What I liked
The greatest joy I experienced was watching this team of people build a working spaceship and vast Sci-fi landscape with nothing more than a few PVC pipes, lights, sound, and sheer commitment. The pantomime is effortless and effective. The effects sparse but necessary. The storytelling driven and direct. This show quickly gets out of its own way, proving that the simplest solution is often the most effective.
What I didn't like
Sure, a relationship narrative will inevitably slip into melodrama, and even the most well rehearsed cues don’t always line up, but Strange Beings remains sharp on all sides, even when the seams show.
My overall impression
This imaginative Sci-Fi show brings out the best in the genre and the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The acting, directing, design and stagecraft are excellent. Day for Knight prove themselves to be Fringe veterans, having nearly mastered the form here. The limitations spark innovations, and early on begs question: what if they had more time, space, resources, etc? This quickly becomes irrelevant, as Nicole Knudsen’s deft directing steers this ship towards something greater. She’s asking hard questions here, about humanity, relationships, the limits of 60min black box theater…the answers are complicated. Her ace 2-person crew of actors Victoria Gluchoski and Joshua Verges are more than up to the task, executing the necessities of spaceship jargon while having increasingly honest (and brutal) conversations about what went wrong, who’s to blame and what the hell they’re going to do now. Trust me, you’ll relate to something, even if it’s simply the conclusion that humans are Strange Beings indeed.
