THEATER

THEY CALL ME MISTER FRY

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JACK FREIBERGER

DIRECTED BY JEFF MICHALSKI

INDY FRINGE THEATRE 719 EAST ST. CLAIR ST.

4 stars

Jack Fry at Indy Fringe Theater: directed by Jeff Michalski.  Since public education began, Americans have been trapped in a humorless, often vitriolic debate over the best way to raise our children.  Finally, Jack Fry’s one-man show provides sweet comic relief that reminds us that even if there’s only so much a teacher can do to reach 30 sprites at a time, there’s much a good one will try.  To his own noble attempt in a fifth grade classroom in L.A., the teacher known as Mr. Fry brings his alter ego King Arthur to cajole the kids into math lessons and to give himself Camelot-inspired pep talks on his many bad days.  Educated at Indy’s Park-Tudor, the talented writer-performer takes a risk in portraying two troubled students, one Latino boy and one African-American girl, but they rise out of his pale skin to tell us their stories, their way: whiny, rude, cajoling, weepy, traumatized and ecstatic.  Fry takes a few jabs at the No Child Left Behind law and test driven curriculums, but he keeps it as light as his knightly balloon sword.  He turns the sword on himself, too, recalling when he engaged in the odious, popular sport of parent bashing.  Education references aside, this 90-minute theatrical whirlwind is really about what kids and adults share, the need to find what they do well and to do it—and in Fry’s case, ditching the girlfriend who wants him to do something else.  Through September 26. 721-9458. www.indyfringe.org

Josefa Beyer