		: Shiftings
		SAN FRANCISCO FRINGE FESTIVAL AUDIENCE REVIEWS
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CLICK HERE FOR RECENT REVIEWS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER CLICK ON PLAY FOR AUDIENCE REVIEWS FOR THAT PLAY 21/One: Twenty-One Shows in One Hour 3 Plays About Your Mom Antarctica ARE YA WORKING? Being Something: Living "Young" and Growing "Old" in Oakland Bound and Gagged Brilliant Disguise Brother #1 Cervix With A Smile Chinese Clown Cabaret CornTato Divided We Fall Do The Clam El Camino Loco Fear of a Brown Planet Fresh Meat Go Kibbitz go! Got Lucky Green Bamboo Hermitage Here to There LOUNGE-ZILLA! Love Scenes Magnificence of the Disaster MEDIAVOID Name You Can Trust, A nEO-sURREALISTS Paper Dolls Playing in the Dark Politics on the Edge Revolving Madness SHIFTINGS Show me where it hurts Slow Moves, Rich Tales Sperm Warfare Thersites Waiting for the Relevance WALKING BACK TO BROOKLYN Werewolf, The When You Stand Alone Yellow Tunic, The You May Now Kiss.... My Sass		Play: Shiftings Reviewer: Pamela 4 Stars Joan's physical expertise was stunning, always the highlight of every aspect of the performance. Play: Shiftings Reviewer: Josh Cohen 1 Star When a performance like this gets 4 or 5 stars, it makes me wonder about the credibility of these reviews. Our party of 4 felt this was an excruciatingly pretensious, well, piece of unbelieveable crap. We simply could not believe how bad it was. One person in the audience was clearly a plant, but the rest exchanged looks of exasperation, boredom and rolling eyeballs at regular intervals. Certainly, any movement can be "metaphoric" of greed, but how completely unartistic is using a t-shirt logo or a doll with red dye in its crotch and pointing to it over and over to make a point? What point? We are avid theater goers, and love mime and improvisational physical theater, but this was the first time I have ever been tempted to take my money back in the middle of a performance, since it was being thrown on the floor in order as another "metaphor." The real metaphor here was how we were taken for $9 and forced to watch this self-absorbed woman, who's friends clearly thought this i! nept idea would translate from a drug induced laugh to an actual performance. The only redeeming thing about this was the clever use of a custodian character who provided a transition, and the laughs we shared with the other members of the audience outside. We all wished the custodian had swept away the performer. Avoid this "performance." If there was a selection for 0 stars we would have selected it. Play: Shiftings Reviewer: Craig Ken 3 Stars I guess you could call it interpretive dance interspersed with such bits as a yodeling janitor. I was never drawn into the performance or felt connected to Joan Merwyn (kind of like being danced at through a looking glass). One person in the audience was laughing loudly at some of the bits (he was the exception). I didn’t find a lot of messages, The political “bit” was a tad gratuitous. If your focus is on seeing dance performances, this is okay. If you’re looking for something light, stay away. Play: Shiftings Reviewer: Carl 3 Stars Very inventive visual work, with a number of very striking images that emerge in surprising ways. The drawbacks are that the subject matter is rather trite and she isn't really saying anything new about it; there are moments where her performance seems to lack physical precision, something I found surprising from such a seasoned performer; and she isn't very charismatic - I never felt drawn into the show by the persona of the performer - perhaps a few moments where I really felt she was enjoying herself or really wanted the audience to empathize with her would remedy this. The janitor stuff was fun, especially the pre-show bit. Play: Shiftings Reviewer: Christy 4 Stars I really, really enjoyed this show. It's been a really long time since I've seen production that made me giggle at, and also feel really deeply moved by, the character on stage. It's also been a long time since I've seen anything that so successfully merges the personal with the political. I couldn't take my eyes off Joan Merwyn - what an artist. And her counterpart - the sleepy custodian who yodels and the mysterious, robed knitter - was really terrific. Really great theater! Play: Shiftings Reviewer: Ellen 3 Stars Shiftings was worth the trip to SF. I'm still thinking about it and reviewing images in my mind. I particularly enjoyed the physical puns and Joan's inside-outedness with garments. Listening to a yodelling, knitting janitor tickled me, too! Play: SHIFTINGS Reviewer: Colleen Great performance! It was great how there was a main message in each act, but yet it was still abstract, so each person may interepret the message differently. I especially liked the trasition acts!!!