My overall impression
Having worked in theater for a few years, it’s really difficult for me to get into a show fully. I’m always thinking about acting choices or the lighting plot or whether or not I think a light or sound cue went off at the right time. But “Friends Like These” was the first show in years that I was completely absorbed in. And for that alone, the show was wonderful.
But the show was wonderful because the show is wonderful. Greg Crafts has written a thing of beauty, a show that is simultaneously tragic and hilarious, down-to-earth and earth-shatteringly powerful. The five cast members were brilliant in becoming their characters, and because of the combination of the writing, acting, and great directing, I suddenly found myself so insanely attached to these characters that it made the inevitable doom that much more difficult for experience.
This is a great show, the best show I saw at the Fringe this year, and I hope that there’s an opportunity for me to see it again.
