3 HUNGARY Fringe plays
The Inventor of All Things By big word performance, UK, Venue 13, Old Strathcona Library Jem Rolls returns to this year’s Fringe with his successful 2015 spoken word performance detailing the strangely forgotten life of pioneering nuclear physicist savant Leo Szilard, Hungary’s early 20th Century approximation of a much more interesting Sheldon Cooper. Thank God […]
REVIEW: k.d. lang soars in Edmonton
The entire run-through of Ingénue, k.d. lang’s seismic-shifting album that propelled her from prairie good ol’ gal to Grammy-winning superstar didn’t exactly rock the house at the Jubilee Auditorium on Saturday night. It didn’t need to. Despite lang’s powerful voice, put to great use during her roughly 80-minute set, the former Edmontonian stuck to the […]
2 UNEXPECTED Fringe hits
Make a right turn at the Fringe and you find an old favourite. Turn left and you come across something you might have never expected. That’s part of the fun. Onions and Garlic Empress of Blandings Productions, Venue 11 (Studio Theatre) The multi-talented Dave Clarke is a familiar Fringe participant, but his co-writer for Onions […]
2 SCARY Fringe plays
The scary thing about trying to see a scary play at the Fringe is how few truly scary plays there seem to be. So many comedies, so much improv, so many real life dramas – scary enough – and oh, so many musicals. Yet there are chills to be had if you look. Just be […]
2 MASTERS OF THE FRINGE
Each year the captains of comedy and drama come to the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival with gifts of superb entertainment. Regular Fringers will recognize these troupes and individuals as trailing long records of happy hours spent in the theatre. They are indeed Masters of the Fringe. Here are two of many: The Apple Tree From […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Forever Rock
Classic rock is on its way to becoming the new classical music. Think about it: Life is a Highway will be remembered long after it’s been forgotten as “that cool Rascal Flatts song.” Melodies will become more famous than their composers. Quick: Who wrote Raise a Little Hell? Took you a second, didn’t it? In […]
Metallica destroys Edmonton
There was a lot of violent imagery on the big screens for the Metallica concert at Commonwealth Stadium Wednesday night. Couldn’t help but notice the icing on the cake: Wars, fights, death, destruction, fire and so on. Fitting. Just once it would be a hoot to see rainbows and butterflies accompanying such a massively brutal […]
Ghost of Joe Bird in new Fringe play
It would be disrespectful to the memory of the late Joe Bird to show respect to his memory – according to his best friend and longtime comedy partner Wes Borg. Or words to that effect. It should be obvious that Borg’s new Fringe play Get Me The F#ck Out of Edmonton may contain salty language. […]
Folk fest plays second fiddle to elements
Let’s just get all of our “Four Strong Winds” jokes out of the way in the sopping wet aftermath of the 38th annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival. A Mighty Wind, too. The 38th annual fest started on Thursday with an evacuation due to dangerous gusts of wind causing alarming flopping TV screens, and ended Sunday […]
Folk fest blown out by mighty wind
Before it was evacuated on Thursday night, people were having a blast at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. They were just getting warmed up with the furious fiddling hurdy-gurdy goodness of the Quebec supergroup called Solo; and a smokin’ set of Haitian samba from Lakou Mizik – and then Mother Nature stepped in. A sudden […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Best of the folk fest
The dominant event across most genres this weekend of course is the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, a veritable staple of the city’s music scene since 1980. In fact, there’s usually a dearth in gigs over the weekend because most venues don’t want to schedule anything against this juggernaut, certainly the largest music festival in the […]