Eat, Pray, Laugh! (SF Fringe Festival) September 10, 2009

Jewish princess seeks Indian guru for one life stand.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT:  "Miss, your ticket please." Alicia opens her eyes and sees two very large men, with two very large rifles. She's been pretending to sleep, hoping no one claims the bunk she's in. Alicia waited in line for hours to buy a ticket for today's train ride. Or at least she thought it was for today. The train pulled into the station, the porter took her bags and she handed him her ticket only to hear him say the worst possible thing she could imagine, "This ticket is for tomorrow's train."  That can't be.  Alicia is somewhere between the Taj Mahal and the Ganges River, at sundown, on a platform populated by a dozen suspicious  looking men who are starting to pay a little too much attention to her.  She has to get on that train, which is beginning to pull out of the station. She grabs her ticket and bags from the porter, leaps onto the train, and through the window hands the porter a wad of rupee notes--just to make sure he keeps her secret a secret. Alicia finds an empty bunk in third class, hops in, and closes her eyes. Maybe no one will notice she's in their bunk. It could happen. Not this time. Now she is staring at two unhappy soldiers with rifles and an old man clutching the dreaded ticket for the bunk she's in. "Your ticket please."  Some transcendent trip in India!  She very slowly hands the soldiers her ticket. "What are you doing here?" one of them demands, leaning in close to her face, "You should be in first class." 

       Eat, Pray, Laugh! chronicles Alicia's three-month solo trip across India in search of spiritual salvation--which doesn't look anything like she expected. Alicia dishes on everything from seductive French yoga teachers to scary Indian toilets to the Italian fashion exporter with a Krishna fetish to mosquitoes the size of small ponies to Chabad Jews on the Ganges, and ultimately  the true meaning of masala chai.

PERFORMANCE: 9/10 (Thur) at 7:00p, 9/11 (Fri) at 10:00p, 9/12 (Sat) at 8:30p, 9/17 (Thur) at 8:30p, 9/18 (Fri) at 7:00p, 9/19 (Sat) at 8:30p 

THE 2009 SAN FRANCISCO FRINGE FESTIVAL, September 9 through 20, brings over 40 different shows to multiple San Francisco venues, including the EXIT Theatre, 156 Eddy Street, which is "Fringe Central." Most are within walking distance of Union Square and the Powell Street BART station.  For complete listings of venues, shows, and times, go to www.sffringe.org.  Or call the fringe hotline at (415) 673-3847.  Tickets are $10 per show and ten-show passes are $65 and five-show passes are $35.  This year, EXIT Theatre celebrates its 26th anniversary of bringing exciting, innovative theatre to downtown San Francisco.