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The award-winning cast and crew of “Pippin” will put on a special show prior to traveling to the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe at 7 p.m. on Fri., July 29 at the Blackford Theater. Tickets are $15 reserved and $10 at the door, if available, but be aware that the show sold out during its spring run. The cast will be presenting the play in its Fringe iteration, so audiences will see the cast run into a blank space, prepare the sets, perform the show, dismantle the sets and leave the theater, in accordance with the Fringe’s strict 90-minute “in-and-out” policy.
Plenty of food will be available at the venue. The content of the play is mature, so we recommend attendance only by those middle school-aged and up. Tickets can be purchased by anyone through Vendini and through tickets@harker.org for parents who’d like to charge to their accounts.
Directed by Laura Lang-Ree, performing arts department chair K-12, “Pippin” is a coming-of-age tale based loosely on the life of Pepin, Charlemagne’s son. “Pippin” was chosen by Lang-Ree for its appeal at the festival, where it would “resonate with our young American and European audiences who, like Pippin, are trying to find their way in these times of global economic depression and civic revolution,” she said.
The production showcases the depth of Conservatory members with a compelling and edgy choice that Lang-Ree expects to draw in a sophisticated audience at the festival, an influential launching pad for theatrical trends.
Pippin’s journey is framed by a theatrical troupe of players who manifest for him the various vignettes he lives out. These sly and darkly irreverent players, directed by Lang-Ree to represent “the darkness in Pippin’s mind and the negativity that can eat away at all of us,” flesh out the environment of voices and dancers who surround the plot.
Lang-Ree framed the production as a contemplation of the “too-hyped American Dream,” where one man is “told that he can have it all if he just works hard enough.” “When you’re extraordinary, you think of extraordinary things,” Pippin tells us early on, lamenting, “Here I am, to seize my day – if someone would just tell me when the hell it is.” In the end, he sings, “I wanted such a little thing from life. I wanted so much.”
Don’t miss the chance to see the Fringe version of this terrific show!
To read the full review, search on “Pippin” in Harker News Online.