John

IndyFringe: ‘Autumn Takes a Tumble’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Defiance Comedy presents “A F*@#ing Fairytale” — that’s right, with many, many F-words. IT IS NOT FOR CHILDREN. (Though the cast do act quite immature.)

Remember all the nice wonderful characters Betsy Norton has played around Indy? Pfft, “F” that! She’s a total bitch in this one, reveling in her misbehavior as the title character. But a bonk on the head brings her to Fairyland, where she is told she must change her ways or the good fairies there will die.

They are so totally screwed.

There are songs — despite Autumn’s best efforts to stop them — with titles like “Fairy Bangin'” (yes, it’s about what you think it’s about), and a plot involving meeting weird characters and going up a road to a castle that in no way rips off a popular film, I’m sure. If you have a sophomoric sense of humor, like I do, you’ll enjoy this ensemble, who are actually way too talented for sh!t like this, provide one of the most outrageous, hilarious hours of entertainment at the Fringe.

The performance I went to was packed, so expect big crowds at the remaining shows, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at the IndyFringe Basile (mainstage) Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St. (just east of the Mass Ave. and College intersection).

IndyFringe: ‘Broadway’s Leading Ladies: A Tribute’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Presented by Dustin Klein and Tom Alvarez and their Magic Thread Cabaret, “Broadway’s Leading Ladies” is a rousing revue sung by local divas Shelbi Berry, Rayanna Bibbs and Virginia Vasquez.

From the moment the trio get to “work” on a hit from “Hamilton,” we are treated to one powerful performance after another. You’ll want Vasquez to “Gimme, Gimme” more, see Berry “Defying Gravity,” and be reassured that Bibbs is “…Not Going.” Yes, as the latter song says, you’re gonna love them.

Kudos also to the three-piece band of Klein, Greg Gegogeine and Greg Wolff, as well as Austin Schlenz for his on-stage assistance.

No tables at this cabaret, on the third floor of the Firehouse union hall (748 Mass Ave.), but we don’t care — they would only get in the way of the standing ovation.

IndyFringe: ‘Haunted – Tales Told and True’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Fringe audiences should be familiar with Loren Niemi, as he has been to past festivals telling stories with a political bent. This year, joined by fellow master storyteller Laura Packer, they choose not to frighten us with the occupant of the White House, but with more traditional forms of Ghost Stories.

Including tales some have sworn are true!

The pair take turns narrating their chillers, with different stories at each show. One is so original, in fact, that with suggestions from the audience, it is made up right on the spot — or is it? Niemi is so good, the story he improvised at the performance I saw sounded like it had been told for generations.

Packer likes to research local ghost lore in every town she visits, and I — a haunted Irvington resident — had not heard the one she told about a little store on North Meridian near Crown Hill. She also spoke about living in haunted houses — no doubt she’ll have something just as fascinating for you.

No campfire to sit around — it is the Firehouse union hall after all — but a nice time for those who don’t mind braving the bumps in the night.

IndyFringe: ‘Intrusion’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

In an America where one of the horrors of civilization is believed to be long vanquished, an insomniac looks across the street at the nearby hospital to see an injured woman enter. Curious, she goes closer and hears a word that chills her — Rape!

In the utopia of “Intrusion,” (now also an Off-Broadway show) written and performed by Qurrat Ann Kadwani, there has been no report of sexual assault in 20 years. This first person — a bystander who becomes an activist — is one of eight characters Kadwani presents coming to terms with this new world that is starting to feel like the old one — a/k/a the one we unfortunately live in now. Among them, a reporter feels the chill of getting the story of a generation, a prosecutor worries the rape trial will be a career killer, a psychologist tries to address such an emotionally fraught topic with clinical detachment, a politician laments that this is coming up during an election year, and a third-grader just wants to be told what’s going on.

Can something so insidiously imbedded in our culture be “cured, like polio”? Kadwani easily slips from one persona to another, as the mood gets more and more uneasy. A lone “outlier” rape accusation inspires more women speaking up. Many more. While some are concerned for public safety, still others don’t like these events upsetting — perhaps negating — the status quo they invested so much in. The fragile nature of our social construction is revealed in a popular game.

Kadwani brings us an excellently written and executed one-woman show. My more critical inner voice couldn’t help but consider that this was just one more “issue play.” The stories of personal pain, the stark statistics of the pervasiveness of sexual assault in America and worldwide — I have heard them all before, so many times. But to our horror and shame, that fact is very much the point.

Make this New Yorker feel welcome; performances are in the first floor of the Firehouse union hall, 748 Mass Ave.

