Venturesome Debut For Fringe Festival

1992 Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival; through Sunday at eight venues on Capitol Hill. Information: 637-7320. ----------------------------

The 1992 Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival is all about venturesomeness and variety, and both were evident at one of the festival's eight venues, the basement of the First Christian Church on Broadway, during the festival's opening night last week.

The three shows had little in common (except small audiences), so it seems appropriate to comment on each separately.

"By and About Strindberg," produced by AHA! Theatre, is a double bill with a play by the great Swedish dramatist, "The Stronger," and a play about him, Per Olav Enquist's "The Night of the Tribades" (only its first act, because of the festival's time limitation).

Presenting the plays in tandem is a kicky idea, and the present truncated version can serve as a teaser for AHA!'s full production, opening Feb. 6.

"The Stronger," which Strindberg wrote in 1889, is a justly famous one-act monologue in which a woman, Mrs. X, encounters a former friend and acting colleague, Miss Y, and while Miss Y remains mute, Mrs. X proceeds to explore their past relationship, specifically as it involved Mrs. X's husband.

The first act of Enquist's play, written in Swedish in 1975, is set at a theater in Copenhagen during a rehearsal of the world-premiere performance of "The Stronger." There Strindberg (played vigorously by William Salyers, who is a near look-alike for the playwright) rants and raves while his estranged wife is trying to conduct a rehearsal of a production which she hopes will re-establish her as a star actress.

The role is played by Alicia Roper, who also plays Mrs. X, the speaking character, in "The Stronger." Elizabeth Juviler plays the mute Miss Y, but she has a strong voice in "The Night of the Tribades," in which she plays a woman who lived in the Strindbergs' home for a while and incurred the playwright's undying wrath by seducing his wife (tribade is another word for lesbian).

If all this seems like a mirrored infinity box, that surely was AHA! Theatre's intent. Enquist's play surprisingly comes off the better of the two, partly because of Salyers' acting and partly because the translation of "The Stronger" seems unnecessarily stilted and the extreme demands of its big role are beyond Roper's present grasp.

The Pilgrim Center for the Arts was scheduled to present two one-act plays by local author David Golden, but only "87 People I Really Hate" made it to the stage.

This is a trifle about a new "Roman candle of the literary profession" who gets raves for his best-selling first novel, and then seeks revenge on those who tried to package him and his ideas for their own commercial and/or ideological purposes.

He writes, and privately publishes, a book with the same title as the play. The action, such as it exists, has to do with the writer's attorney (Margaret M. Bullitt) trying to wiggle the writer (Matthew Jason Bowlsby) off the multiple hook of 85 libel suits.

The play has moments of humor (mainly the satirical, venomous variety), but even at only a half-hour, it seems to stretch its ideas thin. The acting is well-intentioned and serviceable.

"Teechers" is John Godber's imaginative, funny, moral-to-the-bone play about how the better qualities of unruly English teenagers are brought out by a compassionate, committed but tough drama teacher.

The effective, energetic production - in which three actors play about 20 characters - is a reprise by the New Mercury Theatre, which had a successful run of the show last summer.

The play is a hoot, with a serious message (all kids deserve a good education) but is never preachy. The acting by Liane Davidson, James Marsters and Lori Spicer is detailed, assured and hilarious in a production directed deftly by Marsters.