6 Racy Fringe Festival Shows to See

Peter Jones and Teddy Fatscher in Carried Away. Photo by Steve Belkowitz

The 20th Philadelphia Fringe Festival kicks off this Friday and runs through September 24th, with 15 curated shows, tons of independent “Fringe Around the City” performances, and music-heavy late-night events at FringeArts.

We already told you where to get the Fringe Fest guide, the local talents to watch and how to get a sneak peek of the shows. And now we’re telling you where to see the naked people, hear the R-rated language or tackle the off-limits topics — or all three. Here are six Fringe Festival performances for the grown-ups only.

Zach Trebino and Jenni Messner in Story of My Eye. Photo by Barry Kirsch

Story of My Eye
September 10-12
Real-life lovers Jenni Messner and Zach Trebino, a.k.a. GoatPig, explore their real-life sexual relationship in the context of our porn-drenched world in this absurdist multimedia show at Kung Fu Necktie.

I Fucking Dare You
September 9-17
The risk-taking Berserker Residents trio presents a “clown doubleheader” that asks “What if Garbage Pail Kids came to life?” Probably nothing good, right? It’s at the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players.

Carried Away
September 9-24
The adventurous dance troupe JUNK, led by choreographer — and longtime Fringe favorite — Brian Sanders, gets Carried Away at this year’s festival, with a somewhat autobiographical story inspired by Sanders’ earlier life. The dancers, dressed in denim and leather, move through underground scenes in New York.

An Obviously Foggot
September 14-18
This new play from Bastion Carboni, produced by Poison Apple Initiative, is “a drunken collision of original and found text, reconstituted pop songs, and broken dance parties.” It’s at iCandy, which is a little meta: The topic is internalized homophobia and transphobia in the gay bar scene.

Nip
September 14-23
Philly Fringe newbies Amanda Holston and Noemi Charlotte Thieves combine burlesque and poetry for the tale of dancer Blonde Mona on a killing spree, performed at Tattooed Mom.

Explicit Female
September 17-20
Zornitsa Stoyanova’s one-woman multimedia show at Vox Populi, created during the choreographer’s residency at Fidget Space, is performed mostly in the nude, which makes it very explicit indeed. The interactive performance is an “expressive and surrealist event celebrating the female body.”

Zornitsa Stoyanova in Explicit Female. Photo by Will Drinker

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