IndyFringe: ‘There Ain’t No More!’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Commonly portrayals of “hillbilly” culture are presented ironically or mockingly — you’ll have none of that here. This one-person drama of an old folk singer raging against the dying of the light presents the Ozarks of Arkansas, dirt roads and all, with utmost respect.

One would expect nothing less from Fayetteville, Ark., resident Willi Carlisle, a University of Arkansas graduate who has performed at the Ozark Folk Center, as well as numerous folk and Fringe events. In “There Ain’t No More!” he shows his mastery of guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonica and accordion as his dying alter ego looks back on and relives his eventful life.

A young man falls in love with the music as much as the girls at a square dance, then pursues the music of rural America all the way to Vietnam, where his efforts to entertain the troops confront the horrors of war that greet his USO band. Concluding his days in the hills of the Heartland, the folkie wonders what kind of legacy he will leave, terrified the music will die with him. And that pisses him off.

No doubt you’ve seen word of the Best of Fringe awards he garnered elsewhere. Well, this is one show that lives up to the hype. A local actor seated behind me told her companion after the show: “That right there is the whole ball of wax!”

Carlisle — the nicest person to meet offstage — is a towering talent (and not just because he’s six-foot tall) who still connects with audiences practically on a soul level. You experience the story as much as see and hear it, aided by his part-time use of a mask and a clever scroll he unwinds to help tell his tale.

I find myself at a loss to describe better how and why this show is so awesome, and not just because I’m from Arkansas, too (did feel a little homesick, I’ll admit). Don’t just take my word for it, ask the crowds that have seen it, or are gathering for the remaining performances at the IndyFringe Basile (mainstage) Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St.

IndyFringe: ‘Beneath the Surface’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

When you first see what is going on — kids barely out of middle school coming on stage to present a show they developed about difficult issues they think about and face — I couldn’t help but mentally lower the bar and pray this wasn’t like that bad SNL skit of naive kids presenting awkward “awareness” scenes.

Now I must apologize to them, and ask that you, too, give this show a chance. Beneath the Surface of “Beneath the Surface,” by Sugar Creek Players Youth Troupe, is earnest searching for understanding, and expression of what the world is like when you are 14 or 15, no longer child but not quite adult — you remember, right? What we see is bravery beyond the tamping down of stage fright.

Budding comic Liberty Owens is “Conscious,” the narrator and facilitator of our look into four archetypal characters: Veronica the young activist, Alex the “jerk,” Jasper the poet (who is on the Autism spectrum) and Juana the Mexican immigrant. Drawing conclusions about them yet? Please note the title of the play — yes, these kids have layers.

I ask you cooperate with Conscious — she’s a little silly, and prone to telling groaner-jokes (could you do better at her age?) — but she is only helping us understand our subjects as they strive to understand themselves, and each other. So when she asks which person’s story you want to see continue, speak up and suggest someone; they are all intriguing, and sharply presented with earnest emotion.

Just as the film “Eighth Grade” is now bringing this crucial point in our lives to the national conversation, you get to see something of this in person, developed and performed by local teens. Note some hard issues are addressed, and it doesn’t have an artificially happy end — in fact, as in the real world, struggles continue. But if you came to see a Fringe show, here’s a doggone Fringe show. My troubled teen self of years past salutes them.

Isabella de Assis-Wilson as Juana is joined by Sara Adams (Veronica), Terran McCarty (Alex) and Evan Baldwin (Jasper) for the Tuesday, Aug. 21, performance. Remaining performances feature Sonora Kay (Veronica), Sara Adams (Alex) and Austin Coon (Jasper). All are on the main stage of the District Theatre (formerly Theatre on the Square), 627 Mass Ave.

IndyFringe: ‘Atlanta Burning, Sherman’s Shadows’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

“I do what I must, rather than what I wish,” laments Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union commander during the Civil War (in)famous for his scorched-earth March to the Sea in 1864, an effort to shorten the war (which did end the next year) by bringing its horrors to the civilian population of Georgia.

Playwright Lance Sherman Belville, a descendant of the general, presents an insight into the man’s thinking as he relates his plans to a trusted assistant and his general staff shortly before his fiery assault on Atlanta. We learn of his past relationship with Robert E. Lee (a classmate at West Point), his longing for his lost son, and his desire to not repeat what he saw as the greater tragedy of the siege of Vicksburg.

The show’s director, Lynn Lohr, plays the Major who Sherman uses as his sounding board, his “fool” to tell him what is wrong with the plans he is nevertheless determined to execute.

