Day 1 -- 10 p.m. Time Slot

Show: Alex the Boy Scout (and other stories)

Company: Topsy-Turvy Theater

Venue: UofM Rarig Center - Xperimental

Die Roll: 15

I'm not going to get very far into this review without saying it...so I'm going to right off the bat. This was the best show I saw on the first day of the Fringe.

Again I was in the house with Matthew Everret and Phillip Low... I'm starting to think this dice thing isn't random enough... This can't keep happening, can it?

Anyway... this show was made up of 5 10-minute plays. The 10-minute is essentially the short story of the playwriting genre, and is particularly close to my heart, as it is the type of play that I most often write.

That being said, I also read a lot of them, and see a lot of them. And when an idea is copied directly from one of the classics in the field, I happen to notice. What I'm referring to is the first of the five, which might as well have been written by David Ives, or lifted directly from Ives's play "Sure Thing." Many playwrights have copied that play and fit their ten-minute piece into a sub-genre I like to call a "ding play" in which action happens, then a bell dings and the world resets for a nother go at it. Not too original, and commonly written by first time playwrights while still undergrads. So... this show didn't start off strong.

BUT... The in the four plays that followed, playwright Nathan Morse redeemed himself. His strongest scene was one revolving around a woman at a computer, played by Dawn Krosnowski (the woman, not the computer). The computer talks back to her and hilarity ensues. I don't want to ruin it for you. Let's just say I was laughing very hard... my tummy hurt.

My second fave was a retelling of "Romeo and Juliet." This gimmick has been done a hundred times before, but Morse write is solidly, and more importantly Aaron Aoki and Noemi Lopez act it superbly.

The other two scenes are funny as well. The one thing that depressed me a bit about the show was that Jessica Knapp, one of the company's stand-bys in times past, and a woman who was in "A Flea in Her Ear" with me at Rosetown Playhouse, was not on stage nearly enough. She is a strong stage presence and funny... her role as narrator didn't really use her to her fullest potential.

Ten word summary: Five short plays. Very Funny. Like David Ives...Laughed lots!

RATING: "d10 - Worth Going To"