More Fringe Shows

Time to review the other two Fringe shows I watched.   One of them was Panga, written by my friend Sam Siggs.   It had a very interesting concept.   It centres around a 20 something year old woman, Lucy, who's a bit of a mess, and her boyfriend.   One day her mother sends her a bunch of her old toys, and her cuddly panda, Panga (pronounced like that because she had adenoids) suddenly comes to life, as a full-sized talking, walking panda.   At first she's terrified, but very quickly warms to the idea of having her childhood playmate back.   The two of them spend their days playing wild games and getting incerasingly drunk.   The climax of the play comes when Panga tries to kill Lucy's boyfriend.   A fight ensues, and Panga gets his head cut off, whereupon he transforms back into a harmless cuddly toy.   I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this play.   It was staged very well, with plenty of little creative touches, and the acting was excellent.   As I've said before, I thought the concept was very interesting, and it was very funny, but I just feel like the play was missing a message of some kind.   A tangible effect Panga's visit had on Lucy.   Some sort of point to the play.   It just left me a bit confused really.   It was actually quite strongly reminiscent of the film Drop Dead Fred.   It had the same feeling of chaos and mischief and losing control.   Worth seeing, but not Sam's best.  

          



Finally, the Blanks, also known as The Worthless Peons, Ted's band from Scrubs.   They're an a capella band.   I enjoyed seeing them.   The singing was really good, and they did all their famous ones.   It was interesting to see that Sam (Ted) was by far the worst singer amongst them.   The other three were all really talented.   Perhaps I just don't have very much patience, because the filler between songs really pissed me off.   It was just so American and tacky, unfunny and unnecessary.   They also performed a Hallowe'en song, which was very funny, but just gave me the impression that their repertoire is pretty small.   All in all, an enjoyable show, but could have been better.