NEW YORK TIMES: David Foster Wallace, whose darkly ironic novels, essays and short stories garnered him a large following and made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, was found dead in his California home on Friday, after apparently committing suicide, the authorities said. Mr. Wallace, 46, best known for his sprawling 1,079-page novel “Infinite Jest,” was discovered by his wife, Karen Green, who returned home to find that he had hanged himself, a spokesman for the Claremont, Calif., police said Saturday evening. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: David Foster Wallace used his prodigious gifts as a writer […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Louder Is Very
BY AARON STELLA FRINGE CORRESPONDENT My plus one described Louder as post-apocalyptic primal therapy. Perhaps “therapy” is the wrong choice of words: I think “punishment” is more like it. Louder is not for the weak of heart, and very much for the hard of hearing. If you go, do yourself a favor and TAKE the complementary pair of earplugs offered at the ticket desk. As you settle yourself into the humid warehouse of the Blackbox Theater, take note of the phalanxes of antiquated Soviet Union megaphone horns staring you in the face. Also, you may notice that there are about […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Show Must Go On Is Must See
BY AARON STELLA FRINGE CORRESPONDENT The stage is dark. Two soundtracks have played their course, and still no sign of the dancers. Finally, in the middle of the third song, the lights flicker on, and the dancers, who look quite pedestrian, saunter on stage and are met with thunderous applause. What!?! They haven’t even done anything—wait, I’m applauding too—and now they’re just staring at us. What’s going on? Why is the audience having such a grand old time? Hmm. Now the fourth song has switched on: it’s “I like to move it. Move it.” After the first “Move it!” the […]
FRINGE PICK: One Louder
louder Verdensteatret Norwegian collaborative Verdensteatret presents the U.S. Premiere of louder, a highly experimental audiovisual installation that incorporates video art, sculptural scenery, puppetry, and live music at The Festival Bar’s black box theater (626 North 5th Street) located in Northern Liberties. (Word is, it’s visually stunning and damn loud, but you’ll get ear plugs.) Last winter, Verdensteatret sailed Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the same river that plays the veins and arteries around the heart of darkness in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Inspired by their journey, louder is a symphonic collage of music and visual art: massive video projections of the […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day
BY AARON STELLA FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Caged live canaries hang from the ceiling above an ominously lit stage; on the floor miniature electric trains thread through scattered piles of coal, winding and encircling and passing through tunnels. To the right side of the stage is Ivana Jozic, performer and partner choreographer to the interdisciplinary art-lion Jan Fabre. Clothed in a yellow sundress and cap, Jozic sits in a rocking chair and moves between kissing a suicide note and pressing it endearingly to her bosom. All this, and the performance hasn’t even started. As the performance begins, Jozic recites the suicide note, […]
FRINGE PICKS: The Melting Bridge To Nowhere
The show must go on Jérôme Bel France’s Jérôme Bel, one of the most sought after choreographers in the world, will set his Bessie Award-winning, internationally renowned contemporary dance epic, The show must go on, with a full cast of twenty Philadelphia-based dancers. The Philadelphia premiere marks the first time a U.S. cast has ever performed the piece, which will be held at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater (260 South Broad Street). The local cast includes dancers diverse in age, race and disciplines including classical ballet dancers from the Pennsylvania Ballet, hip-hop dancers from Rennie Harris Puremovement, and student performers […]
FRINGE PICKS: Delta Dawn
Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day Troubleyn/Jan Fabre Fabre’s rider specifies ten male canaries (the males sing) and one and a half tons of coal for the American premiere Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day. The only U.S. appearance will be right here in Philly at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (480 South Broad Street). In its recent debut at Festival d’Avignon, Le Monde called the piece “a haunting work of blues, leading us down a path that is uncertain, but beautiful.” Fabre, widely recognized as one the most provocative choreographers in contemporary dance today, has been acclaimed for his versatility and experimental […]
We Know It’s Only Soapbox Derby But We Like It
RACE TO THE BOTTOM: Redbull Soapbox Derby, Manayunk, Yesterday BY TIFFANY YOON It’s raining outside, no wait, it’s pouring, no wait, now the streets of Manayunk are flooding like we’re gonna need an ark. Somehow, this doesn’t stop hundreds of derby fans from coming out to watch Red Bull’s annual Soapbox Derby in Manayunk where man-powered Soapboxcars crash-but-don’t-burn or bob and weave between hay piles whilst careening down the The Wall. Most steep hills have at least a 10% grade, whereas The Wall has a 17% grade — and 500 meters of it. Red Bull hosts these Soap Box races […]
FRINGE INSTA-REVIEW: Stuporwoman
BY AARON STELLA FRINGE CORRESPONDENT In Stuporwoman, the audience is equipped with a hypersensitive stethoscope, and is asked to press it against the bosom of a mother and to listen closely. Together with an interdisciplinary troupe of performers, director and choreographer Tania Isaac renders the over-scheduled soul of a mother beleaguered by relentless cooking, cleaning, baby raising, and the unsatisfied want of a full night’s rest. The choreography riffs on the household duties of motherhood (one particularly memorable gesture was an exaggerated scrubbing motion; another was this slow-motion gait that was seductive, but pinched ). An eclectic score evokes a […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
FLEX TIME: Devil Girl, R. Crumb’s Underground Opening, ICA, Last Night [Photo by TIFFANY YOON] PREVIOUSLY: How Devil Girl Became Mrs. Natural BY JONATHAN VALANIA Almost everyone knows R. Crumb’s work whether they realize it or not. Keep On Truckin‘? You’re soaking in it. Cheap Thrills? You betcha. Big butts? He invented them. Devil doll glamazons offering piggyback rides to nebbishy four-eyed horn dogs? Sweet Jesus! Giddyup! (If none of this rings a bell, you would do well by renting Terry Zwigoff’s 1994 documentary, CRUMB.) Aline Kominsky-Crumb, his wife of 35 years, is not quite the household word her husband […]
FRINGE PICKS: Lemme Hear Your Body Talk
bodies in urban spaces Cie. Willi Dorner Vienna-based choreographer Willi Dorner makes his Festival debut with bodies in urban spaces, a free outdoor dance event that will travel through Philadelphia’s business district. Meet at LOVE Park and follow the dancers as they stack their bodies in and around Center City newsstands, fire escapes, and office buildings, creating a colorful trail of live human sculpture. Philly’s architectural landscape will never look the same again. Get your walking shoes on and be prepared to stand and walk during this performance. (9/5 at 12:30 & 7pm, 9/6 at 1pm, Begins at John F. […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Sweet By-And-By
BY AARON STELLA Unlikely rebel rabble-rouser Joe Hill, a Swedish immigrant and union songwriter of the early 20th century union strikes, takes center stage in the sepia spotlight of Dan Rothenberg’s Sweet By-and-By. False promises pervade Hill’s life: in his dealings with God, that he will always provide for and reward the righteous; the American dream, that the sweat of man’s brow is solely his, and cannot be cheated; and that all the working class needs do, according to land and factory owners, is to work harder and hustle longer (even if wages are cut) to alleviate their economic misery. […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR: Aleksandra Berczynski performs How Do I Love Me?, Pll Gallery, Fringe Fest, Last Night [Photos by ROZA FRYKOWSKA] “This theatrical experiment marks Aleksandra Berczynski’s Fringe acting debut with her minimalist one-woman show. Inspired by The Bard’s Sonnets, Berczynski explores the budding beauty, love, and artistic yearning of a young woman, discovering the most gorgeous thing…” MORE FRINGE PICKS: It’s A Bird! It’s A Plane! No, It’s…. stuporwoman Tania Isaac Dance Featuring the stunning, vibrant movement style of St. Lucia-born choreographer Tania Isaac, stuporwoman is an operatic and humorous fairytale of motherhood and parenting in the twenty-first […]