CurtainUp Samples The Philadelphia Fringe Scene By Kathryn Osenlund

For a Philly Fringe sampling I started at the Triangle Theatre for Random Acts of Theatre's Skewed Shakespeare, billed as "No tights, no fancy shirts, no bad English dialects." Scenes performed in modern dress strain for modern nuance and colloquial attitudes.

In the closing scene a preacher in the mold of Martin Luther King delivers the most unusual "Once more unto the breach" speech from Henry V that I have ever heard. The suggestion of a relationship between King's non-violence and Hank Cinq's call to battle is odd, but actor Franklin Ojeda Smith carries it off, preaching from a very emotional place. Sept 12, 17, 18.

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