Fringe Festival 2016: "The Real World Fringe Festival"

Day: 4

Show: 15

Title: The Real World Fringe Festival

Category: Comedy

By: Trusty Paper Ship

Written by: Annie Scott Riley

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: Like an episode of MTV's Real World franchise, except it's onstage instead of on TV, and it's at the Fringe Festival.

Highlights: Confession: I was a loyal viewer of The Real World back in the early days, before there even was such a thing as social media. But in this Real World, the housemates spend most of their time on their phones, worrying about their social media presence. This allows the creators to skewer not just reality TV, but also our larger obsession with social media. We meet the seven housemates (a disappointingly less diverse cast than the real Real World casts) in a series of vignettes, complete with "testimonials" Real World style. The cast (David Beukema, Sarah Broude, Stephen Frethem, Rachel (Finch) Postle, Marcia Svaleson, Rob Ward, and Katie Willer) is great and fully commits to their larger-than-life stereotypical characters. There are some amusing observations about the social media world and some clever fourth-wall-breaking and acknowledgement of being on a stage. I wasn't wowed by the show, but it was kinda fun.

Fringe Festival: "I Make No Promises, But Someone's Probably Going to Die"

Day: 7

Show: 19

Title: I Make No Promises, But Someone's Probably Going to Die

By: Trusty Paper Ship

Written by: Annie Scott Riley

Location: Illusion Theater

Summary: A dark comedy about people waiting to commit suicide by being looked at by the "Giant Eyeball."

Highlights: The tight six-person cast does justice to a smartly written dark comedy that takes place in a world that's very like ours, but just slightly off. A world where people looking to end their lives (and presumably start over in the next one) go to visit the "Giant Eyeball" (not to be confused with the "Grasping Lotus," who makes people into "Omniscient Yogis"). A world where there's an audience watching (us), but only some people know it. A world where an odd and strict warden watches over the proceedings, and everyone has a spiritual adviser. It's in this world that Brianna (Joanna Harmon) meets Adam (Clarence Wethern), and begins to rethink her decision, despite her awful therapist (John Middleton). Bottom line: smart, funny, well-written and well-acted.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections…

… including my top 5 shows