Fringe 2011: Best Bets and Wild Cards

Once upon a time, you could count on the Fringe to explore serious issues in a dramatic fashion. And if the local producing contingent has mostly abandoned that ground to obsess over the boundless comedic potential of the adolescent libido, we still have out-of-towners like Newfoundland's A Vagrant Theatre to keep us honest. Their Dying Hard examines the sad lot of Canadian miners in the 1960s, so I can't wait to revel in the sudden, suicidal dejection of everyone who bought a ticket expecting an hour of dick jokes.

My Friend in a Sketch Show

I've never regretted a dollar I threw at any show that featured the endearingly Hobbit-like Charles Frierman, and the teaser for this sketch program that he and his partners in the Minimalistic Theatre troupe performed at last month's Fringe Preview Pep Rally portended all manner of adept tomfoolery. That they spent their precious and few allotted minutes skating on the thin ice of ethnic slurs was brave indeed, but the comedic panache they showed in so doing quite honestly brought the house down. English translation: I'll have a whole lot of this Minimalism, please.

Editor's Note: The text of this review has been corrected. 

Dog Powered Robot and the History of the Future

Only at the Fringe could last year's one-note outdoor gag become a full-fledged play. Can the concept sustain itself for 50 minutes? Oh, who cares? It's. A. Pomeranian. In. A. Robot. Suit. There's your 10 bucks right there.

- Steve Schneider

> Email Seth Kubersky and Steve Schneider

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