The 2021 Philadelphia Fringe Festival is now in full swing, and with so many shows to choose from in almost every artistic category, it can be hard to pick just what to experience. Luckily, Metro is highlighting standouts to make your viewing experience that much easier.
Walk Around Philadelphia
According to a release, the next iteration of Walk Around Philadelphia is running until this Sunday, Oct. 3. Previously, Walk Around Philadelphia hailed as a one perimeter walk around the city that encompassed over 100 miles, and was said to take about 5.5 days to complete, however, the walk could also be broken into smaller segments and completed over months or years. Groups are self-organized, choose their own routes, and can take on the walk on their own time and at their own pace. However, this 10 x 10 version of the walk at Fringe 2021 is split into ten segments of roughly 10 miles each, which should be a little bit more accessible than those intense ~20 mile days in snow and ice from last February. The walk was created by Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, who has trekked the 100 miles around Philly five times before already.
According to the release, Walk Around Philadelphia was born in 2016 from a collaboration with Ann de Forest, Adrienne Mackey and Sam Wend through a Swim Pony Performing Arts residency. Participants who sign up for the tour will be provided with everything they need to complete the scenic trek including limited-edition perimeter passports, printed maps, reflective safety belts and more. Participants can check back in this Sunday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. after completion.
Overboard! at Cannonball
According to the official site, ‘Overboard!’ is Cannonball’s nightly offering of music, cabaret, sideshow, circus, storytelling, strange anthems to toaster ovens, and ecstatic participatory rituals that will be sure to be the perfect end to your night at the Fringe. The show takes place in the Maas Garden Bar, which the company says is one of Philly’s ‘best-kept secrets,’ where there’s room to have a drink with a friend, sit by the stage, or enjoy a pizza from the wood-fired oven (available on certain nights of the production).
Overboard! is also presented as part of Cannonball Festival, a satellite festival produced by Almanac Dance Circus Theatre and the Maas Building featuring over 150 events and performances of 24 original shows across 2 performance spaces and 21 days. This particular show runs until Oct. 1.
Not I
This piece of work from the Joyous Eddies House of Theater (Mark Lord and Catharine Slusar) is better described through its initial description: “A handful of audience members gather in an intimate space. A mouth speaks—she utters a torrent of words: as searing and searching a text as Samuel Beckett ever wrote. With scalding intensity, the play clamors to discover: who are we when we are our whole selves, when we speak and hear all of our voices in a moment—in their rages and echoes and mis-rememberings and deprecations and desires? It lasts for 15 minutes. And forever.”
In this particular production, Barrymore award-winner Catharine Slusar stars and Mark Lord directs. Showtimes for ‘Not I’ run now until Oct. 3 at 908 Christian St.
Being/With
Nichole Canuso Dance Company first premiered their critically-acclaimed work ‘Being/With:Home’ at the 2020 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and now, audiences can check out an all-new ‘Being/With’ to find new ways of connection. From now until Oct. 9, audiences can check out the intimate Philadelphia World Premiere of Canuso’s new production at South Philadelphia’s Trinity Church (2300 S 18th St.) and West Philadelphia’s Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert St.)
Just like Canuso’s work in the past, this experience brings together two audience members digitally through a tender and deeply personal exchange across geographies. According to the release, ‘Being/With’ is an exploration of distance and proximity; absence and presence in a real and virtual environment that invites you to share stories and explore movement together in a guided artistic encounter. ‘Being/With’ is fueled and informed by Canuso’s parallel interests in immersive performance forms, interactive media and oral history interview practice. Anyone interested can look online to see when performances run.
‘Dance of the Lanternfly’
Fringe wouldn’t be what it is without the art of dance, and to catch one of the tail-end showcases of just that through the festival is best done through Dominique Ellis’ ‘Dance of the Lanternfly.’
As the release states, in this particular production dance movements are slowed down to interpret a lanternfly in motion through 24 poses of a second in time. Think Stanley Kubrick meets Eadweard Muybridge, as Philadelphia-based artist Dominique Ellis metamorphosizes to become larger-than-life. Ellis’ production will take place at Cafe Olé until Oct. 2.
