Some impressions of San Diego’s Intl Fringe Festival

 

By Eric George Tauber

SAN DIEGO — The fifth annual San Diego International Fringe Festival is well underway, 11 days of “eyeball busting” shows.

“Fringe” theatre refers to shows on the edge. They are short (no longer than an hour) and travel light. Many are circus acts with feats of acrobatics, dances and one-person narratives. With commitments to jfest, regular productions and, ah yes, my day job, I’ve been pretty busy. So I didn’t get to the Fringe until last Sunday. But what I saw was worth seeing and there’s a lot more to come until July 2^nd.

Eleanor’s Story: An American Girl in Hitler’s Germany. In 1939, Eleanor Ramrath Garner was a young girl in New Jersey when her father was given an opportunity to work in Berlin. Germany seemed a land of promise and new opportunities. Certainly, there were rumors of war, but surely Hitler wouldn’t risk their hard won prosperity with something so foolhardy. Papa would make some money and they would be back in two years, tops….

The story is told by Ingrid Garner, Eleanor’s granddaughter. An animated and engaging storyteller, she paints an elaborate and terrifying picture of the great conflict and paralyzing fear. She sees things through the eyes of a child, one that is forced to mature far too quickly.

With all of the documentation of the Holocaust, it’s easy to forget that ordinary Germans were also under the gun. Any criticism of the government was reported and met with dire consequences. Then again, maybe if more ordinary Germans had spoken up when they should have, they wouldn’t have come to a day when they couldn’t.

Untold, by Blindspot Collective

An estimated one in four Americans struggles with some form of mental illness and far too many suffer in silence. Taken verbatim from interviews with therapists, patients and loved ones, participants in the study bared the souls on the intensely personal issues of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, PTSD and thoughts of ending their own lives.

One outstanding performance was given by a vibrant and comical young man named Wreckless Watson. He portrayed a woman who had a remarkable sense of humor cracking wise about her experience with addiction, withdrawal and being on suicide watch.

Untold ended with a poignant question: How many of our stories go untold? How many of yours?

Specific Gravity by Circus Collective of San Diego

“Give us a place to stand and we will move the Earth.” –Archimedes

Archimedes was the mathematician of ancient Greece who cried “Eureka!” (I see it) when he realized that his body displaced the water when he stepped into the bath. Millions of people around the world have been displaced by wars and disasters, forcing them to make new lives for themselves in foreign lands.

These millions were represented by a handful of much more personal stories told through dance, music, spoken word, visual projection and impressive acrobatics. Their lithe and limber young bodies performed incredible feats of daring with agility and grace. The house roared when two men spun on a wheel that turned faster and faster in mid-air.

But one thing got stuck in my craw. They opened with a list of displaced people and their lands. Top of the list: five million displaced from “Palestine” in 1948. First, this number is highly suspect. Second, why didn’t the millions of Jews displaced and massacred by Russian Cossacks, Nazis and Arab Sheikhs, before and after 1948, merit a mention?
*
Tauber is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts.  He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com