Too Much Ibsen Makes The Fringe More Fun
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The Fringe often isn’t a festival so much as a theatrical asteroid belt, providing a home for wandering junk that can’t come together during the season. But occasionally it turns out something more substantial.
“The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen” could and should survive on its own in any New York theater. Sadly, the acclaimed company, the Neo-Futurists, have their own homes in Chicago, thank you very much. All the more reason to catch Greg Allen’s comedic comet now.
The same time-conscious zany who dreamed up “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” Mr. Allen plays a little bait-and-switch with his twohour tribute to Ibsen. Though it starts out as a send-up of the Norwegian’s verse drama (not a hard task, with all the pyres and guys named Knut), it actually becomes a thoughtful and useful exploration of Ibsenite themes.
In “Too Much Light,” the Neo-Futurists raced to complete a series of vignettes in an arbitrary sequence before their hour was up. New bits rotated in and out of the repertory, requiring prodigious memories and very speedy footwork. In “The Last Two Minutes,” the company can actually loosen its tie a little – the script demands the scenes in chronological order, and their interpretation of “two minutes” can vary between one minute and ten.
The surprise here isn’t that the show is hilarious; it’s that the entire cast can whip off their beanies, put down their ketchup bottles, and play it straight. Steve Walker’s cruelly funny send-up of the syphilitic Oswald may render “Ghosts” unwatchable for some seasons to come. The “A Doll’s House” bust-up between Nora (Sarah Clark) and her husband Torvald (Joe Dempsey) seemed more genuine and heartbreaking than most full productions allow; and Mr. Allen’s team even makes “Peer Gynt” seem like a viable option.
Any whiff of academic interest might drive away their core audience, so Merrie Greenfield keeps things light by introducing Appalachian-style “deliverance” to some of Ibsen’s early religious zealots. But after taking their swings at Ibsen, the company finds that the old Norseman swings back. Mr. Allen loves him, and audience members will sense it. If they didn’t know Ibsen going in, they will on the way out.
August 26 & 27 (212-279-4488).