I've met so many of our readers over the last few weeks at venues across the city. It's so much fun to shake your hands and join the audience with you. Thanks for being part of the BSR community! If you value our journalism, now is the moment to share BSR with your friends. The algorithm is tough for platforms like ours nowadays, and it's the human network that keeps us publishing. If a friend forwarded you this newsletter, you can subscribe here. There's no paywall.
If you want the full list of our 2026 Fringe reviews at a glance, it's here. If you want to follow my reviews throughout the fest, they are all here.
Last week of the Fringe: What's good??
Let's dive right into the shows we've reviewed that are still running:
VOYNICH (through Sept 27): A man (Nick Gillette) has cracked the code on one of the greatest real-life mysteries of the Middle Ages: the Voynich Manuscript. OUR REVIEW
Days of Awe (through Sept 26): "A coming-of-age story for midlife [whose] power lies in looking at how the grief from the loss of Leila Einhorn's mother opens her to examine her own mortality, at how she wants to live her life." OUR REVIEW
Priority Hoarding: A Retrospectacle (through December 20): “The baggage on display is rooted in resilience, protest performance, being and belonging together, and the complexity of queer artforms, and it doesn’t skirt around hard times ... But, as the adage goes, if you love something, let it go.” OUR REVIEW
The 40-Year-Old-Ballerino (Through Sept 26): “The comedy is based on situations and relationships Chris Davis describes, and it comes naturally. It never once feels like he's trying for laughs. And yet the audience at the performance I attended barely stopped laughing.” OUR REVIEW
Untitled Court Show (through Sept 27): “Earth’s energy has been disturbing the cosmos. An alien called Mender arrives on Earth. Mender wants to help Earthlings save themselves from the intergalactic courtrooms. To prepare, Mender has seen 600 episodes of Law & Order.” OUR REVIEW
Dickie Dickie Dicky Donnie (through Sept 23): "Their physical clowning is precise and deeply expressive. We watch them discover how to stand, walk, and hilariously weaponize bodily functions to compete for affection, at one point even pooping in solidarity.” OUR REVIEW
The Groundhog (through Sept 26): “For those who have found themselves in a university auditorium bearing witness to an overly caffeinated and yogurt-eating professor sharing their zealous passion for the most idiosyncratic cultural phenomenon to have ever existed, then you'll agree with me: Savannah Reich gets it.” OUR REVIEW
Say It Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud (through Sept 26): “This tour is a special gift and a cozy visual feast. It asks what your house might look like if it was carefully curated by communal artists.” OUR REVIEW
Human in the Loop (through Sept 27): “I’m convinced the human remained in command, but not enough to see how AI helped him or the audience see familiar things in unfamiliar ways.” OUR REVIEW
TUZLUK (through Sept 22): “Anyone who grew up feeling like they didn’t quite fit in will resonate with this brave, thought-provoking, and compelling piece.” OUR REVIEW
Shows recently closed, but worth reading their reviews:
Ghost Fetus
Here Come the Brides
Handle With Care
With Love, From Ella
Americana Cosplay
Non-Fringe picks
We are not just covering the Fringe! Our hardworking writers have squeezed in coverage of three regional theater openings: 1812's This Should Never Be a Musical (Cameron Kelsall says the improv cast, in this case, might be having more fun than the audience), and the Lantern's Summer, 1976 (Walt Maguire says it's quietly compelling and realistic). And An Nichols was at the world premiere of Teen Dad at Trenton's Passage Theatre. She says "it's a multi-racial beach play for the soul."
In the coming weeks, our writers will cover a ton of openings, including the Wilma's Horsegirl & Cowdaddy, PTC's Liberation, Run Ben Run at Applied Mechanics, and #Charlottesville from Azuka and Simpatico (I'm tackling that one myself), and lots more. We'll keep you up-to-date on the exciting October arts scene.
Alaina Johns
BSR editor-in-chief
