Reviews

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Scammell and Sheppard, in red athletic polos, embrace romantically while Minora looks on worriedly in the background.

Philly Fringe 2024: Lightning Rod Special presents Lee Minora and Scott R. Sheppard’s Nosejob

Off by a nose
Football, feminism, and facial mutilation collide in Nosejob, an ambitious but uneven exploration of sexual politics from Lightning Rod Special in this year's Curated Fringe. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
Cameron Kelsall

Cameron Kelsall

Reviews 3 minute read
Cousar, a Black man dressed in black, sits sternly in a red upholstered chair in front of an old, graffitied stone wall.

Philly Fringe 2024: New Paradise Laboratories presents Jeffrey Cousar’s An Avalanche of ‘No’

More memoir than Macbeth
Jeffrey Cousar’s An Avalanche of ‘No’ in the Cannonball hub of this year’s Fringe is a one-man riff on Macbeth that, despite its sincerity, fails to fully engage in the implications of its conceit. Kiran Pandey reviews.
Kiran Pandey

Kiran Pandey

Reviews 3 minute read
A group of dancers hold up another dancer in a dim space with deep purple lighting

Philly Fringe 2024: Cannonball Festival presents Tyshaun & Shekinah’s Forbidden Fruit

Fruit growing on the vine
Tyshaun & Shekinah’s Forbidden Fruit, a circus-dance work about Black experiences, is part of Cannonball’s inaugural Black Circus Week. Melissa Strong reviews.
Melissa Strong

Melissa Strong

Reviews 3 minute read
A woman dancer in a green shirt and loose striped pants poses in the doorway of the meeting house, a brick wall behind her.

Philly Fringe 2024: Nichole Canuso Dance Company presents The Garden: River’s Edge

A much-needed moment of peace
Nichole Canuso Dance Company joins the 2024 Curated Philly Fringe with The Garden: River’s Edge, an immersive, interactive performance at the historic Arch Street Meeting House. Camille Bacon-Smith reviews.
Camille Bacon-Smith

Camille Bacon-Smith

Reviews 3 minute read
In a 17th-century graveyard, a Black woman with a blond buzz-cut caresses a younger Black woman sitting in a chair.

Philly Fringe 2024: Christ Church Preservation Trust presents On Buried Ground

Uncovering and imagining Philly’s Black colonial-era histories
A meditation on Black lives in colonial Philadelphia comes to life in a Fringe Festival event featuring archival research, site-specific dance, theater, visual art, and historic documents. Kimberly Haas reviews.

Kimberly Haas

Reviews 3 minute read
In a dramatic misty blue spotlight, a man rises animalistically, bent over with elbows angled up out of a well of viscous goo

Philly Fringe 2024: Gunnar Montana Productions presents BLACK WOOD: WINTERBORN

Gothic horror returns to the Latvian Society
Gunnar Montana returns for this year’s Fringe with a standalone sequel to last year’s BLACK WOOD. The bloody, sexy sorcery continues with WINTERBORN, running through October 30 at the Latvian Society. Camille Bacon-Smith reviews.
Camille Bacon-Smith

Camille Bacon-Smith

Reviews 3 minute read

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In dramatic red light, Caporaso lurks behind a pillar with the 3 brides behind him. They all wear smudged black eye makeup.

Philly Fringe 2024: REV Theatre Company presents MY BIG FANG VAMPIRE WEDDING

Singing vampires don’t suck
For this year’s cabaret-style Fringe entry, REV Theatre Company takes over a basement nightclub with MY BIG FANG VAMPIRE WEDDING, boasting great music and committed performers. Melissa Strong reviews.
Melissa Strong

Melissa Strong

Reviews 3 minute read
The 3 actors, in black and purple tennis outfits, pose in a line, each making a different gesture with their arms.

Philly Fringe 2024: Hum’n’Bards presents The Boy Bands Have Won and Thomas Choinacky presents Forehand Down the Line

Labor on stage: two different visions of work
This year, two Philly Fringe shows offered two distinct explorations of performance art made in queer community: The Boy Bands Have Won from Hum’n’bards Theater Troupe, Thomas Choinacky’s Forehand Down the Line. Josh Herren reviews.
Josh Herren

Josh Herren

Reviews 3 minute read
At a long table with text projected onto it, 7 actors of different ages, races, and genders sit in variously zany attitudes

Philly Fringe 2024: Elevator Repair Service presents James Joyce’s Ulysses (second review)

Making theatrical sense of Joyce
James Joyce's Ulysses is the novel that everyone (or English majors at least) has to read, but few finish. In this year's Fringe, Elevator Repair Service tackles the elusive text. An Nichols reviews.
An Nichols

An Nichols

Reviews 4 minute read
Khateri sits in a chair and looks down as she plays a Persian Qeychack, a bowed lute with a short fretless neck

Philly Fringe 2024: Deniz Khateri presents A Bach’eh who wanted to become Bach

A mother’s musical journey
Deniz Khateri's Cannonball Festival entry is a one-woman show that explores identity, pregnancy, war, and immigration. Lowry Yankwich reviews.
Lowry Yankwich

Lowry Yankwich

Reviews 3 minute read