A Friend at the Fringe

I’ve written in the past about the fact that my friend Michael Merino is a fantastic playwright. I’ve seen readings of several of his plays by now, and he always seems to find a perfect balance between ridiculously intelligent ideas and hilariously funny action. On Saturday, his show The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dogs will be opening as part of the Capital Fringe Festival. I’ve seen readings of this play a couple of times already, at the Woolly Mammoth Playwrights’ PlayGround and at the Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage New Play Festival and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s a thought-provoking piece  — and damned amusing.

(Yes, I realize I might lack credibility because he’s my friend, but seriously,  I’ve loved theatre all my life — even minored in it in college — and have read and/or seen something like a jillion plays, and this is a damn good script. I haven’t seen this production yet, so I can’t vouch for that, but Michael’s work is solid.)

Here’s the official description:

Take a simple sentence. A typing drill. Nine words. 37 letters. What do the words mean? How are they related? How is meaning conveyed? Inspired by the texts of Lewis Carroll, Donald Rumsfeld, and George Bush and concluding with the inspirational metaphorical tropes of Barack Obama, the work presents five characters in search of meaning at an absurdist linguistic tea party.

There are five shows over the course of the next 10 days of the festival — some in the evening, some matinees, spread over weekends and weeknights — so if you’re in DC, there’s really no excuse for not making it. Tickets are available here.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention… One of my vast collection of dead/ancient cell phones will be smashed nightly during the play. Fun!