Artvoice Magazine 8/2/07

Honestly, three or four days into the Infringement Festival, it seemed perfectly congruous to step onto the front porch and find a troupe of Brechtian characters skipping and dancing down the street and into the park across from my house, banging drums and cowbells. In costumes ranging from Teutonic nightmare drag to colonial khaki and pith helmet, the players in Subversive Theatre’s traveling street production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Exception and the Rule and the crowds that follow the performance as it moves through Allentown have been the most colorfully visible and audible face of the festival this year. Pulled every which way by the schedule of events—Aaron Piepszny’s dance performance at the Nina Freudenheim Gallery on Sunday, for example—I have yet to catch more than five minutes at a time of the production. But I intend to take in the entire play, which begins in Days Park, this weekend (Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2pm).

Not that it will be any easier to commit time this weekend: On Friday and Saturday at Gallery 164, Nimbus Dance presents Triple Flicker, an amalgam of sound, film and dance that begins at 8pm; arrive early if you want a seat. The Brazen-Faced Varlets offering, Midsummer Dyke’s Dream, opened Wednesday night at Rust Belt Books and plays three more times—tonight (Thursday, August 2) at Hallwalls at 8:45 pm, plus Saturday (4pm) and Sunday (4:30pm) at Rust Belt.

The mind-twisting rock of Knife Crazy at Nietzsche’s (Friday, 10pm), Shakespeare in the Parking Space (across from Allen Street Hardware, Saturday at 10pm), S. Vestas Flaming Circus in Days Park (every evening at dusk)—the days and evenings fill up quickly, especially as one stumbles across unexpected performances and exhibits, unplanned-for stops for a drink or conversation. Check infringebuffalo.org to stay apprised of schedule changes.

—geoff kelly

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