MUSIC PREVIEW: Canadian country, California vibes
Welcome to the Hotel Edmontonia! Such a lovely place, such a lovely face. Plenty of room at the Hotel Edmontonia, any time of year … except maybe at this particular busy time if you’ve come into town for the Country Music Week! Building up to the CCMA Awards Sunday night at Rexall Place – and […]
MUSIC: The habits of Edmonton introverts
Even at North Country Fair – idyllic in its own happy, druggy, timeless way – Energetic Action felt like outsiders. “North Country Fair was our Stonehenge,” says bassist George Synnett (pictured) – and he’s not referring to the famous scene in This Is Spinal Tap. He’s talking about the famously strange Stonehenge Free Festival held […]
Foreign Musician Fee Fracas: It’s not the end of the world
What’s a guy gotta do to get an LMO exemption around here?! There’s a good pick up line next time you’re in your favourite local bar or coffee shop – where you probably be seeing a lot more true blue Canadian live music now that sneaky government fees on foreign workers have been imposed. Employers […]
Brad Fraser to premiere new play in Edmonton
There’s a long list of gifted artists that Edmonton has lost that we still mourn. They’re not dead – they just moved away to greater success in Toronto where the hopelessly hipster citizens imagine that all Westerners hang hitch balls on their pick-up trucks. And they hardly ever write. How dare they?! But then there […]
Fringe festival stuck with star system
Fringe artists hate the star rating system – and they love the star rating system. Is it time to get rid of it? Fringe artists recently replied, “Yes … but no!” Rest assured that any thespian bestowed a four or five-star review from one of the area print publications will be out there at the […]
FRINGE: Redheads have more fun!
If you’re not already a sucker for redheads, you will be after seeing Rebecca Perry in her creative and original one woman show “Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl” (Venue 42) at the Edmonton Fringe. Perry plays Joanie, a 20-something girl stuck working at a Toronto area coffee shop and trying to figure out her […]
FRINGE: The Tenant Haimovitz will mess with your mind
The first 15 minutes or so of The Tenant Haimovitz (Venue 1) makes about as much sense as Middle Eastern politics does to a New World man. A writer named Daniel – “it’s pronounced Dan-ee-yell” – rents an apartment only to discover he already has roommates which may or may not be figments of his […]
FRINGE: The madness of King Ludwig
Calgarian Kyall Rakoz looks barely out of high school and he’s already pulled off what should become a Fringe success with his one man show “Ludwig and Lohengrin.” (Venue 10) As playwright, director and star, Rakoz tackles the story of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, a controversial figure in German history, and not just because […]
FRINGE: Innocent When You Dream a whale of a tale
Viewers shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the playwright, actor, puppeteer and ukulele virtuoso behind “Innocent When You Dream” (Venue 2) hails from Austin, Texas – one of the few great American cities that openly declare pride in their apparent weirdness. The Fringe is known for weirdness, so Zeb West’s unique tale of tails, a […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Forget Me Not a disturbing masterpiece
Sometimes humour can help the mind grasp a disturbing topic. “Forget Me Not” (Venue 10) is an intelligent and gutsy comedy by Rob Gee that underneath the superficial comic presentation takes a subversive detour into the dark side of institutionalized care, asking the audience to consider if patients in such facilities are receiving quality care […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Zack Adams an existential time traveller
The premise of Zack Adams: Zack to the Future (Venue 2) involves a failed Fringe playwright who travels into the future to try to discover his identity and assuage his existential angst about career choices that led to becoming a failed Fringe playwright. He ends up discovering a couple of unexpected things: that no quantum […]
Eight rules to Fringe by
You think by now people would be hip to the “turn off your cellphone” rule at the Fringe, but apparently there are holdovers. Here’s a thought: make your ringtone a big wet fart. It will be offensive when it goes off, so you might as well get a laugh out of it. Just trying to […]
