By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO –The 2019 Fringe Festival is in full swing, eleven days and nights of “Eyeball Busting” shows. To qualify, each show can be no more than an hour and the festival organizers like to keep the venues close to each other so that audience members can easily go from one show to the next. That’s how I spent my Sunday and these are my observations.
Fever: Pat O’Brien takes us on a journey into Central America. It’s a harsh and beautiful place where life is precarious, so the people truly savor it. He catches a stomach bug, which is pretty common. As he gets back on his feet, his eyes are opened. The poverty and injustice around him throw him into an existential crisis as he becomes uncomfortably aware of his own white American privilege. The sheer brutality of the forces cracking down on ‘Marxists’ make him question who the good guys and bad guys really are.
O’Brien is an engaging speaker, but I think this would have worked better as a multi-media presentation. We need to see the beauty and ugliness that he saw. Also, he didn’t specifically name the places because there are many corners of the world where one could have these experiences. But I think specifics would have made it more engaging.
The Sages teach: Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh, All of Israel are responsible for one another. Sometimes, when we complain about slow service in a restaurant and other minor inconveniences, we need to be reminded just how fortunate we are.
Get Free by bkSoul: “They say America is a melting pot. I say it’s a salad bowl. The beauty is in tasting all the different flavors.” Spoken word, hip-hop, modern dance and bluesy riffs on bass guitar flow together in a river of sound and movement. They encouraged us to clap and cheer whenever the spirit moved us and be part of the action. I also liked that they had a variety of body types represented, showing that even a fuller frame can move with beauty and grace. But my favorite moment came when their leader, Grace Shinhae Jun coaxed me out of my chair to dance with her. It was one of those spontaneous moments in which art validates life.
Space Force: Michael Shantz and Tom Steward took a Trump-rally chant into the level of parody sci-fi. The year is 2073 and the Donald made himself President-of-Earth for Eternity by downloading his brain onto Twitter. We are a caravan of Martian immigrants seeking asylum. Lucky for us, we have been intercepted by the Resistance.
These shows aren’t juried, so there’s always one that wastes an hour of your life. The concept is cute, but the gags get old. It reminded me of something that might come out of a high school improv class when the teacher has the flu. The current administration gives comedians plenty to lampoon, but it doesn’t help your case if your scathing retort is equally lacking in sophistication.
Mesa Moves: Dance Synthesis. Mesa College Dance never disappoints. More than twenty student dancers filled the space with graceful movement and vibrant energy. Watching them dance to a musicology lecture, Beethoven Explained, made an academic subject far more engaging. “I know I am” was about how young women struggle with body image, holding nothing back and breaking our hearts. But they reclaimed their right to love themselves in “Becoming,” the most famous song from the film, The Greatest Showman. In all, we left with our eyes and ears filled, our hearts touched and our souls invigorated. Standing ovation!
The 2019 San Diego Fringe Festival continues through Sunday, June 16,in Balboa Park and other venues. For a full schedule, go to www.sdfringe.org.
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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com