Oedipus at FDR. Fires crackle and blaze out of trash cans. We're sitting on the ground in a concrete bowl under I-95, with music (the endlessly brilliant James Sugg) throbbing into our brains through earphones. Trucks rumble overhead. Emmanuelle Delpech-Ramey found this astonishing venue, conceived and directed this thrilling version of the myth of Oedipus at Colonus (written by Suli Holum) and assembled a fine and diverse cast, including a chorus of skateboarders.

Blind, exiled, wandering the world, Oedipus (Pearce Bunting) has finally arrived at the end of his journey; he says, "The laws of physics, like fate, followed me." A skateboarder stands at the top of a graffiti-covered concrete cliff and says, "One slip and you lose the edge." Questions linger in the smoky air: Is Oedipus talking about his own destruction or about skateboarding? Is the skateboarder talking about physical risk or mythic inevitability?

While all the dreadful events happen, as they must, Theseus (Mikaal Sulaiman) stands firm, protecting Oedipus even after arrogant Creon (Brian Osborne) arrives on a motorcycle and captures Oedipus' daughters/sisters, Antigone (Corinna Burns) and Ismene (Hinako Arao). And even after Polyneices (James ljames) arrives to beg for the throne. Through it all, the chorus whizzes, rolls and roars around. The soundscape rivals the landscape for a cool beyond saying. If only everybody could see this one.       - Toby Zinman

Sold out. 7 and tomorrow at FDR Park; transportation provided from 119 Arch St.

Pichet Klunchun and Myself. At Thursday's opening at the Arts Bank, Thai dancer/choreographer Pichet Klunchen and French dancer/choreographer Jérôme Bel faced each other across the stage. Klunchun, an adept of Khon - traditional Thai dance - lobbed answers to Bel's incessant questions sincerely and succinctly, establishing an ever-more-ludicrous dialogue.

Bel assumed the role of a French nerd, droll and earnest, yet elegant and intelligent in this combination interview and lecture-demonstration, urging Klunchun to show the Khon technique. Klunchun performed what dancing there was, ultimately explaining that the movements represented architecture.

The architectural space between them represents the cultural gulf between their two cultures and dance philosophies. For despite Bel's engagé protestations that there is no representation in contemporary art, (that would be, to paraphrase Bel, not "ici et maintenant" - here and now), everything represents something in this semi-farcical, semioticist wetdream.

At Klunchun's behest, Bel demonstrates a section of his dance from The show must go on (next weekend at the Kimmel), standing almost perfectly still for several minutes à la John Cage's 1952 4' 33, in which the pianist simply sits for that length of time. Klunchun says he gets it. By the end of this cagey and Cagean show, you too get indeterminacy, phenomenology, structuralism and many other French "isms" you've been struggling with all these years.

   - Merilyn Jackson

$25. 6 tonight. Arts Bank at University of the Arts, 601 S. Broad St.

Ballad Boys. Dude, I totally saw this Fringe show last night called Ballad Boys, by this group called Aspire Arts, cuz they, like, totally dream big. And it's about these two dudes, who are, like, brothers, even though they don't look anything alike. Like, the little one, Danny - real name Paul Krick - is like an intense version of McLovin, and the tall one, John (really Brian Cowden), is kind of hot, and intense too, cuz, like, I didn't know running your hands through your hair could mean SO much, but it must, cuz his director Jenn MacMillan lets him do it, like, ALL the time.

Anyway, they start a band, and John has this girlfriend Amy (Kristen Norine) and she's, like, so whatever, and totally doesn't even know how to dress for her type, which, I guess is someone named Alison Samantha Johnson's fault.

So they break up - she just doesn't get it, cuz it's all about their art, dude. They suffer SO much their band breaks up over selling out before they even play anywhere.

So, whatevs, the music was cool, the videos were OK and even the two dudes kind of grew on me, but dude, Alex Bechtel, who wrote it, should send a dictionary and some scissors to Dr. 90210 cuz that thing needs some work.    - Wendy Rosenfield

$15. 3 p.m. today and next Saturday; 9 p.m. Wednesday-Friday. At Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.

Stuporwoman. Tania Isaac is trying to have it all - family, house and dance career. She and her dancers do balancing acts onstage as well - headstands, shoulderstands, handstands, yoga plank positions.

Isaac, through a humorous recorded text and more serious dance, also describes the chaos having a child has brought to her perfectionist wishes. "Despite my best intentions," she says, "I have turned into my mother."

The dance is at times abstract - frantic drumming arm movements or dancers slithering across the floor and each other - and at others more representational of daily activities and chores. The most fully realized sections include a martial arts-style dance with long sticks and one in which Isaac is literally trapped - twisted inside a cat's cradle of bungee cords attached to other dancers.

Live music played onstage makes the piece even more special. Monique Canniere plays the violin (which Isaac calls the soundtrack of her life) while Chanta Layton sings opera and plays an amusing Oprah-like character who answers questions about surviving motherhood's first year. (All questions turn out to be from her character’s husband.) The end is a bit silly, but the theme will resonate with many.

      - Ellen Dunkel

$25. 3 p.m. today; 7 p.m. tomorrow. At Suzanne Roberts Theater, 480 S. Broad St.

Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Screamingly loud, intentionally hammy and zooming past silly, To the Wall's production of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom is industrial-strength Fringe. Director Dawn K. Cowle gives actor/director/playwright/drag artist Charles Busch's play its due and more in what she calls a "reimagining" of the romp that conquered Off-Broadway in the mid-'80s.

This Vampire Lesbians starts in Sodom, moves to sister cities Hollywood and Las Vegas, then shifts to Philadelphia, as if by telepathy. But logic is a trifle in a plot about a 2,000-year-old vampire and her sexpot rival, tromping through the centuries atop many other characters.

Plucky as it is, the production's setup has little bite. But the third and final scene, with an intentionally awful rendition of "Fame" by a cast fully up to the task, made me a believer. Some mind alteration would've made me believe even sooner. It's that sort of show.

      - Howard Shapiro

$15. 8 tonight, Monday and next Saturday, 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday at 941 Theatre, 941 N. Front St.

Geografia intima. This site-specific work-in-progress by the all-female Philadelphia flamenco troupe Pasion y Arte, features 11 terrific performers in an ambitious, often moving program that would be stronger if it tried less hard.

Artistic Director Elba Hevia y Vaca describes this production as a multi-part exploration of Latino female archetypes. Some of the danced figures (like Eva Arriaga's Indian-inflected High Priestess and Jenny Lyn Bascos' terminally seductive Witch) are clear and effective, others less so. But this symbolic underpinning often impedes the actual dancing, which is superb.

Geografia intima makes inventive use of its spectacular venue, the soaring Sanctuary of the Fleisher Art Memorial, further transformed by Adal Maldonado's video landscapes. The segments are presented on four mini-stages, the audience proceding from site to site. This format can be intriguing, but the cast members who act as dancing ushers are distracting.

Ultimately, what makes Geografia intima a must-see is the extremely high caliber of its performers, including the three instrumentalists (on upright bass, keyboard and percussion), who seem equally at home playing in several styles, and the extraordinary singers: Venissa Santi, who provides haunting Afro-Cuban and jazz vocals, and the achingly beautiful flamenco sounds of Barbara Martinez.    - Nancy G. Heller

$20. 7 tonight and tomorrow. At the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catherine St.