The Fringe Festival is on, bringing today’s theater right to your doorstep for a pittance (most shows run from $15 to $18). I’m just back from seeing Faye Lane bring to life a small town in Texas in the ’70s in her one-woman show, “Beauty Shop Stories.” In an hour of story-telling and song, Faye paints a picture of her younger self as a lonely, overweight little girl (“in my Pretty Plus jeans”) who dreams of a life beyond the beauty parlor. Rich as it is with characters and detail, she does more than conjure MoonPies and gun-toting grandmas. (Uh, as if that weren’t enough?) What Faye has the remarkable ability to do in her performance is draw her audience into her world. We laugh and cry with her, and triumph at her ultimate success. If you like the idea of Eat, Pray, Love–wanting to change the story that’s been written for your life by someone else–but can’t stand the idea of going to see it, go to this instead. Just two more shows, Saturday, August 21 at 9:45 p.m. and Monday, August 23 at 8:45 p.m. Get tickets here.
