Personals by David Crane, Seth Friedman, and Marta Kauffman
HI Edmonton Hostel – Common Room (10647 81 avenue) August 14 – 22, 24
Personals at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Photo credit: Trish van Doornum
Describe your show in five words.
Quirky. 80’s. Jazz hands. Denim On Denim. Hilarious
Okay, now that we’re intrigued… what’s the longer description?
Set in the 80’s, Personals is a revue-style show that follows an assortment of characters as they try to find love through personal ads with varying degrees of success.
Why did you want to bring the off-Broadway hit Personals to the Edmonton Fringe Festival?
Everyone can relate to the joy, frustration and weirdness that comes along with relationships; whether it’s sharing everything with your best friend, merging your baggage (emotional and otherwise) as you move in together or feeling cynical at the fact that looking for love is really not about you, it’s about a sales pitch. Audiences will be able to see pieces of themselves in these characters and how they navigate their connections.
I think even with the “missed connections” section of Craigslist, people have always been fascinated with people writing to reach out to others. Are those some of the ideas Personals explores? Or what other themes does the show explore?
It definitely explores those ideas and that’s a big part of the theme of the show, but much like the show we did last year, I Love You Because, it also explores the idea that a connection can be made when you least expect it as well.
What context do you think our digital age gives to audiences seeing Personals?
Whether it be our digital age or taking out personal ads in newspapers, I think that Personals shows that searching for a connection is timeless. Even though the show is set more then two decades ago, audiences will still be able to empathize with the characters because people will always be looking for that special someone and therefore will always have to deal with the bumps and mishaps along the way that come with that.
Anything else you want audiences to know about the show?
Personals was written by David Crane, Seth Friedman, and Marta Kauffman, who later went on to write Friends. So you know that you’re bound to get more than a few laughs from the show. And with some of the music written by composers like Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken, you’ll definitely have a song or two stuck in your head after you leave the show.
The 34th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival is August 13 – 23. Get your tickets at tickets.fringetheatre.ca.