Fringe Festival reviews are in

Video trailer for Fringe Festival show "Sarah, Your Ovaries are Drying Up"

The Minnesota Fringe Festival is a frenzied, fantastical feast of theater, dance and music, and the numerous media outlets' attempts at covering the Fringe reflect its somewhat chaotic and slippery nature. Teams of critics are sent out by the papers to review as wide a swath of shows in the first weekend as possible, reducing their usually lengthy observations to quick first impressions. Independent bloggers give their take, and others just celebrate the fact that for ten days theater has taken over the city of Minneapolis.

But for sure the most reliable way of figuring out what's a hit and what's not is by checking out the Fringe Festival's own website, complete with video trailers and user reviews.

What's emerging as the festival's standouts this year?

First off, there's "Bard Fiction" - it's a Shakespearean retelling of "Pulp Fiction." As one Fringer writes:

I was amazed at the seamless transition of handgun to dagger, cocaine to snuff, "Bad Mother****er" to "Blasted Oedipus." The use of iambic pentameter and an Elizabethan-influenced dialect retained the spirit of the dialogue while remaining easy to follow.

Looking for good laughs in more modern English? Try "The Harty Boys in the Case of the Limping Platypus." It features a theft from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and several other Minnesota references. Adult and child actors alike have received rave reviews for their performances. The cast includes local comedic talents Josh Scrimshaw, Ari Hoptman and Leslie Ball.

Some other good bets:

Untitled Duet with Houseplant

Buyer's Remorse

Jurassic Dork

Tragedy of You

Sideways Stories from Wayside School

An Intimate Evening with Fotis, Part III

Projectile Thinking

Of course, that's just a partial list. What do you recommend people see at this year's Fringe?

• After five years, State of the Arts comes to a close
• Park Square’s second stage to open Friday
• Most critics find ‘Romeo and Juliet’ a dreamy delight
• Michael Kareken fills two galleries with ‘Parts’