By ROBERT TRUSSELL
So I ventured over to Arts Tech just off Truman Road and Holmes, walked up stairs and took my seat for " . . . and they fight!" and immediately noticed three things: (1) The pre-show music blasting through the speakers was vibrating my sternum; (2) the folding chairs were arranged so that only people on the first two rows had a good view of the action; (3) the place had no air-conditioning.
I saw a digital temperature reading on the way to the venue that told me it was almost 89 degrees outdoors, so I figure it had to be close to 100 inside the place. Sweat dripped from actors and spectators alike.
Such are the joys of the Fringe Festival, which each year is held on one of the hottest weekends of the summer.
Anyway, the show is a stage combat showcase, which, despite the debilitating heat, offered a good dose of fun. Fight directors Richard Buswell and Nigel Delahoy and their Merry Band Productions have assembled a young, energetic cast and put them through their paces with swords, knives, long staffs and various unconventional weapons, including a rubber chicken.
They kick things off with "(S)he's a Pirate," in which Micia Bektal bests four male opponents in an exciting bit of choreography that includes as much tumbling as swordplay. Next is "The Bound Duel," in which Andrew Herndon and Donnelle Sanders are tied together at the wrist and go at each other with knives.
Some of the material, especially those bits meant to be funny, don't come off very well, but a dueling sequence involving the whole company gets the adrenaline going and the final piece, "We Got Rhythm," is a an infectious percussive performance reminiscent of "Stomp!" in which the instruments of choice are sabers, daggers and staffs.
Some of these routines could have benefited from a longer rehearsal period, but this is the Fringe Festival, after all. The artistry is rarely as refined as you'd like it to be.
Meanwhile, a performance of an exceedingly odd little play called "Space" at the Bohemian Gallery on 19th Terrace between Central and Wyandotte provides graphic evidence that galleries make really good galleries and terrible theaters.
Seattle-based playwright/actor Glynis Mitchell gives us something rarely seen: a science-fiction play. At least that's what I gathered from all the references to intergalactic travel and spaceship commanders. According to Mitchell's program notes, her play is a retelling of a Buddhist parable and a tragedy about a person who "succumbs to their fatal flaw in the face of an overwhelming force; in this case, the self. Self-defeat, self-doubt, self stuff, self, self, self."
I'm glad I read that because the performance rendered the play's supposed meaning utterly enigmatic. Mitchell plays various characters as does the director, Patricia Rusconi, and there were times when I couldn't figure out who each actors was supposed to be as the play cut from one location to another.
To be fair, the performers had no visual tools to assist them in their endeavor. The best they could do was create blackouts between scenes. If you define "fringe" as "marginal," then this play was custom made for the festival.
" . . . and they fight" will be performed at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Arts Tech, 1524 Holmes.
"Space" will be performed at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Bohemian Gallery, 200 W. 19th Terrace.
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