Thurs Sept 26 at 6 pm, Sat Sept 28 at 11 am.

Claudia Kelly has an obsessive compulsion to purchase, own, and wear... hats. It's a dubious affectation to base a play upon, but don't worry: There's a plot. Bob, the most recent in a long line of Claudia's lost loves, is getting married. Claudia plans to crash the wedding and wax dramatic (she's a bit dysfunctional). I won't spoil the rest, but of all the Fringe Fest shows I caught, this tight, spunky little musical was the most fun. It's snappy and quirky, punctuated with jazzy tunes, clever plot twists, and colorful weirdos (keep your eye on John Bartley--a riot as "Pearl"). This production is very much a traditional musical--bouncy, melodramatic, and guaranteed not to strain too many brain cells. Bobbi Kotula plays the title character, and once again I'm impressed with the versatility of her amazing voice--this woman has a vibrato that could knock a flock of migrating geese right out of the sky. (Fabulous, but sit back a little.) ADRIAN RYAN

The Orphans of Greyheart

Sat Sept 28 at 9:15 pm.

Oh, this is just sick. The Fringe Fest guide describes The Orphans of Greyheart as "Dickensian, Gorey-esque, and Durang." Abysmal grammar aside, I really can't put it much better than that. Surreal, dark, and often teetering on the verge of getting just too damn obscure, Orphans is composed of three delightfully wrong vignettes featuring the slow torture and/or creative attempted murders of an entire orphanage full of dismal little children. There are starved orphans, electrocuted orphans, and orphans who've been slipped mickeys and passed around like dirty rumors. There is also a big pile of "sleeping orphans," moldering en masse out back. The production's "Gorey-esque" influences are plainly obvious: Gloom, misery, and cockney accents abound. If you appreciate Gorey's gloomy prose, you'll find The Orphans of Greyheart a smart and well-played Gorey substitute. Lucky for me, I possess the singular sense of humor needed to appreciate the nasty demises of nasty little children, and I found Orphans' Victorian gloom and naughty nuances entirely charming. ADRIAN RYAN

Herbert West: Re-Animator

Thurs Sept 26 at 6 pm, Sat Sept 28 at 8:15 pm.

Screaming, retching, racking, sobbing, and maybe just one too many hellish screams of madness... my GOODNESS, is this show ever NOISY. But this wonderfully wicked little delight also has yammering severed heads, homoerotic undertones, and the reckless use of needle drugs, so don't let the noise complaint deter you. (Still, for the record, I was really worried that the poor old audience member in the wheelchair up front was going to be startled into a coronary episode by all the gratuitous outbursts.) Re-Animator is an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's own version of Frankenstein: Two young MDs on the lam seek secret of life, resurrect the mindless dead, spiral into madness. All the traditional elements common to the old horror classics are present: spooky graveyards, flesh-eating ghouls, and spooky blue lighting (all accented and punctuated by the noir warble and screech of a three-piece percussion-and-string ensemble. The acting is skillful and the tale inherently full of dark humor--as any quality horror story should be. Two severed heads, way, way up. ADRIAN RYAN

Church of Pie

Fri Sept 27 at 9:15 pm, Sat Sept 28 at 2:30 pm, Sun Sept 29 at 5:30 pm.

A collection of vignettes that explore the two appetites driving all living creatures, lust and food, Open Circle Theater's Church of Pie explores how we fill ourselves. While this idea has been used endlessly since the beginning of storytelling, this well-done production shows just the right amount of ironic reverence to make it fresh: a man falls in love with a peepshow dancer; a woman soliloquizes about filling her throat with conversation; two men (one obsessed with snack food and the other with vegetables) discover themselves through their gluttony; and a milkmaid searches for nirvana in the sensuous Church of Pie. The actors never fail to show the fragility of the characters' emptiness while mocking their situation. With the exception of a misguided scene between two modern dancers and a flat fairy-tale song about a pancake, this show is delicious. GREGORY ZURA

Good Morning, Beijing

Thurs Sept 26 at 11:45 pm, Fri Sept 27 at 9:30 pm, Sat Sept 28 at 9:45 pm.

