Fringe 2019 - In Town Brawl, All Politics Is Local and Petty

Have you ever actually attended a local town hall meeting? Most people never have – but I have, and in more than one location. And to my utter surprise, every time I’ve ever done so, the meeting has been full of two types of people: those who are overly enthusiastic about some specific agenda and those who seem to have no other hobby except commenting on public meetings. Town Brawl

Town Brawl at this year’s Hollywood Fringe manages to capture the exact essence of a town hall meeting in a wonderfully comedic experience that surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. Comedy is still a rare thing for immersive experiences and it’s easy to understand why. Creating comedy requires timing and carefully crafted moments, aspects that are that much harder in an immersive or interactive scenario. Town Brawl, however, accomplishes that task impressively, with very few flat moments and many highly amusing ones.

The creators say they created Town Brawl with inspiration from posts on Nextdoor.com (the Facebook-style app that allows people to rant at those who live in their specific zip code). The story certainly feels like it might be from that toxic pool of commentary, as it’s filled with beautifully awful characters. From petty politicians who may have stuffed the ballot to quirky women constantly calling out equally quirky comments from the peanut gallery, the show captures that aura of chaos that town hall meetings truly have.

Maura McCarthy shines as the titular leader of this entire mess. Her desperate ‘need’ to control this tiny sliver of power is almost breathtaking in its pettiness. McCarthy repeatedly veers from tyrant to lost little girl as events overtake her, but she never fails to keep the character consistent and relatable. She is at turns hysterical and bitter, darkly humorous and wildly unpredictable. And through it all, she is eminently watchable.

The rest of the cast matches her throughout the show, bringing characters that are laser-focused on their moment in the sun and completely oblivious to how small this sun actually happens to be. Special mention needs to be made for MJ Scott. Her comments from the audience were some of the funniest moments I’ve experienced during this entire Fringe season – some witty, some inexplicable, some completely anti-everything. Once again, I’ve actually seen people act like this in a real meeting, so having someone there to chime in with the exact sort of rants and statements that populate the real world was a performance of sheer genius. I would literally go see an entire show that was just MJ Scott sitting in an audience and making comments about what was happening on the stage. She’s that good.

To my utter surprise, Town Brawl even manages to have a deeper theme and heavier message lying underneath its comedic surface. The show touches on ideas of corruption, ignorance and even the dangers of close-minded thinking, all in a show that never takes itself or its topics too seriously. After all, when there are pictures in the show of posts about people complaining that their neighbors are watching them through their trees, how seriously can you take the events happening around you?

I found Town Brawl to be a very refreshing change of pace to most of the immersive productions that happen at Fringe and in Los Angeles in general. It was bright and cheery, smart and funny, and it was an enjoyable hour living through a satirized version of far worse hours that I’ve lived through in real life. It gives us darkly funny characters and bizarrely terrible situations that are sadly likely to have happened in real life somewhere in this country. It reminds us of both how stupid politics can be and how wonderful humans themselves are – even in the midst of their petty complaints and shortsighted thinking. I really hope that Town Brawl extends beyond Fringe as I can envision a version of this show that is even sharper and funnier – and I would gladly return to see it one more time if that happens.

Find out more information on Town Brawl and buy tickets here. Keep up to date with all of our Hollywood Fringe Festival 2019 coverage here. Follow our Event Guide for more news and reviews throughout the year.

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