Fringe Picks for Closing Weekend
Be not troubled, for all things must pass but the end has not yet come. We’ve all had a great Fringe so far and the fun continues. Though many shows have already concluded, some are just beginning.
Here’s so picks for what to see on the Fringe’s final weekend!
manger
Boris Charmatz
Whet your appetite with manger, a delectable work by French choreographer Boris Charmatz (Levée des conflits, 2016 Fringe Festival) that implores audiences to examine the nature of eating, of digesting information, of consuming. In manger (French for “to eat”), he sets bodies in motion not with the eyes, or with the limbs, but with the mouth.
Presented in partnership with Westphal College of Media Arts & Design as part of Philadelphia Museum of Dance.
September 22 + 23 at 8pm
More info + tickets
In Plain Air
International Contemporary Ensemble
A 3,000-pipe organ, centuries-old bells as they are heard in the belfry, an orchestra of pipe whistles, community-built music boxes: the sounds of In Plain Air carry the audience through the campus and history of one of the nation’s most historic sites.
Presented in partnership with Christ Church Preservation Trust
September 22 at 1pm, 3:30pm + 6pm
September 23 at 3:30pm + 6pm
More info + tickets
ear-whispered: works by Tania El Khoury
Tania El Khoury
Working between Lebanon and the United Kingdom, Tania El Khoury meticulously crafts innovative performances and installations that engage the audience in multi-sensory interaction. Unlike more conventional theater and performance, El Khoury’s live art work comes alive through the audience’s interaction with it. An extensive survey of El Khoury’s art, ear-whispered: works by Tania El Khoury presents five pieces at locations in Old City and at Bryn Mawr College, all of which have performances or gallery hours this weekend.
Presented in partnership with Bryn Mawr College
More info + tickets
Company
EgoPo Classic Theater
Bring your blanket and pillow for a Beckett slumber party. EgoPo remounts their 2009 Fringe hit, which sold out in five cities. An immersive sensory experience, you are blindfolded on your back in the dark, the haunting text whispered in your ear. Free cookies and milk.
September 20 +21 at 7pm + 9pm
September 22 at 3pm, 5pm + 8pm
September 23 at 3pm + 5pm
More info + tickets
Circadium Presents: Autopilot & Galactic Garden Party
Circadium
Double bill: Autopilot is a circus-based examination of how life’s instructions are given, taught, or learned, and how we navigate life with and without those instructions. Galactic Garden Party utilizes juggling, dance, scientific lectures, and theater to show the wonders of Earth, and what lies beyond the atmosphere in the cosmos.
September 21-23 at 8pm
More info + tickets
a PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION (of the EFFECTS of KINESTHETIC OCULAR NEURO-PSYCHOLOGY and its POTENTIAL as an AID in the DISCOVERY of SELF)
Fred Brown / Philly Improv Theater
Your eyes are your window to the world. They are also the world’s window to you. Enter a world of seeing your own mind, as Dr. Rhampon Stietger—using music to keep time—introduces kinesthetic neuropsychology as a tool to unlock deeply imprinted images, feelings, associations, and fantasies.
September 20 + 21 at 7pm
September 22 at 3:30pm + 7pm
More info + tickets
Pillow Talk
The Footlights International Tour Show, Pillow Talk brings together the brightest stars of student comedy, whose assembled forces deliver fresh, witty and downright funny sketches, monologues and songs. You can expect free-flowing hilarity, excellent original writing and side-splitting character comedy, so don’t miss your chance to see this inventive new offering from the group that launched many comedy greats, including Stephen Fry, Sue Perkins, David Mitchell, Richard Ayoade and Mel Giedroyc.
September 20 +21 at 8pm
More info + tickets
Heightened Sight
Heighten your senses with Leslie Elkins of foursome performance and Tap Team Two. Leslie Elkins of foursome performance will accentuate transitional spaces in Embracing the Liminal. Tap Team Two utilizes Hoofing, the original style of tap dance, as a means to educate audiences on the history of tap. Hoofing is an American art form that evolved from the roots of Irish clogging, African dance, and street and social dances of the early 20th century. Tap Team Two will showcase vibrant sounds in Cadence of Color. Get ready to feel provocative images, see in-between states, and hear color spectra.
September 22 at 4pm + 7pm
More info + tickets
Paprika Plains Natalie Fletcher / Jessica Noel
Sisters Natalie Fletcher and Jessica Noel will take you back in time to tell a story of love, loss, and bargaining with the universe inspired by Joni Mitchell’s 1977 album Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter. Told through live body painting and dance-theater, with lighting design by John Noel and music by Joni Mitchell. Philly PACK is an artistic home for dance- and theater-loving children and adults, located in South Philadelphia. Philly PACK is proud to welcome visiting artist Natalie Fletcher. Natalie is a Portland-based body-painter who won Skin Wars season 1.
September 21+22 at 8pm
More info + tickets
Darlings Kill Us Please
Good Good Comedy Theatre
The first Fringe production from Good Good Comedy Theatre, Philadelphia’s home for mercilessly unpredictable independent comedy. Darlings: Kill Us Please guts the innards of a full year’s worth of shows from Darlings, Good Good Comedy Theatre’s monthly, fast-paced comedy shit show featuring brand new bits, live music and special guests, and leaves in only the juiciest bits and chunks.
September 20 at 8pm
September 21 at 8pm, 10pm + midnight
September 22 at 2pm, 8pm + 10pm
More info + tickets
Metal & Kind’s Indestructible Flowers
Lily Kind and Mark “Metal” Wong
Metal is unexpectedly soft. Kind is unabashedly sharp. Together, they present a collage of new solo work designed for folks secretly underwhelmed by new solo work. Metal and Kind are both multidisciplinary powerhouses working in and around social and folk dance, devised dance theater, and experimental storytelling.
September 22 + 23 at 7pm
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Shelter
Drip Symphony
Shelter is the story of a group of artists living together in an abandoned theater, brought together by a shared sense of artistic integrity. It follows their lives as they create prolifically while their dreams and delusions grow wild inside their home. The show explores the value of art, the nature of creation, and the power of physical boundaries to shape our realities. Presented by Drip Symphony and Plays & Players, Shelter uses an immersive design where the entire theater is transformed into performance space, and the audience, seated on stage and scattered throughout the house, lives among the action.
September 20-22 at 8pm
More info + tickets
Curious: Think Outside the Pipeline (Music for Children and Other Curious People in the Fringe Guide)
Ants on a Log
Curious: Think Outside the Pipeline tells the musical story of Clio and her sibling Taylor as they strive to organize their town. With the help of a songful community, a dancing pencil, and you, dear audience, they strive for big change, even in the face of some bigger, more powerful people.
September 22 at 11am
More info + tickets
A New Kind of Whole
Paige Zubel & Eleanor Sofer
Written by Paige Zubel and directed by Claris Park, A New Kind of Whole is a surrealistic exploration of identity through sexuality and the relationship between the mind and the body. As Lea navigates the line between what is real and what is a projection of her deteriorating mental health, reality distorts and blurs.
September 20 at 7pm
September 21 at 8pm
September 22 at 3pm
More info + tickets
Tango, Tarantella and Tutus
The Rock School for Dance Education
Exciting, energetic young talent from around the world perform classical and contemporary vignettes that will keep you on the edge of your seat! Alumni from The Rock School go on to join the most prestigious dance companies worldwide. See the dance stars of tomorrow, today!
September 22 at 1:30pm
More info + tickets