Capital Fringe Festival

We're in the middle of the Capital Fringe Festival right now, and this is the first year I'm paying attention. I went to two shows last weekend, A Tactile Dinner and Irish Authors Held Hostage. Though vastly different performances, both were great fun.

I can't say a lot about A Tactile Dinner, since it's an experience more than a show, and it really requires that you don't know much of what's coming. But there are costumes, you're seated one person at a time, and there are some rather interesting dishes to try. The whole thing is inspired by the Futurists, and it's a "synæsthetic food experience." That's all I'm going to say.

Irish Authors Held Hostage is a series of vignettes in which, yes, Irish authors are held hostage by all different kinds of terrorists. From Oscar Wilde to Brendan Behan, about a dozen novelists and poets appear, as do Al Qaeda and Somalian pirates on the terrorist side. It's a riot, particularly if you're up on your writers.

For a general overview of Fringe, you can go read more here.

Happy Hannukah!

Okay, not yet. But so you can plan accordingly here's advance notice of events coming up.

• Theodore Bikel stars in his one-man play Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears at the DCJCC's Theater J. It actually starts today in previews, but opening night is Sunday, and you can read my lovely piece on Bikel in next Wednesday's Express. Click here for more info.

• Spike Mendelsohn of Top Chef and Good Stuff Eatery is holding a latke-making demo at Sixth and I at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $6 and available here. And this reminds me that I have a latke recipe I've been meaning to try.

Updates

• B. and I went to the Hoppera on Friday, and it was really very cute and funny. There's a performance at the National Gallery on December 2, and I would recommend it for Hopper fans — it's fun to see the subjects of iconic paintings come to life and also to see one man's take on what their back story is. Also, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at UMD is beautiful, and there are a few good things coming up, like Cosi Fan Tutte in April, so I want to go back while I can still exploit my student ID.

• During my movie marathon this weekend I watched The Lives of Others, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007. It's set in East Berlin in the 1980s and charts the destruction of lives after bugging devices are planted in a writer's apartment. It's very absorbing and very well done.

• Blogging will be less frequent for a little while, since I will only be in the District for four full days between now and December 3, and therefore won't have much time to keep up on happenings around the city.

Edward II

Edward II was really, really good. I'm by no means a theater snob and I enjoy history plays, so I'm probably not the best person to listen to, but I loved it. I've only been to a few plays over the past couple months — Synetic Theatre's The Fall of the House of Usher and Mabou Mines' production of Peter and Wendy at Arena Stage, and both were kind of experimental, so it was great to see a more traditional production.
Also, can anyone explain Twitter to me? And why I might possibly want to use it?

Kit Marlowe @ the STC

I'm going to see Edward II tonight at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. It's part of the Marlowe repertory — the first part, Tamburlaine, opened this week and from all accounts it's terrible, so hopefully Edward is a little better. If nothing else, I'm excited to see the new Harman Hall, which is supposed to be gorgeous.

As part of the Marlowe celebration, the STC is holding a Marlowe symposium tomorrow, which sounds great, but since I am still drowning in work, I won't be going.

Hoppera

I love it when something done in one artistic medium becomes inspiration for something in another — case in point: the Edward Hopper exhibit at the National Gallery of Art will be complemented by an opera presented by the University of Maryland. Later the Same Evening: An Opera Inspired by Five Paintings of Edward Hopper runs at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center from November 15-18, and at the National Gallery of Art on December 2.

The music is by Pulitzer Prize–nominated composer John Musto, and the libretto by Mark Campbell. Leon Major, professor of opera at the UM School of Music, directs the production, which will be performed by the School's Maryland Opera Studio and the National Gallery Orchestra.

This sounds like it's going to be fantastic — I can't wait to see how Hopper's paintings are translated into music and put on stage. If anyone wants to come with me to any of the UMD performances let me know. I'd go to the one at the NGA, but will be out of town.

Cap Fringe

The Capital Fringe Festival kicks off today, with a wide array of dramatic productions. [Provided I can tear myself away from Harry Potter at all,] Some are definitely worth checking out. My list includes "The Trojan Women," (being a classics nerd), which is playing at the Source Theatre next weekend. There's also Ben Jonson's "Volpone" and "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes)," performed by the Chicago-based Neo-Futurists, and which I have heard great things about.