Reviews by Alan Jozwiak
Greetings Cincy Fringers!
Cincinnati Fringe Reviews
This was a very full weekend for me. I saw eight Cincinnati Fringe Festival shows, attended my Classics Book Club (we read A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, an amazing and timely play), and saw Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. (Jaja’s has some strong performances as well as some funny and poignant moments.)
As with my other reviews, several shows earn high designations. Top Picks are for shows that are must-see shows that blew me away with their performance or presentation. There are a number of other shows that I liked, and are definitely worthwhile seeing, which did not completely blow me away. I’m creating the designation of See This Show because they are still some of the best of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
The Campfireball by Cory Howard at First Lutheran Sanctuary
Howard is a graduate of the East Tennessee State University’s Storytelling program and his show The Campfireball draws on what he learned while at that program. This show aims to place the audience at the center of the performance through a variety of different activities designed to celebrate the audience’s own experience.
This means that Howard is not so much a storyteller, but a facilitator of telling the stories of the audience. For his preshow, Howard passes out Wolf Hearts to his audience, red felt hearts with a pocket for a glowing light. I assume these are to give the audience the courage to tell their tale.
Bold Choices
Howard also makes some bold choices for this show. He is dressed in a vintage powder blue suit similar to what you might wear to an old-time prom or desire to cosplay the 1970s TV game show host Wink Martindale. His show consists of a number of different bits where he leads the audience through different experiences. He has an audience member call up someone they know to say open the start of the show. He also has all of the audience text him to list different experiences related to work. Streamers and bells also enter into the mix, along with his monster sound effect machine Jennifer. There are some fun and interesting sections where I was engaged in places, but I did not see how the show’s elements were building up to a major point.
I met him earlier in the week and I can tell he is a stand-up fringe artist who is thoughtful and constructs his show with care. We also had a really long debriefing at the Fringe After Hours about his show and I got to understand the philosophy behind its creation.
Each Show is Different
The experiences may be different for each set of audiences. Howard is constantly refining and tweaking his show based on audience reaction, so if you go to see this show, your experience will be different from mine.
While it did not satisfy me, The Campfireball is a show for those who want a more active role within their Fringe shows, as well as those who want to experiment and just have fun.
Alan’s Cincinnati Fringe Top Pick—WINNING: Winning by Sweet Action Theatre Company at Coffee Emporium
This solo clown/magic show by Gordon Neill is one in which Neill’s character learns to overcome his fears. As he tries to reach this goal, there is an animated figure of motivational self-help guru Tony Robbins offering sage advice and support. (Kudos for Neill for creating such a wonderfully strong slide show with the animated Robbins. It channels some Monty Python style animation).
There are several things that make this show different. The first thing is that Neill is silent for a majority of the performance. There is a place where he breaks his silence to self-disclose something about himself.
The second thing is that the audience is very much part of the action of the show. Neill is constantly pulling people from all parts of the audience to participate in his show. I like to sit in the front row (I have bad tall-audience-member karma; tall audience members ALWAYS love to sit in front of me, no matter where I go) and I was called up to be part of the red rose ceremony to choose a prospective mate, lampooning dating reality television.
Things are Not as They Seem
The third thing about this show is that things are not always what they seem.
Even the humor is in service to something else. At the start of the show, there are lots of goofy comedic bits. For instance, Neill is wearing an Elizabethan dog collar, or plastic cone. He does an amazingly funny bit to get a cupcake past the collar and into his mouth. There are also some magic card tricks and a talk show routine that I found hilarious. Kudos for LCT’s Liz Eichler for being an amazing “talk show guest.” This humor gets grounded at the end of the show when Neill confesses to the audience. It puts all the other things which happen in the show into a larger context.
Overall
Overall, WINNING: Winning is an amazing show with heart and humor. WINNING: Winning will appeal to your inner clown or inner athlete who wants finally to win that gold medal. You have Tony Robbins’ guarantee that it will happen.
La Luna Verde/The Green Moon by Gabriel Martinez Rubio and Dos Corazones Productions at Gabriel’s Corners
La Luna Verde/The Green Moon has all the earmarks of what I am looking for within a Fringe show: shadow puppets, interpretive dances, and the poetry of famed Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca recited in both Spanish and English. Unfortunately, the show needs a bit more work to really reach its intended audience—children. There really isn’t an entry point for the children to get into the show itself, either through a character or dancer that they might identify with. I saw a few children squirming about halfway through the show.
