I love seeing new shows on the first day of Fringe. No reviews, no rumours, no spoilers; just me and my program. Unfortunately, Day 1 was not just me and my program, it was me and my program and my job that prevented me from seeing any shows before 10 PM, but I’ll take one show over no shows!
The God Squad by “el sidewinder”
The God Squad by el sidewinder plays at Intermedia Arts (2822 Lyndale Ave S) and features eight actors playing twenty different roles. The company describes their show as a “comedic-epic”, which is apt, although the combination isn’t as awesome as it sounds. It’s present-day, and Pandora’s Box has been found and captured by an unknown evil, so Zeus and his “God Squad” of heroes descend from Mount Olympus to help save the day for humanity, only to be faced with some existential questions about how they use their power and where their allegiance lies. The good news is that The God Squad is fun to look at, using an extensive array of costumes, sets, props, animation, and video. Also, it does have some honest-to-goodness Laugh Out Loud moments. The bad news is that el sidewinder decided that since the Olympians are Greek, they should have accents, but those accents sound kind of fake-Britishy, which is distracting. But the real problem is that this “comedic epic” turns out to be an epic that is over-the-top silly and doesn’t take itself too seriously…except for when it does. The combination doesn’t quite work as well as one might hope, but it still has its moments.
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 