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Monday, July 20, 2009

Thing 55: Fringe, Revisited

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Fringe makes DC a better place to live and visit.


My Fabulous Sex Life makes Fringe a better festival.

Yes, we are in the last throws of the Capital Fringe Festival but there is still time to see some excellent theater, and I'd like to recommend that you see the final performance of My Fabulous Sex Life, starring Brent Stansell. If you can beg, borrow or steal a ticket to the sold out show.

Full disclosure: Brent Stansell, whose fabulous sex life is center stage, is a very dear friend of mine. We've known each other nine years, and God help me but I was actually witness to one of the stories he tells during the performance. But I'm fairly certain that my relationship to Brent is not clouding my judgement that this show is brave, funny, well-paced, and at times heart-breakingly poignant. Which are all the elements of a proper Fringe show.

Brent spends the evening revealing the most intimate details of his fabulous (and sometimes not fabulous) sex life. Guided through the show by slides that set the scene or announce the theme, Brent tells us about the sex parties, glory holes, online sites and forgettable encounters he's had in the pursuit of sexual gratification and connection. Sometimes those two pursuits overlap, and sometimes they decidedly don't, but Brent soldiers forward, stripping away the stigma that comes with sex for sex' sake, but also exposing his own vulnerabilities and loneliness.

I'm so very proud of you Brent, for being so brave.

I'll also put out another recommendation for It's Not Easy Being Green, starring another dear friend of mine, Ms. Mary C. Davis.

But even if you assume I am biased and untrustworthy, I do hope that you go out and see something before Fringe closes. There are too many wonderful, unexpected and exciting shows going on not to.


1 comments:

sprite said...

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll check out when they're playing. And in return I'll share a tip of my own:

I recommend catching The Quick Brown Fox Jumped over the Lazy Dogs by Michael Merino. I'd seen a reading of it several years ago and was concerned that now that the White House is occupied by someone more articulate that the play, a satire about language and its uses and misuses, would seem dated. However, Michael (a friend of mine, FWIW) had taken that into account and updated the play to reflect current politicians and situations. I thought the outcome was both laugh-inducing and thought-provoking and well worth the cost of admission.