And I’m back for my post Fringe fest report! It’s a shame I couldn’t get this half out before the fringe fest ended, but here are my thoughts on the last five performances I saw.

Silicon Soul

Silicon Soul was a one-man show written by and starring Toby Yount as multiple characters. The story revolves around a robot and an alien landing on Earth, with the alien trying to upload human memories into the robot in an attempt for the robot to develop a soul.

This just so happened to be the tragic memories of a kid growing up with autism that the robot happens to relate to quite a bit. Now I understand what they’re going for with this but I don’t quite agree with comparing a person with autism to a literal robot. It is a fairly tried and not quite true way of portraying autism as the robotic savant. My gripes with that comparison aside, it does do a good job exploring the life of this autistic kid as he grows up initially nonverbal and slowly becomes better at masking only for the stress of having to mask his autism to cause depression.

Toby Yount does a good job at portraying multiple characters, easily able to switch back and forth between characters with distinct enough voices to not cause confusion. I was a little confused by his use of a script for many major scenes, however, which struck me as especially odd considering he wrote the play but it didn’t hinder his performance much so I was able to let it go for the most part. Overall, Silicon soul is a solid portrayal of autism with a few dodgy metaphors here and there.

Taste the Rainbow – A Surrealist Ice Cream Shoppe

Taste the Rainbow – A Surrealist Ice Cream Shoppe is fascinating albeit a brief look into the ways that color and taste interact. As you first step into the waiting room you are bombarded by colors, the walls are rainbow, the floors are rainbow, they even provide you with various brightly colored snacks while you wait. As soon as your turn comes, you step foot inside another room that is the exact opposite: The room is painted completely black with dim lights and various dark trinkets scattered about, such as an ice cream cone that is painted with vantablack (a color so dark that it absorbs light around it).

The two attendees then let you pick from an array of black ice cream that is all flavored differently. The idea is to show how weak our sense of taste is and how, if we don’t have colored foods to help guide our taste buds, it is very hard for us to tell what tastes like what. Despite being only around 20 minutes, Taste the Rainbow was a welcome reprieve from some of the heavier Fringe fest shows.

In Loving Memory

This show was already covered by OnStage Colorado correspondent Eric Fitzgerald here, so I’ll keep this one brief. In Loving Memory has the audience join queer teenager, Andi (Izzy Chern) as they put on a funeral for a dearly departed squirrel. In Loving Memory features spectacular writing by Kevin Douglas as the funeral devolves from a fairly silly lighthearted affair into a more real and personal story of a queer kid trying to find acceptance from their family and lamenting not receiving it. It also has the right amount of interactivity from the audience (most notably when the audience has to chime in to sing corny ’90s song Always by Erasure.) In loving memory is a notable highlight at the fringe festival with its strong writing from Douglas and Chern’s powerful portrayal.

REJECT Story-Telling, Art, Commentary, and Stand-up Comedy for a 21st Century Dystopia

REJECT is a semi-standup show semi-TED Talk advice panel starring Anthony Myers. The show has Myers explaining parts of his life and history and explores various types of rejections he has experienced in his life — such as being rejected by members of his extended family when he was adopted for being ethnically Jewish, or how older folks are rejected by society.

While I enjoy parts of his stories and what he has to say, some parts (mainly the ones where he talks about old people being rejected) come off as a bit whiny. He goes on about how the younger folk are mean to older people but uses broad jokes that some younger people make towards his generation as examples. For the record, most jokes I see at his generation’s expense aren’t just “old people bad” — they usually come from frustration at having been left a world in a broken state by members of the Baby Boomer and GenX generations.

Despite these gripes, there’s still plenty of charm in many of his stories. Myers just oozes charisma, and his jokes are often quite funny.

Exhausted Paint: The Death of Van Gogh

Exhausted Paint: The Death of Van Gogh explores the life and times of Vincent Van Gogh (Drew Stroud) in an intriguing way: Nearly every scene is done out of order, decided by Van Gogh spinning a wheel and picking the word that it lands on.

The gimmick does a good job illustrating the completely chaotic and disorganized life of the artists. Each scene has Van Gogh explaining an aspect of his life (his relationship with his brother, his poverty, his sexual needs, etc.). These fascinating stories are greatly elevated by Stroud’s terrific acting, portraying Van Gogh perfectly as the manic, tired and unkempt artist he is. The show also has a bit of audience interaction, mainly with Van Gogh handing audience members various props (such as when he handed me a condom). Exhausted Art is an interesting, albeit tragic time that taught me plenty about an artist I didn’t know much about (besides the ear thing.)

This being my first time checking out the Denver Fringe Festival, I must say I’m looking forward to next year. It’s really a great experience, and the mix of shows includes quite a few types of performance that we just don’t see around here very often.

Denver Fringe returns in June of 2024, and you can learn more on their website.