Contrary to popular belief—at least insofar as the populace has any beliefs at all on the subject—the word “fringe” doesn’t necessarily mean “experimental” when applied to the performing arts. The usage was coined in 1947 to refer to eight productions that sprang up unbidden at the fringes of Scotland’s highbrow, highly selective Edinburgh International Festival. A better synonym might be “uninvited.”
Cole’s To Relax and Laugh at least has a heartbeat—and an amusing situation too, centered on an uptight woman named Sloan who seeks help from a therapist lacking not only credentials but sanity. The show is way too relentless in pushing its Zen-oid wisdom-of-madness message and way, way too enamored of whimsy as a method of putting that message over. Still, under Jen Moniz’s direction, KellyAnn Corcoran’s Sloan and Carolyn Hoerdemann’s therapist have some lovely moments of communion.
The subject, according to Murfin, is “theatre they have made together and theatre they have not made together and theatre they might make together some day.” And sure enough, these two urbane, fiercely intelligent thirtysomethings discuss an artistic partnership stretching back to their days as classmates at the Chicago Academy for the Arts. The really good stuff, though, relates to the complex dynamic between them as people—a dynamic they can’t quite get their heads around despite their Olympic-level capacities for introspection. A dynamic paradoxically thrown into relief by Kahn’s physical absence. Before Our Theatrical Future is done, Kahn has been transmuted into a kind of hipster Hamlet and Murfin into his ambivalent Horatio.
Through 3/1: times vary, see website Prop Thtr 3502 N. Elston 773-492-1287rhinofest.com $12 online, $15 or pay what you can at the door
