The area’s second annual Fringe runs through Sunday at three venues in Somerville, allowing the festival of unpredictable and often oddball acts to double in size to 40 from last year. (It’s also added a day, to seven this year from six in 2025.) The venues added this year to The Rockwell Theater – a barber shop and pizza joint – reflect the catch-as-catch-can nature of the 75-year-old Edinburgh Fringe, where performers are on their own to find any businesses that will host them.
Somerville also follows Fringe rules on how acts get in, said co-founder Deby Xiadani, the artistic director of The Rockwell. That means there’s no jury, and half the shows are accepted automatically, first-come, first-served, the other by lottery for the remaining slots. The process was slightly delayed this year because Xiadani and co-founder Anton Monteleone wanted to pin down the new locations.
Those additional Davis Square spots – Dragon’s Lair, 233 Elm St., and Dente’s Barber Shop, 417 Highland Ave. – will host most of the week’s “Shorty Shows,” 30-minute shows that are paired for performances. The 200-seat Rockwell, 255 Elm St., will host the full-length shows and some Shorty Shows. Even Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, has been brought into the mix.
Tickets are $15 per show. Festival passes are $75. All ticket sales go to the artists. “With 10 people at each of the artist’s shows, an artist will make their production fee back and then some,” the Fringe website notes.
Unlike the Dragon’s Lair and Dente’s, The Rockwell is a traditional theater with padded seats and a full bar – yet all Fringe shows have an element of surprise and eccentricity to them whether they be funny or dramatic, involving clowning, puppetry or song. This also reflects the original Scottish Fringe, held in 1947 by a few theater groups who weren’t accepted at the more formal Edinburgh International Festival but went regardless and staged their works on its “fringe.”
Here are the year’s Boston Fringe offerings.
Longer shows
“10 Skills 2 Years” by David Piccolomini. Brooklyn comedian Piccolomini quit video games and decided to use the free time to teach himself 10 skills in two years, from piano to Spanish to Basketball. (Monday, Wednesday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“Best Friends!!” by August W. Guszkowski. Three short works by a Cambridge playwright, actor and librarian that explore friendship, trying to answer questions such as: Do friends need a reason to love us? Is “best friend” a distinction you outgrow? How do you grieve a changed friendship even if it hasn’t ended? (Monday, Friday and Saturday at The Rockwell)
“The Cloud Collector” by June Beiser. A trans fantasy rock musical by a Somerville writer, visual artist and musician about a young playwright, Hazel, who moves between real and imagined worlds. (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at The Rockwell)
“Cuts” by Seth Pate. A dark, quiet and warm little cabaret show of original tunes for voice, keyboard, bass “and some other stuff.” (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at The Rockwell)
“How to Peel an Orange” by Magdalena Poost. Part tragic clown show, part romantic comedy, and part climate story written and performed by Poost. (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at The Rockwell)
“Keeping Secrets” by Jim Vetter. Writer and performer Vetter, who spent two decades as a magician, mime and actor in venues from Harvard Square to Ecuador, focuses now on this one-person show based on actual events that explores the links between what magicians do and what child sexual abusers do. An “unusual performance combines acting, visuals, and a magic trick or two” in what Vetter describes as his “most personally meaningful show.” (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at The Rockwell)
“No. 1 in Heaven Starring Travels With Brindle” by Chelsea Spear. The ukulele ingenue retrofits the Sparks’ album “No. 1 in Heaven” to the days of vaudeville and music halls. (Monday, Thursday and Friday at The Rockwell)
“The Parade of Dreams” by Kyle Winslow Smith. A magical-realism, darkly funny musical that follows Ada and Gabriel, a couple fractured by tragedy, and the desperate bargain they strike with Rastin – a charismatic carnival performer with the power to speak to the dead. The debut musical by Winslow Smith, former baritone with Chorus Pro Musica who has performed alongside Andrea Bocelli at TD Garden and is now musical director for Improv Asylum in Boston. (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at The Rockwell)
“PSA: Pelvic Service Announcement” by Amy Veltman. A silly, educational musical romp in which the New York comedian and storyteller discovers her ignorance about her body’s most basic functions in spite of having an OB-GYN father. (Tuesday, Friday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“Uncle Yak and His Magic Comeback” by Andrew Yakoobian. A for-real magic show – Yakoobian is a comedy magician and variety artist who has performed across New England – about a magician struggling to make a comeback. (Thursday, Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“Whelp!” by Bryce Flint-Somerville. An interactive puppet and clown show for all ages! show about a man on his quest to be organized. Flint-Somerville, previously a performer in Blue Man Group, won last year’s Boston Fringe Festival’s Best Full Length Comedy award. (Thursday, Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