If you've ever been trapped in an airport bar and forced to listen to a corporate shill rant on and on about office politics and his daily paper-shuffling, there is no need to see this play. In Good Morning, Beijing, Jerome Saibil tells his own true story of being a nineteen-year-old deejay at a French-owned Beijing radio station. Grasping for bits of international intrigue and cultural fish-out-of-water tales, Saibil never finds anything more than bland anecdotes about a bland business. When his rants come close to stumbling upon some kind of revelation about himself or his situation, he lets the moment slip past, leaving the audience to face the fact that the grievances of a button-pushing corporate cog are not very interesting. To his credit, Saibil does have pretty good deejay skills, as he demonstrates throughout the show. It's a shame he couldn't turn up the levels of his story. GREGORY ZURA

Goin' Steady--The Musical!

Fri Sept 27 at 6 pm, Sat Sept 28 at 1 pm.

Intimate relationships are hard enough, but when the relationship is with a lesbian superhero named Captain Victory and the city is being overrun by giant shellfish, things can be especially difficult. Seattle's Pork Filled Players provide what you might expect from sketch comedy--safe, broad, silly jokes about Microsoft and the town of Renton. Not so silly are the jabs at identity and stereotyping. With Seattle in peril, Captain Victory solicits the help of the Asian Shadow, whose secret power is the ability to appear invisible to society. The real meat of the show, however, is the struggle for power between Captain Victory and her lesbian lover, May Lei, which plays out both at home and at a public media event. With some forced acting and clever musical numbers, Goin' Steady is B-movie fun--not great, but it makes no pretensions of being so. GREGORY ZURA

Baccarat

Sat Sept 28 at 11:30 am, Sun Sept 29 at 7:15 pm.

In Baccarat, three good-looking, pajama-clad young people while away their days in a high-rise apartment. Things heat up with the surprise visit of a long-lost friend bearing the gift of masks. The gang tries on the masks, and each member experiences a dramatic personality change.

According to director Amy Thomas, Freshgoods Theatre was founded with the intention of exploring the depths of collaboration. To quote Thomas' program notes, "We sat down with Joseph [Fischer, the playwright] and talked about issues that intrigued us, music and art that inspired us, and theater that we felt was speaking to the current generation."

I can't imagine what in our current cultural climate inspired the Freshgoods folks to club their audience with such ham-handed symbolism, but I can say that this "experience in collaboration" is at least a partial success, offering audiences a quintessential sample of the Deep Emotional Honesty found almost exclusively among young theater artists and cast members of The Real World. VICTORIA PEHA

Tests

Fri Sept 27 at 10:30 pm, Sat Sept 28 at 6:45 pm, Sun Sept 29 at 3:45 pm.

Ziggy has his dog. Mr. Bean has his teddy bear. Tests creator and performer John Osebold has a cat that he burps--or maybe it's a baby with sharp, sharp claws. (Pantomime can be tough to read, especially hourlong narrative pantomimes staged without the aid of a director.)

In Tests, a voiceover from the mysterious Division of Personnel asks Osebold's character (I'll call him Ziggy Bean) to participate in a series of tests designed to "evoke absolute security and peace." These tests provide a loose premise for Ziggy Bean to perform a series of mimed actions, with the test proctor providing instruction--sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant--via voiceover. In pajamas and a jaunty cap, Ziggy Bean is lovable, or at least has a dopey grin, but eventually the tests begin to erode his sweet naiveté, leaving him to hum a lonely song while cradling a photo of his beloved cat-baby. Audiences don't fare half as well. John Osebold--please get a director. VICTORIA PEHA

Burning Cage

Sat Sept 28 at 9 pm, Sun Sept 29 at 7 pm.

Written by the local performers Nicole DuFresne and Mary Jane Gibson, Burning Cage is based on actual, secret LSD experiments done on women confined in psychiatric hospitals. Despite some highly questionable components--movement, open verse, occasional bursts of mime, and a borderline feminist agenda--this show is everything you hope fringe theatre will be: funny, harrowing, haunting, and balls-out brave. Imagine One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest meets Thelma and Louise, coming to squirming life just three feet away from the edge of your seat. The elegance and precision of the language forges an uneasy alchemy with the raw intensity of the performances, creating a distinctly unusual and thrilling theatrical experience. It's not hard to imagine these girls going far, far, far with this show--like all-the-way-to-off-Broadway far. See it now, before HBO buys it as a vehicle for Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kate Hudson. TAMARA PARIS

For venue and ticket info, see www.seattlefringe.org.