Fringe theater

Back in the summer of 1985, we spent two weeks in Scotland. Our travels began with three days in Edinburgh, which were chosen to coincide with the Edinburgh Festival. The thing to do at the festival was the Festival Fringe, which were events--mostly theater--that were not part of the festival proper but held in various venues (back rooms of bars and restaurants and other unused spaces) around town. In the morning, you went to the fringe office to pick up the day's schedule of events. Nowadays, I assume that's all online. There were also lots of street performers (musicians, jugglers, etc).

One of the most memorable performances for us was a one-man show based on the John Kennedy Toole novel "A confederacy of dunces." The novel is set in New Orleans, with a variety of White and Black characters, both male and female. The actor switched with facility between the various voices and postures, making it easy to forget that there was only one person on stage. I wish I could remember the name of the actor*.

It turns out that there's something here called Fringe Providence, a series of theater productions at various ad hoc venues around Providence RI. The shows are in the evening, so not day-long like the Edinburgh Festival fringe. Yesterday evening, we attended a Fringe PVD performance by Tara Lake called "I know it was the blood: the totally true adventures of a newfangled Black woman."

Lake is a storyteller, classical soprano, scholar-artist and actor based in Philadelphia PA. The story she tells here is autobiographical, about growing up in New Jersey with her many relatives. There are little snippets of song, mostly gospel, which she sings in the styles and voices of various characters. The writing is incisive and engaging without being strident or maudlin. There are a couple of onstage costume changes, but no props other than a table and a microphone. Mostly, she carries the performance with her voice, gestures, personality and energy.

The performance was excellent! One sign that it was good is that Linda cried. There were less than a dozen in the audience, and this was the last of three performances, but Lake put her heart into it anyway. It was a pity there wasn't a full house to enjoy this superb show. I hope we get to see more of Tara Lake in the future. *thanks to the intertoobs, I found the answer: Kerry Shale