The dancing in La Luna Verde/The Green Moon is quite good. I like the red fan dance where the dancers snap their fans to imitate the fluttering of birds. There is also a great shadow puppet sequence with the fluttering of birds in the trees that is particularly arresting. However, the show also has some shadow puppets that did not really contribute to the telling of the poetry or dance, such as with the bull fighting shadow puppets.
Overall
Overall, with more development, this could be something that can engage younger audiences.
NOTE: The show runs about 45 minutes, giving about 15 minutes for members of the audience to cut out, color, and play with their own shadow puppet. I cut out a salamander and enjoyed seeing what it takes to make all of the shadow puppets I’ve seen over the last two weekends.
Alan’s Cincinnati Fringe Top Pick—Perspectivation by Jim Sorge at Miami University Space
Perspectivation is a recorded ten-to-twelve-minute dance set that is seen through a virtual reality (VR) headset. Because Sorge has only one VR headset, only one person can see the show at a time.
I saw the show on Saturday, and was the first in line. While I was getting situated into the VR Headset, about three or four other people quickly lined up after me. Be certain to arrive early. There are no tickets and no fixed cost to see the show. (If you want, you can donate to Sorge through a Venmo QR code).
Things to Know before You See Perspectivation
Here are some things which I wished I would have known before going (as I am new to VR):
- The recording of the dance pieces happens around a circular table. Dancers are all around you and you may have to move your swivel seat around to see what is happening behind or to one side of you.
- As mentioned above, the swivel seat can go 360 degrees around. I was trying to keep pace with one of my dancers and swiveled too fast. I felt a twinge of nausea which quickly passed. Sorge mentions that you can take off the headset if you need to during the dance piece.
- You do not need to have your glasses on while seeing the show. I am nearsighted and had no problems seeing things without my glasses.
- You will sign a waiver and put on a hair net and facial covering where the VR Headset rests on your face. Since it was not a hot day, both were manageable.
- The VR dance piece runs on a continuous loop. It will go back to the first number after someone sits down with a red cushion, which is your cue to end watching.
As to the experience itself, I really enjoyed trying to figure out where to look for the dancers and got into the experience. The VR camera was in the center of the circular table, so it felt as though they were almost dancing around me. While the dancing itself was not earth-shattering, the experience of the VR made it an unforgettable experience. See this show if you can–and be certain to tip the staff through Venmo.
Updated 6/11/25
Alan’s Cincinnati Fringe Top Pick–A Clockwork O’Fringe by Gauravi Shah at First Lutheran Basement
A Clockwork O’Fringe, whose name is modeled after the book and movie A Clockwork Orange, is a sketch comedy show where the audience is treated to a number of different sketches roughly clustered around the issue of control. The driving force behind this piece is Gauravi Shah, an OTR Improv regular and graduate of the Second City Conservatory. She has assembled an amazing cast of performers for this sketch comedy show.
With all sketch comedy shows, there are some memorable bright spots and a few clunkers. Fortunately for Cincinnati audiences, the clunker sketches were few and far between.
Here are some of the sketches which stand out. None of the sketches have the names of performers because no program was provided, so I can’t call them out on the good work that they do. I also think one of the performers is a SCPA graduate whom I might have worked with while he was still in high school on a play reading.
I loved the opening sketch with the senior citizens dancing to contemporary music, as well as the recurring Zombie sketches (their discussion of the Z-word was very funny, as was the one where a man says he had not been bitten by a Zombie, even though there is a bloody stump where one of his arms had been), and the roving reporter sketch where the reporter questions a couple about their relationship. The couple consisted of a woman and her AI-controlled sex toy who is angry that his owner is being emotionally distant.
It is a shame that this show was a Limited Run because its three performances happened over this weekend. Funny, smart, and poignant, A Clockwork O’Fringe is a show that satisfies. Hopefully this group will make another show for the Cincinnati Fringe.
Top Pick—Jon Bennett: American’t at First Lutheran Sanctuary
I saw Jon Bennett’s last Cincinnati Fringe Festival show, Fire in the Meth Lab, which details his experiences with his brother Tim who ends up in prison because of meth.
I came away from that show a fan of Jon Bennett because Fire in the Meth Lab is incredibly relatable, heartfelt, and emotionally raw and true (as well as being very funny).
What made me enjoy Bennett is that he does not like to shy away from harsh truths, but balances them out with humor and humanity. In short, it does not feel like seeing a one-hour emotional train wreck. He is a master storyteller who can spin his own embarrassing and uncomfortable experiences into Fringe gold.