We also have a young Private, portrayed by Connor Buhl — who also plays a Union soldier in reenactments and at Connor Prairie. This, plus being the only player in full period uniform, makes him the most interesting and compelling character. He plays harmonica, and engages the audience without breaking character before the show, leading us in songs of the era.

The playwright plays his great-great uncle, holding and reading from the script that he (as Beville) says he is “still revising.” It’s a curious and brave choice, but he often stumbles over his own words, marring what is otherwise a highly-recommended living history lesson.

If you can ignore the papers in the playwright’s hand, or at least see them as reports or correspondence or maps in Gen. Sherman’s, sit back with some hardtack (provided) and get a new perspective on the story you may only know from a long-ago high school lesson or scene from “Gone With the Wind.” Performances are at the Indyfringe Basile (main) Stage at 719 St. Clair St., near the intersection of Mass Ave. and College.

IndyFringe: ‘The Truth*’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

To tell The Truth: Will the real benevolent dictator please stand up?

The clowns of A Muse Zoo are the kind of red-nose folks who speak, telling their Truth with jesters’ license. One puts on the furrowed brow of a professor, relating the True story of an imaginary land:

You may not know of the country of Kundnanibonbar, as it was just discovered. Four different neighboring tyrants looked over their border with it and each decided to take the land and its resources for his or her own purposes…

But this lecture is often interrupted, as the teacher leaves the room, allowing each ruler in turn to step in and tell us their Truth.

So, whose Truth will prevail: the flower girl, the cheese smuggler, the mole-person, or the boy prince?

(Aside: In an appropriately bizarre coincidence, during the weekend we are presented with this comic allegory of how history is written by the victors, there are reports that the President’s lawyer is declaring that every person has their own Truth, so what is The Truth anyway?)

In the Fringe show, “The Truth*,” aside from all the thinky content, we get very funny and entertaining performances, with all manner of silliness from whimsy to slapstick to melodrama. Note the bees are not real, but there is use of a strobe light. – So, that’s my Truth.

Therefore be careful with your soup, and listen to the turtle on your shoulder when he tells you to see A Muse Zoo at 9 p.m. tonight (Monday, Aug. 20) at the IndyFringe Indy Eleven Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, just off Mass Ave. and College, in their last show before returning to Oregon.

And that’s The Truth.

Indyfringe: ‘Too Old to be This Young’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Laura Hedli recounts for us the year she lost her virginity – at age 26.

She hadn’t intended to wait so long. She just wanted the big moment to mean something, and other aspects of her life took up her time. Her writing career, for instance, which with a full-time part-time gig finally made her a ghost writer – to a ghost writer – to her boss. But behold, this job also comes with a hot coworker, and he is very interested in her. Though he seems like a bit of a tool to us listening to Laura’s story, he is just the thing to fix her undamaged virtue.

And the book that she is ghost-ghost writing? It’s on “age management medicine” for middle-aged and older men, especially testosterone therapy. This, naturally, leads to necessary research (including interviews) and writing on sex – you know, that thing she finally got to experience two days ago.

She also notes that the stable of writers she’s in hires young, and that as she approaches 30, she could “age out” of the age management business.

All this makes what could have been a mildly interesting workplace anecdote into an engaging hour of storytelling, with Laura slipping into a couple of characters including her boss, a randy Swedish man, and her beau, the man she calls “Broken.” It makes for a unique perspective on aging and how we confront and defy it. Come listen and see how well she expresses herself under her own name, as we explore whether a year of one’s life is worth reaching a significant personal milestone – and six words in a book’s Acknowledgements.

Laura relates her story one more time for us, 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 20, at the IndyFringe Indy Eleven Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, just off Mass Ave. and College.

IndyFringe: ‘Betsy Carmichael’s BINGO Palace’

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This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Heavens to Betsy! Talk about a limited engagement, the Bingo Palace has only one more day in Indianapolis — today, Sunday, Aug. 19, at the Parish Hall also known as the IndyFringe Indy Eleven theatre.

For the lucky souls who see this in time, here’s what you can expect: A lovely lady (some call her a drag, but she’s plenty upbeat to me) who hosts an event of actual Bingo games with actual prizes, as well as fun interludes including a couple of audience members making their own good-luck charms. As her ex-brother-in-law calls out the numbers, she adds the traditional Bingo Hall call-and-responses, in which we must all join in. Just remember, it’s not “G 54, Where are You,” but G (Studio) 54, the Ellen-style dance break. And on other numbers ending in 4, watch out for “candy store”!

Interactive theatre is rarely this fun; it would be a shame to miss it.

(Here’s the review of her 2017 appearance.)