PLAYBOT: Fringe held over!
Fringe or death?!
Oh, you choose death?
Well then, death by Fringe!
It only feels like death. It’s just withdrawal pains after another Fringe come and gone: 2,000 plays in 200 venues over 20 days, so do the math. I am PLAYBOT. I don’t do math. I make jokes and rewrite press releases. Also poetry: The turning of the trees, the coming of the freeze, the paying of school fees, all of these signs of proper theatre season tease … but until then, there is one more thing we must seize: MORE FRINGE!
Fringe plays held over through the coming week will include some of the cream of the crop. Someday PLAYBOT hopes to direct.
The Exquisite Hour
Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 7 pm; Sept. 2 at 2 pm and 7 pm, Varscona Theatre
Belinda Cornish and Jeff Haslam seem to have been born to play the roles of two lost souls who bond over the title of the play – that magical moment (hour) in the day when time grinds to a halt and important things come out from the universe. Stewart Lemoine’s imaginative and distinctively witty script is a heartfelt work that still delivers laughs, and ranks as one of the playwright’s best plays.
Drunk Girl
Aug. 30, 9 pm and Aug. 31, 7 pm, Westbury Theatre
It turns out there’s a downside to getting drunk every day. Toronto’s Thea Fitz-James explores this theme in great detail in her smart and frequently hilarious one-woman show that touches on politics, along with teenage drinking tales. It’s when drinking becomes a feminist act that it becomes a problem – the drinking, not the feminism.
The Receptionist
Sept. 1, 7 pm, Holy Trinity Anglican Church
What at first appears to be a lighthearted office comedy soon wades into deep Kafka in this blackest of black comedy. Another strong cast (Kristi Hansen, Julien Arnold and Reed McColm) takes the audience to a veritable OFFICE OF NIGHTMARES!
Barrymore
Sept. 1, 9 pm, Holy Trinity Anglican Church
Starring Patrick Treadway (in his Canadian debut) playing infamous bad-boy and star of yesteryear John Barrymore, this alternately hilarious and moving play was lauded by Vue magazine as “a joy for any lover of language, Shakespeare and wit.”
No Exit
Sept. 1, 9 pm, Varscona Theatre
Starring Belinda Cornish, Louise Lambert, Ron Pederson, and George Szilagyi, this production (top photo) marks the Fringe debut of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in what is said to be his finest work of existentialism. True hell, Sartre observes, “Is other people.” You would prefer solitary confinement, Mr. Philosopher?
Legoland
Sept. 1, 9 pm, and Sept 2, 7 pm, Westbury Theatre
Two home-schooled siblings (Rachel Bowron and Jenny McKillop) have assaulted their favourite pop icon and have been ordered to give a public service talk explaining why their actions were wrong. Penny and Ezra’s hyperactive sermon on juvenile delinquency takes them outside of Saskatchewan and into the world beyond – known to them only as Legoland.
My Love Lies Frozen in the Ice
Sept. 1, 7 pm and Sept. 2, 9 pm, Westbury Theatre
Billed as “physical theatre,” this is a tale of love, loss, and madness as three 19th Century explorers take off to North Pole in a balloon. They left a woman who could not forget them. Follow us through the whiter than white snow and darker than dark days, where nothing is what it seems.