Storytelling Magic
In American’t, Bennett performs the same storytelling magic for how the pandemic impacted his life and livelihood. For the past fifteen years, Bennett has led a performer’s life of traveling the world without any place to call home. After a particularly eventful stay in Portland, where he has a dalliance with a woman named Gina, Bennett discovers that the pandemic has shut down all of his gigs in the United States. Trying to find a place to stay, he goes back to Portland and stays with Gina until he is forced to go back to Australia because his visa expires.
I won’t give too many more details concerning the second half of Bennett’s story because I do not want to give away the delicate storytelling in which he weaves all the elements together as a whole. The only thing I will hint at is that he tries to get back into the United States and runs afoul with the authorities.
By the end of his show, we see how these really terrible situations unexpectedly lead to positive outcomes.
Trigger Warning: This show discusses thoughts of attempting suicide.
Like Moths to a Flame: New Dances by Megan Flynn & Teresa Vandenend Sorge at Gabriel’s Corners
This Fringe show has a unique premise. The audience is present for a live taping session of a podcast hosted by Jacqueline Dove (M. Linda Graham) in which she explores the connection between discovering 85 year-old love letters, her deceased mother’s journal, and a box of matches.
Now this premise sounds fascinating, since each of these elements are treated to at least one or more dances. There are some strong dance numbers, such as “Mary Kennedy,” a solo dance by Megan Flynn (who is also the choreographer) and the opening number AOV, danced by Megan Flynn and Katerine Moore (choreography by Megan Flynn, in collaboration with Jennifer Sydor and Katherine Moore). These dances are engaging and keep my interest.
There is one fun surprise by the end of the piece. Overall, Like Moths to a Flame: New Dances tries for a big swing at a number of ideas. Some were hits, some were misses for me.
Alan’s Cincinnati Fringe Top Pick–Stuck by Wicked Cat Productions at Gabriel’s Corners
I saw the closing performance of Stuck, after hearing both really good and really bad things about this show. I am so glad that I saw it because I figured out why people were so divided over this show (more on that in a minute).
Stuck is a two-handed play written by J.J. Ivey (who also plays Drew) and Ivey draws on his own pandemic experiences going back to his parents’ rural home to ride out COVID. In real life, Ivey had a drunken rendezvous with an old friend, in this show called Dale (Royce Thomas Johnson), one night when that old friend comes knocking at his bedroom window. The two men rekindle their friendship, reveal their sexual attraction with one another, and sleep together.
Director and Performers
Director Patrick O’Connell makes this script come alive through his ability to move scenes along. Stuck is a very talky play, where characters are revealing their thoughts, feelings, and concerns in long speeches. I did not feel like the play dragged, although in this version the play needs a touch of trimming to smooth over the rough spots where characters talk too long.
JJ Ivey is strong playing Drew. Since he is intimately connected with the material, Ivey had an ease with the script and the revelations of his character. However, the true star of the show is Royce Thomas Johnson as Dale.
In speaking to him after the show, Johnson said that he only had two-and-a-half weeks of preparation for his role and he is a standout. In his words, Johnson constructed Dale with big swings, making him a pronounced red neck who also has a heart of gold. That tension between the two parts of Dale’s personality makes him so interesting to watch.
Sensitive Subject Matter
Getting back to the divisive nature of this play, I figured the audience members who saw it and really did not like it did not understand the intent of the production. Admittedly, it is for a younger gay audience who is not shy about exploring sexual relationships in a more explicit manner.
One thing I did not mention about this play is that there is male frontal nudity; the couple is naked, but in shadow to preserve some privacy. The show has an intimacy director, Sean Fletcher Griffin, who does a good job with the times when the two actors are intimate with one another.
In talking to the members of the cast, I also learned that this play is in line with other plays which are more prevalent in New York which deal with gay relationships within a sexually explicit manner. This is our first taste of what sounds like a regular genre of theatre in New York City.
While I am normally not a fan of such shows, I found that the humanity and the strong acting makes Stuck a must-see play for any Fringe audiences. They are next performing in Atlanta, so a road trip might be in order if you did not get a chance to see this show here in Cincinnati.
Get Tickets to Cincinnati Fringe
Happy Fringing! Get more information and tickets to these and other Cincinnati Fringe shows HERE.
Don’t worry, more reviews from me will be forthcoming.