Shorty shows
“A Plausibly Authentic Midnight Vaudeville Ghost Show, or the Importance Of Being Haunted” by Gwen Coburn. A wannabe spiritualist stages a midnight ghost show straight out of vaudeville’s heyday, complete with ectoplasm, floating tables and campy spectacle, to contact her deceased actor grandmother. (Tuesday at Arts at the Armory and Friday at Dente’s)
“Becoming Psychic” by Gada Jane. A darkly funny solo show about doubt, belief and the cultural line between insight and insanity as a skeptic begins having psychic experiences and worries she’s losing her mind. (Wednesday at Dragon Pizza and Friday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“Carnival of Sorts” by Erik Bartlett. Cape Cod’s Bartlett toured with a carnival sideshow before crafting this blend of comedy, circus and escapology. (Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“Charlie’s Spring” by Justin Beauchamp. A one-person show with original music, poetry and drag exploring how people understand, embrace and express themselves. (Monday at Dragon Pizza and Saturday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“Cody McComedy” by Cody McInnis. “Come watch another white male success story in the making,” quips McInnis, a Bostonian by way of Pittsburgh who performs as Cody McComedy with dry humor, social commentary and the occasional rant about why doughnuts are the perfect food. (Monday at Dragon Pizza and Saturday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“The Dutch Castaway” by Lawrence Gullo. In 1725, a Dutch sailor on a merchant ship was marooned on an island for the crime of sodomy. Months later, two English sailors discover his diary and translate it for each other on the beach, searching for signs of the man’s fate. Featuring playwright Gullo and actor Sebastian Crane. (Wednesday at Dragon Pizza and Friday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“Empty Night” by Abhisek Bhattacharya. The context is construction of a dam that destroys a forest and village, disrupting the lives of a farmer who turns to stealing and a tiger who must take care of her cubs in whatever way she can. The thief and tiger meet and make sacrifices, and one learns the rules of survival to find out what it means to be human. (Thursday at Dragon Pizza and Saturday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
Field Trip sketch comedy. High-concept premises, fast-paced writing and a playful approach to comedy is promised by a group formed by Tufts alums Laura Donovan, Jamie Juviler and Evan Starr in 2022, not to mention “a guaranteed joke-a-minute extravaganza … riddled with callbacks, callforwards and thematic throughlines.” Absurdist, energetic humor with character-driven sketches balances sharp jokes with moments of surprising sincerity. (Monday and Thursday at Dragon Pizza)
“Forward Thinking” by Nora Butler. A minimalist, dystopian short play follows an elderly man spending his last day before an operation that transitions him into the body of his cat. Butler is a Brooklyn director with a background in psychology. (Wednesday at Dragon Pizza and Friday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“Ghoul Trappers: Step Aside, Skeptics” by MJ Livesay and Mia Kelly. Sketch comedy inspired by paranormal and reality television series such as “Ghost Hunters” follows a pair of professional ghost-seekers in Medford. The creators are Boston performers and writers who met while working at MIT. (Tuesday at Arts at the Armory and Friday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“Good Boy” by Luke Fraser. A one-act musical comedy by a Boston-Los Angeles performer, writer and songwriter about a high-achieving teenager whose sense of identity starts to shift – a look at what it means to grow up queer while trying to live up to expectations from family and community. (Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“Half-Orphan” by Kevin McNulty. “A comedian bravely exploits his father’s death to create the perfect one-man show,” McNulty says in his satirical promotional copy. “Like any great artist, Kevin hopes to turn childhood grief into award-winning work. He hasn’t won any yet. But by digging up his childhood memories, photos and even actual footage of his dad’s funeral, he will.” He promises charts proving his show is not tasteless. (Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“Highly Disordered” by Casey McNeal. ADHD? OCD? THC? LGBT? It’s all in this show exploring the mental disorders and coping strategies of the neurodiverse, as well as perspectives on gender, relationships, marijuana and more with comic Sky Nockels (who brings a trans perspective) and Kevin Turner (who has obsessive-compulsive disorder). (Monday at Dragon Pizza and Saturday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
Indie rock with Alfred Be Loud. A Boston indie rock band influenced by the alt-rock and punk of the ’80s and ’90s – bands such as The Pixies, Bikini Kill and Queens of the Stone Age – plays off its forthcoming debut EP, “Heavy.” (Tuesday at Arts at the Armory and Thursday at Dragon Pizza)
