2007 Fringe Festival: Day 11

[barondave]

A successful last day. Somewhat to my surprise, I managed to make all my scheduled shows for a total of 38 Fringes. The secret, at least for me, was pacing. I never saw more than four in a day, and never fewer than three. I didn't force myself to go to one more if tired, and choreographed traveling between venues.

KIPO! **** 1/2

Kipo Means Happy

Exuberant Tibetan clog dancing with banjo and yak. The dancers and singers recreate dance in Tibet before the Chinese invasion, and end with a sad prayer. The politics are kept to a minimum as the joys of a simple life are celebrated.

The Opportunity: It's not a pyramid scheme *** 1/2

Real Sales Rallies Are Like This, Unfortunately

Good send-up of faith-based multi-level marketing sales force rallies. Some good lines and nice audience interaction. In many ways, they squeeze too gently for how ubiquitously companies sell their false hope.

Wallace and the Dragon ****

The Story Of A Spiritual Naturalist

Alfred Russel Wallace deserves to have his story told, the true story of his vision and his blind spots. He was a great scientist and observer with a moral stance above that of the British. Anti-religious but spiritual, he never convinced people that science and the supernatural were woven of the same cloth. Rounded up because of the great live music and the dancing komodo dragon.

I have a podcast to do (and might get some more interviews for it), and some pictures to look at and post. I might pause for a day to get my bearings. We'll see.

Comments

[calimac.livejournal.com]

This has been an amazing list of events.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

And I only saw 23% of the shows! The Fringe is great.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked "Wallace." I think I would rate it slightly lower than you did, actually, but we both enjoyed it and were glad we went. Was the house very small on the night you saw it? I think there were about a dozen in our audience. It's fun to see the Fringe blockbusters, but I always feel sad for the less polished shows that people worked so hard on that just never find an audience.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

The house wasn't packed, but there were several dozen at least (I didn't count). I've always wanted to know more about Wallace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wallace), a far more interesting historical near-miss than Elisha Gray (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Gray) (who filed the patent for the telephone the same day as Bell). He was a weirdo, in the "I'm a man of science but I believe in the supernatural" mold of A. Conan Doyle. I didn't know the part about dreaming the conversation with a komodo dragon. It adds to the premise that much of human progress was developed while tripping. The show itself was a bit stodgy, but the live music really helped (I almost bought a CD). Agree about the Blockbusters v. Other Stuff.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I think the dragon dream stuff was made up.

It kind of had to be, since the dragons made him promise that he wouldn't talk about it.

Frankly, I think that part was stupid, and undercuts the credibility of the whole story, which was plenty interesting without it. They could have had the dragon dance without making it the explanation for Wallace's descent into historical obscurity.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

According to the playbill (the 8-page vol. 13 of "The Musicker's Gazette" from Walking Boxes Productions, which were handed out at the show), "Wallace did actually have his revelation about evolution in the midst of a malarial fit, but he describes no scientific hallucinations in his writings, thus his interaction with the Komodo dragons are a purely fictional element of our tale".

If he promised not to talk about it, we wouldn't have a written record. I suspect you're right that it didn't happen in quite that way, but given Wallace's spirituality and subsequent actions giving all the credit to Darwin, the fictionalization works for the character. You're fond of Trickster characters. Why not a trickster dragon?

Besides, most of the show is Wallace sitting there talking. The show needed some theatrical oomph, and the dragon worked to enliven what was basically a one-man show.

Anyway, thanks for the recommendation. I liked it better than you did; you liked Bards better than I.