Culture | The Guardian: Art, to me, is watching a young man dressed as a gorilla dressed as an old man rocking in a rocking chair for 56 minutes. Sure, it’s not for everyone, but if it’s for you, you’ll get exactly that at this year’s Perth Fringe World, in A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits Rocking in a Rocking Chair for Fifty-Six Minutes and Then Leaves. Those walking away disappointed only have themselves to blame.
2 comments:
I still don't quite understand Fringe festivals, I wish this article did more explaining it's purpose but from what I understand it just seems like a film festival but for any live performance. This idea makes sense to showcase films, but it can come off a bit differently when it comes to live performances. Such as this articles main example, watching a guy dressed up as a gorilla as an old man, sit in a rocking chair for about an hour. This is essentially like Carnegie Mellon's Playground but for the world...which can be quite risky and frightening. I already feel like Playground at CMU is pushing many boundaries every year, but when it is opened up to the public, I am afraid of the worst possibilities. Now, I won't say that about everything. I am sure there is magnificent performances that come out of this festival and I would love to visit a festival to watch those experiences, but when this article opens up about the Fringe festival to talk about watching a old man gorilla rock in a chair for an hour, it's not something I would want to spend my money observing.
Fringe festivals are quite a unique experience that I am grateful to have the experience of putting a show up in Edinburgh a few years ago. I can relate to the sentiments in this article about audience engagement, especially since our venue at the time was relatively far away from the center of the festival. To be completely honest, it can be shear luck stumbling upon something due to the crazy amount of performances that can occur at the same time. I saw my fair share of rough ones, but I do remember seeing a few that were phenomenal. What really got me to engage was talking about why they were passionate about their artwork, or as the article mentions that the audience remembers the hook of the show. When you boil down fringe festivals, the performances that are successful usually have some crazy memorable twist that actually gets your butt in the seat. For example, I saw a show purely because I had to wear a trashbag because of the blood in the show. I knew nothing else, but it worked! I think you just have to approach the show as a fringe show and nothing more, but if you do it right it can be a really unique experience.
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