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| Jan, Sue, Mary Ann & me, with some actors in the background, before we knew what we were in for! |
I was intrigued by the description: “Four original 10-minute plays set in
actual cars, where you’ll experience the most intimate theatre of your life.”
It sounded like fun, and at the very worst, it’d be over in about 45 minutes!
So I corralled three of my friends to give this a try with me yesterday. Mary
Ann and Jan started in car #1, and Sue and I in car #2, but since the playlets
weren’t related, the order was irrelevant. The one thing that connected each of
them was the beginning and ending lines; for example, the last line of car #2,
“dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb” was picked up as the first line in car #3, with a
slight twist. It really was quite intimate – and sometimes uncomfortable, as
the actors either looked right at us, or yelled over us in the back seat. There
were some very funny moments, and also a few poignant ones.
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| Jan & Mary Ann in their last car |
The plays were written and acted primarily by local talent,
and one of the authors explained to us after the performances that they were
just meant to represent things that might happen in cars. Perhaps, but all of
these scenarios were definitely dramatic, and for the most part, parody of what
might actually happen in a car. Still, they were very entertaining. There are
more performances of the Dashboard Dramas – the festival goes through next
weekend – if you’re looking for something that really feels fringy.
The Rochester Fringe Festival is in its third year, and
continues to grow in the number of events it offers (although many of the
performances are local college a cappella groups – I wouldn’t classify them as
‘fringe’). It is still primarily a ‘by and for’ Rochester festival, and doesn’t
take over the entire city, as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival does, but the
latter has decades of experience, with 2600 shows over 25 days, compared with
Rochester’s 300+ shows over 10 days. But it’s very exciting, and a bit daunting,
to have this much artistic activity happening all at once downtown.
We were lucky with the weather this weekend, and I hope we
will be next weekend, as well, for the free outdoor performance of Edgar Lee
Masters’ Spoon River Anthology. Look for
me in the Spiegelgarden (parking lot at Gibbs & Main) – I decided it would
be fun to participate in the festival this year!
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