Fringe!

I was thinking the other day about the steps of Fringe addiction.

First, you live in Minneapolis or St. Paul and know there's this thing called the Minnesota Fringe. Maybe you even know it happens in August.  You occasionally think about going, but there's so much and it's confusing and you might wind up having to watch mime.

Then, you have a friend with a show who hounds you into coming. So you see your friend's show and it's not bad and WOW it's cheap for live theater.

The next year you pay attention when your friends who go to Fringe talk about what's good and go to the thing they've been raving about.  Then, since you have a button and you're at a venue, you see something else you've heard about.  And the thing your friends told you was awesome is TOTALLY AWESOME and you really liked the other thing you saw, too.

So then the next year you realize that the people who staged that awesome thing from last year, have a NEW thing this year.  And the people who did that other thing you saw -- THEY have a new show, too.  And so you make plans to go to both, and while you're waiting in line you ask the people nearby whether there's anything else awesome you should see and then you go home and check the Fringe website for reviews and see a couple other things because they're reviewed so well.

And then the next year you've got this HUGE list of things you already know you want to see, and maybe you go to the Fringe for All previews and add a bunch more items to the list...

And eventually you buy an Ultrapass.

We don't have Ultrapasses yet but that's because of childcare issues.  

Anyway, reviews of everything I've seen so far are below the cut.  The short version: if you're in Minneapolis/St. Paul and you have kids, you should take them to "Story Time Time Bomb" and "Open and Affirming Fairy Tales."  

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Ed's reviews of the kid shows are here.