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Last Call: The Quality of Life & Fringe Fest best

Quality of Life at Intrepid Theatre Company
Quality of Life at Intrepid Theatre Company

The Quality of Life

SD Fringe Festival: 84 Gradini

SD Fringe Festival: Whispering Directions

SD Fringe Festival: Frontier(a)

The Fringe Festival ends this Sunday. As does one of San Diego’s best dramatic productions in years.

The Quality of Life. Intrepid Theatre Company mounted Jane Anderson’s heart-wrenching, gut-busting play at the Carlsbad Village Theatre, a converted movie house. On opening night they roped off the back half, due to sightline and acoustic issues.

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For the next three nights they should un-rope that section and give more people the chance to see four of the year’s best performances meld into one of the year’s very best productions.

Neil (eloquent Jeff Jones, who lost 45 pounds to play the role) is dying of cancer. Spirited wife Jeanette (an amazing Deanna Driscoll) is a non-stop caregiver – who plans to “stop” at some point. Her Midwestern cousin Dinah (Maggie Carney, never better) and her husband Bill (pitch perfect Tom Stephenson) come to visit. They lost their daughter in a horrific tragedy.

What follows is a slow coiling. It looks like a conventional blue-state/red-state conflict of attitudes. But it probes way beyond labels into the ways people confront pain, loss, and moving on, all without being a sermon or hammer-heady. The characters drive the play and the themes.

If you haven’t seen Quality of Life, make the drive to Carlsbad. You won’t regret it.

The San Diego International Fringe Festival. With much help from my friends, the Reader covered around 25 events. To be of use, the blog reviews had to come out fast (which for the writers must have felt like Reviewer Boot Camp, with the Chief of the Paragraph Police — i.e. me — always on their case).

We had to do more frog-kissing than in the two previous festivals. Many entrants assumed that “performance” meant forget your audience and the basics of presentation (articulate, speak out and up, hit cues, stand still when standing still) and yammer away without checking out the often tricky acoustics.

We covered around 25 entries. But the festival has over twice that many. And the Fringe staff, in the spirit of democracy, doesn’t make recommendations.

One of the things I love about the Fringe, likes and dislikes can vary greatly. Two of my favorite shows — ¿Y Tú Qué? and 84 Gradini — are precise, profoundly intense physical theater. Those needing easy verbal explanations were less impressed.

Of those not covered, I solicited favorites from trusted arts folk. These, and there may be other good ones as well, are:

The Whispering Directions, Spreckels Off-Broadway, 923 First Avenue, downtown: Friday, July 31 at 10:30 p.m., Saturday, August 1 at 11:30 a.m.

Les Midge, An Unexpected Journey of Hobbit Proportions, Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown: Friday, July 29 at 9:00 p.m., Saturday, August 1 at 4:00 p.m., Sunday, August 2 at 11:30 p.m.

Looking to Upgrade, Tenth Avenue Arts Center, Forum Theatre, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown: Saturday, August 1 at 2:30 p.m.

The Mysterium Show, Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown: Sunday, August 2 at 4:00 p.m.

Frontier(a), Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown: Friday, July 31 at 10:30 p.m., Sunday, August 2 at 4:00 p.m.

Guilt Ridden Sociopath, Tenth Avenue Arts Center, Main Stage, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown: Friday, July 31 at 6:00 p.m., Saturday, August 1 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, August 2 at 4:00 p.m.

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Quality of Life at Intrepid Theatre Company
Quality of Life at Intrepid Theatre Company

The Quality of Life

SD Fringe Festival: 84 Gradini

SD Fringe Festival: Whispering Directions

SD Fringe Festival: Frontier(a)

The Fringe Festival ends this Sunday. As does one of San Diego’s best dramatic productions in years.

The Quality of Life. Intrepid Theatre Company mounted Jane Anderson’s heart-wrenching, gut-busting play at the Carlsbad Village Theatre, a converted movie house. On opening night they roped off the back half, due to sightline and acoustic issues.

Sponsored
Sponsored

For the next three nights they should un-rope that section and give more people the chance to see four of the year’s best performances meld into one of the year’s very best productions.

Neil (eloquent Jeff Jones, who lost 45 pounds to play the role) is dying of cancer. Spirited wife Jeanette (an amazing Deanna Driscoll) is a non-stop caregiver – who plans to “stop” at some point. Her Midwestern cousin Dinah (Maggie Carney, never better) and her husband Bill (pitch perfect Tom Stephenson) come to visit. They lost their daughter in a horrific tragedy.

What follows is a slow coiling. It looks like a conventional blue-state/red-state conflict of attitudes. But it probes way beyond labels into the ways people confront pain, loss, and moving on, all without being a sermon or hammer-heady. The characters drive the play and the themes.

If you haven’t seen Quality of Life, make the drive to Carlsbad. You won’t regret it.

The San Diego International Fringe Festival. With much help from my friends, the Reader covered around 25 events. To be of use, the blog reviews had to come out fast (which for the writers must have felt like Reviewer Boot Camp, with the Chief of the Paragraph Police — i.e. me — always on their case).

We had to do more frog-kissing than in the two previous festivals. Many entrants assumed that “performance” meant forget your audience and the basics of presentation (articulate, speak out and up, hit cues, stand still when standing still) and yammer away without checking out the often tricky acoustics.

We covered around 25 entries. But the festival has over twice that many. And the Fringe staff, in the spirit of democracy, doesn’t make recommendations.

One of the things I love about the Fringe, likes and dislikes can vary greatly. Two of my favorite shows — ¿Y Tú Qué? and 84 Gradini — are precise, profoundly intense physical theater. Those needing easy verbal explanations were less impressed.

Of those not covered, I solicited favorites from trusted arts folk. These, and there may be other good ones as well, are:

The Whispering Directions, Spreckels Off-Broadway, 923 First Avenue, downtown: Friday, July 31 at 10:30 p.m., Saturday, August 1 at 11:30 a.m.

Les Midge, An Unexpected Journey of Hobbit Proportions, Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown: Friday, July 29 at 9:00 p.m., Saturday, August 1 at 4:00 p.m., Sunday, August 2 at 11:30 p.m.

Looking to Upgrade, Tenth Avenue Arts Center, Forum Theatre, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown: Saturday, August 1 at 2:30 p.m.

The Mysterium Show, Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown: Sunday, August 2 at 4:00 p.m.

Frontier(a), Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown: Friday, July 31 at 10:30 p.m., Sunday, August 2 at 4:00 p.m.

Guilt Ridden Sociopath, Tenth Avenue Arts Center, Main Stage, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown: Friday, July 31 at 6:00 p.m., Saturday, August 1 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, August 2 at 4:00 p.m.

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The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

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