BWW Reviews: Surprising Trio of Plays at BERKSHIRE FRINGE FESTIVAL

In western Massachusetts the BERKSHIRE FRINGE FESTIVAL has been quietly cultivating the region's younger audiences with quirky, peculiar theatre that is alternately slapstick, serious, sad, silly and which sometimes can also sag, but it is theatre that is on the cutting edge, and theatre that matters. Back for their ninth season this observer ventured once again to the Daniel Arts Center, located at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, MA. It is strikiing how their audiences have been growing at a steady pace, and this year two of the three performances attended on a Friday were close to full. One of them, DEAD LETTER OFFICE is a real winner. Here is a capsule review of the three performances seen that day.

MAHALLA from the Anthropologists is hypnotic to watch, even if sometimes you don't know what they are getting at. On stage three women wear khumur (what we call a hijab in the USA) spin a tale of life in Egypt with high hopes and low wages that leads to the 2011 Revolution. Habiba (Jenna Bosco), Oni (Mariah Freda) and Samia (Pooya Mohseni) live tightly controlled lives which are in total contrast to the fourth character, Jordan (RafaelV. DeLeon) . A college aged basketball player, he lives in the USA with all the freedom of travel and occupation that signifies. They work in a garment factory, prepare food for sale on the side while the American is an emerging basketball player and the son of Egyptian parents.

The garment workers complain about the shrinking value of their already low wages whilst the young American has received an invitation to join an Egyptian pro ream. Jordan dribbles his way around the stage while the women sew, hang and dance with shimmering sheets of fabric, some suggesting the banners of revolution.

We learn that neither the player nor the officials are aware that he has a Jewish heritage. He eventually travels to Egypt in search of his father's history, but is totally unprepared, not knowing the language, culture or religious history of the place.

Using found text, dance, acres of billowing fabric and even a You Tube video, The Anthropologists have some success combining ritual storytelling with current events, and how the innocents - whether factory workers or teenaged athletes - often go off on futile adventures without really knowing what they are getting into. In the end it is indictment, not an endorsement of technology whose naked nuggets of information rarely provide essential context.

From the Little Matchstick Factory comes THE OTHER MOZART, written and performed by Sylvia Milo. She ensconces herself in the middle of a dress that is eighteen feet in diameter, filling the stage. With a matching corset, she sits, stand, crawls and buries herself within it as she unfolds the little known story of Wolfgang Mozart's sister, Nanned Mozart who, she tells us, was every bit as smart and talented as her younger brother but in the culture of the day was shoved aside in his favor. Milo rises and falls as the light of Nanned's life waxes and wanes over the decades, and here the brilliance of director Isaac Byrne literally shines. Credit is given to a dialect coach, but frankly THE OTHER MOZART was handicapped by yet another difficult stage accent getting in the way of understanding an important story and its message.

Perhaps the whole reason to attend the BERKSHIRE FRINGE FESTIVAL is to see brilliant and original theatre like DEAD LETTER OFFICE (a prelude to Bartleby the Scrivener) from The Lunar Strategem of Huntington, WV. One can only admire these masters of the abstract and absurd as they use every device imaginable in telling a phantasmagorical tale of baroque workers trapped in the never ending job of a dead letter office. Frequently reciting their lines in perfect unison, the bewigged and courtly Shawn Farr, Nicole Perrone and Topher Payne struggle with handwriting that is alternately cryptic or just plain wretched, but in the end they are never stumped: befuddlement turns to joy as one mystery after another is solved. That is, all except one, which is revealed when a letter with a zip code, which represents the beginnings of technology, arrives. The end is near. Soon emails and texting will make these workers totally irrelevant.

The trio of laugh-makers channel songs and zany routines from old films, shows and television which constantly interrupt the proceedings for a few minutes of madness. But they in turn are interrupted by their lights suddenly going black which portends their dark future. The entire show could be considered a metaphor for the recent shift from human communication to the impact of our digital distancing from each other.

This is the first week of the BERKSHIRE FRINGE FESTIVAL which continues to August 5 with more than a dozen different companies performing under their auspices. Upcoming shows include: "Moment of Impact," "...Dedicated to Dexter" and "Painting His Wings" in the middle week, with "Fufu & Oreos," "The Ape Woman" and "On Est Deshabille" slated for the final week.

In a daring departure from the first nine years, there is a second producing company at Simon's Rock this year, Mass Live Arts which is presenting Half Straddle and Radiohole. It is likely that the synergy which seems to be developing could bring yet more experimental theatre to a region long celebrated for its traditional offerings,and that would be a wonderful development.

THE BERKSHIRE FRINGE FESTIVAL presents Mahalla devised by The Anthropologist's Ensemble, Conceived and Directed by Melissa Moschitto; The Other Mozart from The Little Matchstick Factory, written and performed by Sylvia Milo, Directed by Isaac Byrne with Music composed by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen; and The Lunar Strategem's Dead Letter Office (a prelude to Bartleby the Scrivener) a piece by Matthew Earnest. The Festival runs from July 15-August 5,2013 at the Daniels Arts Center, Bard College at Simon's Rock, 84 Alford Rd., Great Barrington, MA 413-320-4175

Above: Dead Letter Office, Photo byWilliam Bezek

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