Going into the last day of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and having seen about 20 shows with four more to go, I'm hoping that "The Beasts", which I saw last night, remains my biggest disappointment. The blurb promises weird puppets in a politically charged dark comedy from an out-of-town artist. I know that Fringe shows can be a little rough at times, but this one needed some adult supervision.
"The Beasts" reminded me of a show being put on by a precocious 12-year-old in the family garage for his friends. Ben Egerman of The Great Ben Egerman Theatre Adventure! doesn't seem to know the lines well enough to deliver the story without a lot of annoying and unprofessional verbal, um, pauses and tics. He plays several characters, but the only clear differences are the bit of clothing he puts on to indicate a transition. His delivery is always exactly the same, tentative and stuttering. His puppets and other props are horribly amateurish. Twice, he makes use of crude drawings on battered brown cardboard, obviously salvaged from a refrigerator delivery or somesuch. If the low-tech values are supposed to fit in with the theme of the show, there might be some credit due, but they just strike me as childish and lazy. Spring for some posterboard, dude.
Perhaps with a real director (and adult supervision), a polished script, better puppets and a year of rehearsal and development "The Beasts" just might evolve into something cool. But as it stands, seeming like he just came up with the idea earlier in the day, it's just not ready for Fringe.
Bottom Line: If you have tickets for the last performance at 7:30 this evening (Saturday), trade them in for "The VindleVoss Family Circus Spectacular." It has a zombie.
Comments