Just Right

Blog post 12

By Isaac Overman

June 15 2022

As of writing this, I have witnessed three “fringe” plays: Lift, Girl on an Alter and Rainer. When I was traveling to see Rainer tonight, I was extremely worried that I would hate it. To be blunt, my opinions regarding Lift and Girl on an Alter are that they felt extremely self important and lacked any amount of charm that would lead me to fall in love with the productions. My problems with these plays were not because they had a lower budget or that they were in a smaller venue but that they were either void of plot—in the case of Lift—or far to long—in the case of Girl on an Alter. I would rate both of these plays in the three to four out of ten range. I was beginning to frame fringe theatre as dull and pretentious but my mind was completely changed tonight. Rainer was everything that I hoped fringe to be. It was shorter in length only lasting about an hour and a half, had a cohesive plot, and featured a single actress and two chairs. I was also intrigued by the fact that it was outside. The venue was small and the budget was obviously close to nothing but it had charm. The whole play takes place inside the mind of our protagonist—Rainer. This was the first great choice that the play made because it did not bite off more than it could chew. They had one actress and so they narrowed the scope of the play to be entirely through the lens of Rainer. The actress used the chair props and her physicality to portray each different character along with six or seven different accents. The plot was not vague like Lift and did not feel long at all like Girl on an Alter. The lead actress was phenomenal. She never missed a line and really embodied the characters. But most importantly it begged the audience to fall in love. I think this is because it was so relatable. The play is about a girl wrestling with the grief of her father’s death, her depression and letting people in to love her again. This play touched me in a way none of the other plays had. It felt so intimate and raw. Rainer was broken and we the audience watched as she slowly picks up the pieces of her life. It was beautiful. It was not a spectacle like Life of Pi. Nor did it shake me to my core like House of Shades. But it was charming and lovely. I would rate it very highly simply because it was everything fringe should be. I am glad that I gave fringe another shot because I might have missed one of my favorite plays.