How to go
What: Cincinnati Fringe Festival
When: Starting June 1 and continues through June 11
Where: Downtown Cincinnati, Over the Rhine
Cost: $15-$225
More info: www.cincyfringe.com
The annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival bills itself as “kinda weird, just like you.” It is a weeklong celebration of experimental theater in which no medium, genre or historical figure/celebrity is safe.
The following is a small sample of the 50 productions by local and national artists converging onto downtown Cincinnati and the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood this and next week.
“Woody vs. Mia vs. Gwyneth vs. Coldplay”
In this comedy by writer/actor Daniel Glenn, two famous ex-couples — film director Woody Allen and actress Mia Farrow and actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin of the band Coldplay — interact and explore the vagaries of romantic relationships and their aftermaths.
“A few years ago, they enjoyed a Renaissance in the news at the same time,” Glenn said. “Gwyneth and Chris ‘consciously uncoupled’ at the same time Mia and (her son) Ronan started tweeting about Woody and the child abuse controversy. They represent opposite ends of the breakup spectrum, one bloodless (Paltrow-Martin), at least on the surface, and the other the worst possible. So I decided to put them all in a room.”
Glenn also elaborated on why Chris Martin isn’t dignified with his actual name: “Coldplay is more recognizable, and it’s funnier,” he said. “We call him that in the script. Besides, who else is in Coldplay? Can you name anyone else in the band?”
Glenn said the show is mostly satirical with some dark moments.
“(Stuff) Men Have Said: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Patriarchy”
One might easily think that nothing new can be said about the war between the sexes, but the ReVamp Collective, an experimental troupe based in Philadelphia, nonetheless hopes to have people “see it in a new way.”
The satirical premise is that audience members will be selected and slapped with a gender tag (meaning, for the purposes of the show, women can be men and vice versa) and be subjected to a training session to learn how to be “proper” men or women. The show explores classic gender issues as well as the more recent national dialogues, such as catcalling.
“It’s learning about the words you use, and how they can put someone in a box,” said Erin Carr, co-founder of ReVamp
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