fringe theatre

In 2012, my high school's theatre department was invited to perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. The festival consisted of massive amounts of theatre, some pretty well known works and some brand new. I think the best (and maybe worst) part of fringe theatre is that you never really know what you're going to get. We saw a pretty terrible production of one of my favorite shows, The Last 5 Years, and an absolutely beautiful production of a show that had never been produced before, about three young boys in the middle of war with absolutely no speaking. I'm a huge fan of fringe theatre because it's full of young people who are passionate about theatre and aren't afraid to fail. Fringe theatre isn't about being commercial and appealing to a wide audience, it's about pushing the envelope and creating raw, real theatre.

Last night I finally got a chance to see a fringe show and went to Hampstead Theatre's production of Luna Gale by Rebecca Gillman. We had studied the show in an acting class that I had taken this previous semester and I loved it. It's a very new, edgy, and rarely produced show, so being able to see it performed after just studying it was great. It follows a social worker, Caroline, as she tries to help the minor child Luna Gale, whose taken away from her teenage, meth-addict parents and put in the grandmother's care. However, the grandmother, a devout Christian, said some concerning things about Christianity, her daughter, and the baby, making Caroline doubt Luna's placement and side with her sweet but troubled parents, Karlie and Peter. Caroline suggests they make up a story about how Karlie's former step-dad molested her, and how her mother didn't believe her when she told her. Although Karlie went along with the "story" like it never happened, it turns out that she was molested by her step-father as a teenager, and although she didn't tell her mom, she didn't have to in order for it to be obvious. That scene, where Peter is describing the event to Karlie's mom, was a stand out. It made me feel disgusted and heartbroken, and the mother's reaction of continuing to say she didn't know because Karlie never told her was enraging. There was not one weak link in this cast (Karlie's American accent sucked, but other than that she was fantastic), Peter was the real stand out. He was endearing, sweet, and so in love with Karlie that it made you hurt for him. If we had more time, I would definitely recommend this show to anyone here.