WHAT’S GOING ON: Festivals for the Rest of Us!
Big news about the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival: It’s back. Of course it is. The theme revealed for the 41st annual festival this week was “Destination Fringe” – a theatrical travelogue boasting 27 venues filled with 160 different productions, running Aug. 11-21. Tickets go on sale Aug. 3. This is by far my favourite […]
REVIEW: Freewill Shakespeare a Laugh Riot at the Fringe
Shakespeare is not easy to do. Nearly every big play been done and redone countless times, and the language is not necessarily accessible for everyone. Wherefore use such convoluted dialogue? That’s part of why David Horak’s re-imagining of Much Ado About Nothing by the Freewill Players at the Fringe is a breath of fresh air. […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Volare Tenors Make Beautiful Popera Together
It is said that “Popera” began in 1911 when Caruso strode into a Milan studio and recorded an aria for ordinary people. The art form came into flower again most recently when the Three Tenors sang to some 800 million people from Rome’s Baths of Caracalla on July 7, 1990. Current popular groups that record […]
FRINGE 2019: Zack Adams turns pain to mirth in inspiring one-man show
Zack Adams: Love Songs For Future Girl Stage 10 – (Acacia Hall) The last entry in our foreign Fringer sweepstakes is Australian Zack Adams in his one man comedic musical escapade, Zack Adams: Love Songs For Future Girl. Spoiler alert: This is a 10-year-old piece that’s been brought back into the future, retooled a bit […]
FRINGE 2019: Surreal Japanese satire soars
Are You Lovin’ It? Stage 5 (King Edward Elementary School) The Fringe program stole a bit of reviewer’s thunder in their capsule synopsis of this piece by Theatre Group GUMBO of Osaka, Japan: “A surreal romp” – there is no better term. You could add “zany, wackadoodle, looney tunes” … whatever. This is really out […]
FRINGE MEN SPEAKING TRUTH, PART 2: Game of Crohn’s about coping
Game of Crohn’s Stage 9 (Telus Phone Museum) Toronto’s Dan Rosen has crafted a one-hour monologue about living with, as he so aptly puts it, a “poop disease.” Rosen is a comedic writer who is able to poke fun at his medical condition and its resulting embarrassing, undignified moments, without relying on scatalogical humour alone. […]
FRINGE 2019: 3 Plays About Men Speaking Their Truth
The need for men to talk about their experiences and feelings honestly and directly is something often discussed as a way to counter the toxic masculinity transmitted when boys are taught to suppress their feelings. These three one-person plays at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival feature men (in one case, a male-presenting gender-fluid person) speaking […]
FRINGE 2019: What is your BUSINESS in Canada?!
Border Breakdown Venue 34 (Varscona Hotel, Thomas Bennett Room) Any notions that Canada is becoming Snowflake Central for travelling millennials is a myth – especially if you try to get across the border. Never mind the Syrian refugees for whom Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swung open our doors for “illegals” from the U.S. trying to […]
FRINGE 2019: Arrogant Worms song comes ALIVE in kids play
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate: A Play Venue 14 (Holy Trinity Anglican Church) So here’s a nifty way to get kids introduced to taxes and the inner workings of the federal government. First, find a suitable kid-friendly, politically-charged ditty clocking in at around three minutes and morph it into a half-hour play. And to boost the […]
FRINGE 2019: Darwin not mentioned in play about Darwin
Darwin vs. Rednecks Venue 38 (Sue Paterson Memorial Theatre) If you show up expecting a send-up of Jeff Foxworthy one-liners about crimson-scorched knuckle draggers, you’ll be sadly disappointed. Instead, Kentucky-based standup comedian Stewart Huff has crafted a deeply-layered set of triggers pitting Right against Left and North against South – ever since the U.S. tore […]
FRINGE 2019 WARNING: 4 Political Plays
7 Days Venue 36 (La Cite Auditorium) You’ll find plenty of ambiguity around which to wrap your head in this dramedy from the Egyptian theatre troupe named East-Voice. But if you’re studious enough to read between the lines, deftly delivered by the onstage trio in both Arabic and English, you’ll find there’s plenty that playwright […]
FRINGE 2019: T.J. Dawe God of the Fringe
The Slipknot Stage 16 (Holy Trinity Sanctuary Stage) The title “Fringe God” was probably coined for T.J. Dawe. In the early 2000’s the Vancouver playwright and performer edefined the solo stand up. A gangly young man with an earnest chipmunk manner and a lively sense of humour, he was everyman. All he needed was a […]
