Reviews

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3 cast members, including Ross Beschler with his back to the camera, strike different poses on a bay shore at sunset.

Philly Fringe 2024: Die-Cast Ensemble presents Tennessee Williams’s Suddenly Last Summer

Resurrecting Tennessee Williams
Die-Cast Ensemble creates a gripping, immersive production of Suddenly Last Summer, anchored by Ross Beschler’s thrilling performance as an authorial stand-in. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
Cameron Kelsall

Cameron Kelsall

Reviews 3 minute read
Johnson, in a dark jumpsuit, makes a grieving gesture while their image and their shadows project large behind them.

Philly Fringe 2024: Laurel Johnson presents Grief Astronomer

Holding space for dark matter
Laurel Johnson’s Grief Astronomer, part of the Cannonball Festival in the 2024 Philly Fringe, journeys through childhood trauma, disability, and the cosmos. Melissa Strong reviews.
Melissa Strong

Melissa Strong

Reviews 3 minute read
Scammell and Sheppard, in red athletic polos, embrace romantically while Minora looks on worriedly in the background.

Philly Fringe 2024: Lightning Rod Special presents Lee Minora and Scott R. Sheppard’s Nosejob

Off by a nose
Football, feminism, and facial mutilation collide in Nosejob, an ambitious but uneven exploration of sexual politics from Lightning Rod Special in this year's Curated Fringe. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
Cameron Kelsall

Cameron Kelsall

Reviews 3 minute read
Cousar, a Black man dressed in black, sits sternly in a red upholstered chair in front of an old, graffitied stone wall.

Philly Fringe 2024: New Paradise Laboratories presents Jeffrey Cousar’s An Avalanche of ‘No’

More memoir than Macbeth
Jeffrey Cousar’s An Avalanche of ‘No’ in the Cannonball hub of this year’s Fringe is a one-man riff on Macbeth that, despite its sincerity, fails to fully engage in the implications of its
conceit. Kiran Pandey reviews.
Kiran Pandey

Kiran Pandey

Reviews 3 minute read
A group of dancers hold up another dancer in a dim space with deep purple lighting

Philly Fringe 2024: Cannonball Festival presents Tyshaun & Shekinah’s Forbidden Fruit

Fruit growing on the vine
Tyshaun & Shekinah’s Forbidden Fruit, a circus-dance work about Black experiences, is part of Cannonball’s inaugural Black Circus Week. Melissa Strong reviews.
Melissa Strong

Melissa Strong

Reviews 3 minute read
A woman dancer in a green shirt and loose striped pants poses in the doorway of the meeting house, a brick wall behind her.

Philly Fringe 2024: Nichole Canuso Dance Company presents The Garden: River’s Edge

A much-needed moment of peace
Nichole Canuso Dance Company joins the 2024 Curated Philly Fringe with The Garden: River’s Edge, an immersive, interactive performance at the historic Arch Street Meeting House. Camille Bacon-Smith reviews.
Camille Bacon-Smith

Camille Bacon-Smith

Reviews 3 minute read
In a 17th-century graveyard, a Black woman with a blond buzz-cut caresses a younger Black woman sitting in a chair.

Philly Fringe 2024: Christ Church Preservation Trust presents On Buried Ground

Uncovering and imagining Philly’s Black colonial-era histories
A meditation on Black lives in colonial Philadelphia comes to life in a Fringe Festival event featuring archival research, site-specific dance, theater, visual art, and historic documents. Kimberly Haas reviews.

Kimberly Haas

Reviews 3 minute read
In a dramatic misty blue spotlight, a man rises animalistically, bent over with elbows angled up out of a well of viscous goo

Philly Fringe 2024: Gunnar Montana Productions presents BLACK WOOD: WINTERBORN

Gothic horror returns to the Latvian Society
Gunnar Montana returns for this year’s Fringe with a standalone sequel to last year’s BLACK WOOD. The bloody, sexy sorcery continues with WINTERBORN, running through Wednesday, October 30, at the Latvian Society. Camille Bacon-Smith reviews.
Camille Bacon-Smith

Camille Bacon-Smith

Reviews 3 minute read
In dramatic red light, Caporaso lurks behind a pillar with the 3 brides behind him. They all wear smudged black eye makeup.

Philly Fringe 2024: REV Theatre Company presents MY BIG FANG VAMPIRE WEDDING

Singing vampires don’t suck
For this year’s cabaret-style Fringe entry, REV Theatre Company takes over a basement nightclub with MY BIG FANG VAMPIRE WEDDING, boasting great music and committed performers. Melissa Strong reviews.
Melissa Strong

Melissa Strong

Reviews 3 minute read
The 3 actors, in black and purple tennis outfits, pose in a line, each making a different gesture with their arms.

Philly Fringe 2024: Hum’n’Bards presents The Boy Bands Have Won and Thomas Choinacky presents Forehand Down the Line

Labor on stage: two different visions of work
This year, two Philly Fringe shows offered two distinct explorations of performance art made in queer community: The Boy Bands Have Won from Hum’n’bards Theater Troupe and Thomas Choinacky’s Forehand Down the Line. Josh Herren reviews.
Josh Herren

Josh Herren

Reviews 3 minute read