play tricks on us. The current and past versions of the characters often appear onstage together (see Sondheim's Follies), which is interesting and effective in seeing how they've grown and changed. Anya Fetcher and Richard Weber are charming and awkward and sweet as the young lovers, and Karen Jensen is an appealing guide through the story.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections...