This Week in Theatre: Festival Fun

'Tis the week of the fest here in A-town, and making the biggest bang is Refraction Arts' Fuse Box Festival, starting this Friday. Fuse Box is a three-week smörgåsbord of performance and other types of arts, featuring artists from around the globe. We've got this one covered, with pointers to a few things that stood out to us this week.

Along those lines, this Saturday's Blue 60 — the Fuse Box fundraiser and kick-off party — is sure to be a blast, so we're making it our Pick of the Week. Just having the opportunity to rub elbows with the insane people who brought you last year's impossibly hysterical The Assumption is well worth the $5-$25 entry fee. Maybe you can get Refraction Arts/Fuse Box Artistic Director Ron Berry to give an encore of his monologue about mustaches....

And, as we mentioned last week, Monday saw the opening of the Cohen New Works Festival at UT — check our full coverage and recommended performances. Continuing through this Saturday, catch these shows now or you'll miss 'em.

In non-fest news, we've got our eye on a few shows this week. Different Stages currently has Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage underway at the Vortex. With Bobbie Oliver playing Lettice, and the much-lauded Jennifer Underwood in the role of Lovage, we're banking on this production to have you laughing 'til you get a stitch in your side. Oliver is new to us, but we've seen Underwood in many a play, and her natural talent for bringing out the quirk in even the straightest of roles has us convinced that this show is a good bet.

Lastly, since our greasepaint crush on Ken Webster isn't much of a secret, we might as well direct your attention to yet another one-man show he's doing over at the ol' Hyde Park Theatre. Webster has a knack for introducing Austin to the work of lesser-known — but fabulous — playwrights. This time around he's staging the Austin premiere of Will Eno's Thom Pain (based on nothing), a piece that's reported to be "hilarious, curious, heartbreaking, [and] astonishing." Oddly enough, we seem to recall Webster telling us once that he hates memorizing lines. Considering this is his fourth one-man show of recent memory, we're starting to wonder if he might be something of a masochist. Regardless, Webster's talent shines brighter than ever at these solo gigs, so we suggest you give this one a gander.

Blue 60 at the Fuse Box Festival
Saturday 4/14 at 10pm
The Blue Theater
[tickets] / [Full-fest pass]

Cohen New Works Festival
Monday 4/9 - Sunday 4/15
UT Campus
Free, Some Works for Mature Audiences

Different Stages presents Lettice and Lovage
Thru 4/28, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pm / Su at 7pm
The Vortex
For advance tickets call 478-5282.

Thom Pain (based on nothing)
Thru 4/28, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pm
Hyde Park Theatre
For reservations call 479-PLAY.

For the rest of Austin's theatrical doings, check this week's IST List.

Image (c) Refraction Arts.