“In a Minute” by Tess Saoirse Liddy. A dance inspired by Liddy’s experience since the arrival of the Covid pandemic – pausing performances for two years, losing the structure of traditional schooling, beginning work as a public school teacher and being diagnosed with ADHD. With Eliza Owen-Smith, Abigail Dube, Audrey Abraham, Heidi Ho, Joselyn Gil, Sanaya Mistry, Shawna Upton, Katie Logan, Shirin Kuppusamy, Kelsey Clausing and Aarti Lamberg, the choreographer explores moving forward after acknowledging problems and limitations. (Tuesday at Arts at the Armory and Friday at Dente’s)
“Limit/Old Mother; Fugue” by Victoria Rubink. These theater vignettes present a conversation between AI and humans (“Limit”) as an asteroid hurtles earthward and AI moves to save the planet (using all its water to do it), and a musical dialogue between a mother and a daughter (“Old Mother; Fugue”) who struggle to see eye to eye. (Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“The Love Movements” by Deby Xiadani. Dance exploring the Ancient Greeks’ eight words describing different types of love – for family members, romantic partners and best friends, for instance. (Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“Lt. Love Dr’s Boot Camp For Lonely People Like You” by Chloe Matonis. New York’s Matonis, a comic and clown, ran this interactive show at the Edinburgh Fringe about a soldier who has traveled back in time from 2075 to save human connection through a series of drills including small talk, eye contact and speed dating. She says this “surprisingly impactful show will inspire you to make friends, disconnect from the digital world and rediscover what it means to be human.” (Tuesday at Arts at the Armory and Friday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“Our Lord and Savior” by Alana Corrigan. A comedy musical in which the music is hymns, because the plot follows a Minnesotan pastor trying to lead a prayer circle for local teens while dealing with divorce with his wife, who just came out as a lesbian. Corrigan is a Minnesotan playwright. (Wednesday at Dragon Pizza and Saturday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“Revenge of the Soy Boy” by Justin Avery Smith. That this Central Massachusetts writer, comedian and performer has been featured in McSweeney’s and The Onion and has almost 30,000 followers across his social media platforms didn’t save him from being heavily mocked online by Star Wars fans last year. Now he strikes back, using the movie, TV and game universe as a filter for commentary about finding a place in the world amid political and digital unrest. Directed by Jacob Musgrove. (Thursday at Dragon Pizza and Saturday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“Sitayama: Her Side of the Fire” by Payal Patnaik. A modern feminist interpretation of the millennia-old Sanskrit epic “The Ramayana” provides the backdrop for original Indian Americana songs rooted in mythology. The original story tells of prince Rama’s heroic exile and return; this version by a Somervillian fusing Indian themes with American folk and punk is about Sita, who endured it all alongside him. (Wednesday at Dragon Pizza and Friday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
Slapschtick Comedy. An all-Jewish comedy troupe does improv, sketches and some singing. (Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
Spare Tire Presents: The Good, the Bad and the Dipstick. Sketch comedy by August Kees, Emma Skinner and Bo Segrest, exploring themes of loneliness, exclusion and an alien species laying eggs in your lower intestine. (Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
“Squires*” by Charles Wainwright. Squires of sword and sorcery go on a quest to prove themselves heroes, aided by magical bags of holding and the audience. (Monday and Thursday at Dragon Pizza)
Sunshine Duo musical improv. Krissy Larsen and Andy, both of Rhode Island, take suggestions from the audience to create a story on the fly. (Wednesday at Dragon Pizza and Saturday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“A Tall Girl’s Lament” by Lauren Schultes. A musical following a 5-foot-11 woman’s journey to land a leading role – on stage and in her love life – that features parodies of songs from shows such as “Wicked” and “Les Miz.” Schultes’ tale of battling bad dates, ruthless casting calls and a world that insists she’s more “evil queen” than “girl next door” has appeared in New York, Chicago and the Napoleon Room in Boston. (Monday at Dragon Pizza and Saturday at Dente’s Barber Shop)
“The Trouble with Happy Endings” by Riley Duggan. A one-person musical comedy by the New York-Boston performer and writer exploring how grief, fantasy and compulsive coping can intertwine, and what happens when fantasy starts to feel safer than reality. (Tuesday at Arts at the Armory and Thursday at Dragon Pizza)
“What The Hell Is A 401k??” by Danya Goldstein. The New York bisexual (“90 percent lesbian, 10 hopeful”) Cuban-Jewish comedian writes and performs about religion, identity, bad dates and even worse life choices in a “master class on how to succeed in life, so you too can become a comedian and give pride to the parents who thought you’d go to medical school.” (Saturday and May 17 at The Rockwell)
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