Saw 12 shows over 4 nights. Yuri Wells and Red Bastard were my favourites.
Yuri Wells is a cleverly scripted one and a half man show. I can’t really tell you what it’s about, but I’ll just say it’s sensibly head-fuckie, I like it.
Red Bastard. Oh god. This show truly hate-fucks the audience (I mean he picked on me, and it wasn’t fun, it was horrible.. Even still, somehow I loved him for it). It’s a Bouffon Clown show.
“In the world of Bouffon, the audience is the joke. Bouffons show no vulnerability. Their great joy is to parody the audience, its values and flaws. This pack of grotesque outsiders engage and parody the audience with great joy, intelligence and charm. To play as Bouffon, is to celebrate, contrast & paradox! They are disgusting, yet beautiful. They hate you, yet they flatter you. The Bouffons are the ultimate manipulators!” (From an email by David Berga who plays the Red Bastard) Speaking of which there is a Melbourne workshop in Bouffon coming up end of March by the Red Bastard himself. Email info@davidberga.cat for more info. I'm thinking of doing it.
Back to the Fringe. I had a fucking good time. It’s just really nice seeing a lot of shows, and bumping into heeeps of friends and feeling like a Fringe-go’er. Getting into big parties and bars where it’s wall to wall with people who are dancing like it’s their last day alive. At one point I remember Cat from the Caravan of Doom dragging me around the dance floor. We started a badly constructed conga line. After a few laps, it was quite large. I was quite surprised when she doubled back to try make the line collide with itself. It did. People flew everywhere.
Most nights I was getting home when my parents were getting up to make breakfast. Then I’d sleep the boring Adelaide days away. There weren’t really heeps of high-lights.. Actually.. Fez in drag straddling me while I took photos during his act was pretty funny.. And I performed (quite terribly) in a cabaret act where I took off my clothes, got this guy to hit me in the stomach, and then sung a song on the guitar about my love of lan choo tea (doubled over on the ground). That was a rush. I think it’s mainly good just seeing shows and not having one. It makes things less egocentric and I feel like I have more fun at the festival. Although I did feel rather like a rockstar that night with my cabaret act, it was awesome :)
Will get a couple of rolls of photos developed tomorrow and then your eyes will bleed.
xskye
