Passing Strange at Bootless

Stew, the creator/subject of Passing Strange, and collaborator Heidi Rodewald chose just five theater groups in the US to perform the stage version of the show this year; Wilmington's Bootless Artworks was one of them. Still essentially homeless (they are taking up in The Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew & Matthew in downtown Wilmington for this show), Bootless continues to show that they're a major force in Delaware theater.

My last Bootless show was The Pillowman, an incredible, and incredibly dark, comic piece put on in an empty outlet store on the Riverfront. Passing Strange is positively light in comparison, but the journey is deep and real.

Directed by Malika Oyetimein and James W. Fuerst, the musical is narrated by Stew (Jerry Rudasill), who introduces his teenage self (Cory Hindorff) and his mother (Cherie Jazman), a comfortably middle class black family in Los Angeles. She drags him to church, where he finds after-hours inspiration from the secretly free-spirited choir director (B.K. Elam) who never left home. His punk band flounders, and, terrified of never moving past his neighborhood, he leaves his mother for Europe -- and the promise of creative freedom, sex and drugs. The farther he gets from home, the farther he gets from himself, until his life is a performance of "passing," gaining acceptance from a group of German radicals by using his non-existent ghetto street cred. Humorous, yes, and also quite poignant. The Narrator was shaped by the choices made by his naive young self, but it wasn't without loss.

Hindorff is a star. And by that I don't just mean the star of this production, which he is, but a star, period. It's what I thought when I saw him in Cats at NCT in January, and my feeling has only been reinforced with Passing Strange. The ensemble includes four actors who take on triple roles as characters in LA, Amsterdam and Berlin -- Candace Thomas, Kori Beaman, Keith Wallace and B.K. Elam -- all of whom transformed dramatically and convincingly throughout.

The show features a live band, which was one of the main concepts of the original version, Travelogue. On preview night, the band sounded great, but at times drowned out the stage performers. Hopefully, the sound issues have been resolved.

Passing Strange runs through October 15. Ages 15 and up. For tickets, click here.

Wilmo on the Fringe

Wednesday night, again at the Queen! Although this time hubby and I are among the crowd enjoying the night of the Fringe Wilmington Performance Preview Party.  Among the many folks-about-town and dignitaries that packed the room of Upstairs Live, we were treated to the unique sounds of show starters, The Obsoleets.

The ensemble, armed with a musical arsenal that includes guitars, drums, an upright bass, accordion, mandolin, violin, erhu (although not tonight) and more, was made complete by the conspicuously placed and remarkably integrated new member, DJ Leon Barton.  It was, at first, an unlikely mix that ultimately made amazing sense.

Playing rare and period selections (think 1920s Bessie Smith), they fused the tunes with Leon’s subtle yet genius scratchwork, creating a fabulous—dare I say, fringy—new genre. What is it? Low country, bluegrass, folk? Our next-door tablemates said it reminded them of the New Orleans music scene. Whatever they call it, I want to hear more of it in Wilmo!

See www.obsoleets.com.

Onto the Performance Previews: There are more than 30 artists and 200 performances running at Fringe Wilmo now through Sunday, and each artist/group was able to give a 3-minute teaser of their performance at the preview. Some that struck my interest: A Contemporary Folk Evening with Flyground (Flyground, dance); One Word (MM2, dance); Dirk Darrow: NCSSI (Tim Motley, comedy/murder mystery); and No Diva Left Behind (Augustine Mercante, vocal & piano).  Check them out on the website and go get your fringe on!

In addition to main performances, tonight (Friday, September 23) there’s the Film Bros.’ Festival of Shorts at Theatre N; the Fringe 48-Filmmaking Competition; a Knights vs. Pirates Foam Sword Battle (ADULT & KID FRINGE?  awesome!) in Willingtown Square, Saturday, September 24, from 2:00-5:00pm, thrown by our pal DÉminence Grise; and of course, the Visual Fringe exhibition at the Chris White Gallery at Shipley Lofts.  Don't miss Fringe Wilmo 3.0!

See www.fringewilmington.com.

Newark Film Fest

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a Werner Herzog creation which is about the Chauvet caves. These caves were sealed off by a rock slide about 20,000 years ago so that when they were discovered by cavers on 13 December 1994, they were remarkably preserved. Some of the art in the caves is 38,000 years old. Herzog got permission from the French government to film the cave for this film which was released in 2010. Herzog narrates in fairly good English but also invites some French scientists and a perfumer who have accents that make them a sure winner for a Maurice Chevalier talk-alike contest. They were so laughable that I expected Peter Sellers to come on screen at any minute. The three dimensional photography of the caves is spectacular, but the broken English interviews is more absurd than any Pink Panther episode and the Herzog epilog was most puzzling.

Double hour (Doppia ora), 2009, directed by Giuseppe Capotondi, is a complex thriller about a hotel maid who meets a former policeman at a speed dating session. The two seem to click, but then events take a somber turn as they start their romance. Kseniya Rappoport emanates a waif-like character who is absolutely fascinating.

Another excellent film was Beginners – a poignant film which seemed to focus on homosexuality but in the end was a story about how to find, keep and live with love. Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor were excellent in their roles as classic American father and son seeking love from each other and from others.

The Trip, 2011, was a pleasant surprise to me – having heard that two Brits have a contest in sarcasm on a long trip to Yorkshire to eat good food; I thought I couldn’t stand it, but friends wanted to go and I was surprised at how good it was. Michael Winterbottom directs Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon (both well-known comedic actors in the UK) and gives them plenty of liberty to improvise.

The last film on the schedule was Trollhunter (Trolljegeren), 2010, was directed by Andre Orvedal. Made in documentary style, this film has some wonderful moments played as straight as an arrow: three billy goats on a bridge, government paperwork to fill out when a troll is killed and some spectacular trolls and special effects.

After the film, my friend Pam pulled out her hand troll puppet and let him greet the two guys dressed as trolls and waiting for the crowd to leave the last film of the festival.

See www.newarkfilm.com