You all are very dedicated stalkers. While I don’t exactly being observed this much I suppose I have to commend your efforts at the very least. You’re still here, always lurking in the periphery… or just reading the blog posts that I’m purposely putting publicly on the great wide web for adoring fans like you to read.
As it happens, I’m writing today about a synonym of “periphery;” while in London, I was tasked with going to see at least one fringe theatre piece and writing about it. Since being here, I have actually seen three fringe shows: one with the group and two of my own accord.
The most recent show I saw was last night, where I watched Bluets at the Royal Court Theatre, which was a rather avant-garde piece about “depression and desire, pleasure and pain, and a person possessed by a lifelong obsession with the color blue.” I did not very much enjoy the experience as I was having it, despite recognizing that it was a valuable piece of theatre. After sleeping on it, however, I find that it is growing on me. I appreciated the production value of it immediately. It was produced through onstage videography of the three actors utilizing three screens and many cameras to create an ever-changing video account of the poetic script. Overall, the book was what put me off, due to how dense it was. The poetry itself felt too heady for me upon first watch, but now that I have sat with it, I wonder if it would be more digestible and effective after a second go-round.
Before that, I saw No Love Songs at Southwark Playhouse with my roommates. I was less opinionated on this piece, and I remain so. No Love Songs is the love story of the two people who wrote it, from first meeting through their struggle for monetary gain and raising a child in a world that isn’t built for a working household, all the way up to their divorce and hesitantly rekindling relationship. One conviction that I hold about it is that this story is unique, and it deserves to be told. However, I was not a huge fan of the writing style of this one either. The performances by both actors felt extremely authentic and I loved the characters’ depth, which is ultimately what the piece is about. My main qualm with it is that the manner of telling the story took me out of the narrative at times as the script demanded that the characters continually address the audience between and during choppy flashback scenes. I really enjoyed the experience of seeing this one as well, and I think that it was valuable to me, to be able to see a production that was of such a comparatively lower production cost. While the equipment they had was expensive, it was very minimal, whereas a show like Bluets and the West End shows we have been seeing are far more extravagant in design.
The show that was probably my favorite out of all of them was the first fringe show I saw, which was Sophie’s Surprise 29th at Underbelly Boulevard. I went in not knowing what to expect; Kaylee, Emma, and I were all eating lunch at Temple of Seitan, realized we had time to see a show that night, and I began to scroll TodayTix. I found a title I hadn’t noticed before, then asked if they wanted to see it, immediately buying tickets for it. We all went in completely blind and were very pleasantly surprised by its premise: a cabaret-style circus show based around the idea that it was one of the audience members’ birthday. While it had a loose storyline, it was mostly based in the different acts put on by the members of the cast, including aerial silks, hoops, roller skating tricks, and stand up comedy by a guy in his birthday suit. If I had a nickel for the number of individual buttcheeks I’ve seen in the name of theatre in the past two months, I would have at least six nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened that many times. The show was hilarious, awe-inspiring, and utterly surprising. I’ve never seen anything like it, but I would love to go again if I could.
I really wish that there was more accessible and available fringe theatre in the United States. There are fringe theatres, but there are not nearly as many, and they are certainly not as well advertised as they are here. However, the fringe shows I’ve seen are some of the most inspiring and interesting pieces of theatre I have seen in a while. Being able to compare the different levels of professional theatre, as well as see the in-between theatre: not West End or Broadway, but more advanced than a college production.
We’re so near the end I’m actively denying it. More to come!
CW
Theatre in London U of A 