FRINGE 2019: Four of Colin MacLean’s Favourite Musicals

FRINGE 2019: Four of Colin MacLean’s Favourite Musicals

Coat of Many Colours Stage 41 (CKUA Performance Space) Andrea House is one of our best singers. She gives each song she sings a specific life of its own. Like Streisand and Lady Gaga you feel that the song has been wrung out of every subtlety, lyric intelligence and musical significance it can possibly offer. […]

FRINGE 2019: Saga of World War I nurses comes off like a work in progress

FRINGE 2019: Saga of World War I nurses comes off like a work in progress

Bluebirds Stage 40 (The Al & Trish Huehn Theatre, Concordia College) A large troop ship is caught in a mighty gale while carrying Canadian troops and a contingent of 19 Bluebirds to Europe at the beginning of World War I. “Bluebirds” is the affectionate name Canadian nurses earned first in the 1899 South African campaign […]

HORROR AT FRINGE 2019: St. Kilda a terrifying tale

HORROR AT FRINGE 2019: St. Kilda a terrifying tale

St. Kilda Stage 11 (Nordic Studio Theatre) New York’s Jody Christopherson is a quintuple threat – playwright, actor, master of dialects, singer, and most distractingly impressive: An operator of the dreaded “looper.” You know, that thing where you record a segment of sound, hit a switch and it repeats over and over again? Ed Sheeran […]

FRINGE 2019: 2 scary HORROR SHOWS

FRINGE 2019: 2 scary HORROR SHOWS

It’s been a years-long quest to find a good horror at the Fringe that isn’t a comedy. Pickin’s are slim, lemme tell ya. Are artists SCARED they won’t be able to really scare people without having to yuk it up at every turn? Must they laugh in the face of DEATH? Short answer: Maybe. However, […]

MASTER OF FRINGE 2019: Underneath the Lintel a triumphant tale

MASTER OF FRINGE 2019: Underneath the Lintel a triumphant tale

Underneath the Lintel Stage 14 (Holy Trinity Anglican Church) A rumpled man shuffles through a dusty Dutch library. His job is to track down those “miscreants” who are late returning borrowed books. One night, a tattered tome falls through the overnight slot. The book is 113 years overdue. The librarian is thunderstruck, then intrigued, and […]

FRINGE 2019: Zack Adams turns pain to mirth in inspiring one-man show

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

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 FOREIGNERS in our MIDST: 3 Plays from Artists not from Around Here

FRINGE FOREIGNERS in our MIDST: 3 Plays from Artists not from Around Here

Since Canada is all about embracing cultures, attitudes and perspectives different from our own, here are three plays from non-Canadian performers for your 2019 Fringe consideration! No, You Can’t Return Discount Shrimp Stage 9 (Telus Phone Museum) You can’t get much more foreign to a Canadian Fringe audience than in this play by American writer […]

FRINGE 2019 OPERA: Gianni Schicchi è un’opera deliziosa!

FRINGE 2019 OPERA: Gianni Schicchi è un’opera deliziosa!

Gianni Schicchi   Stage 16 (Holy Trinity Sanctuary Stage)   Those agile artists known as “Pop Goes The Opera” are back at it. After captivating and ingeniously staged Fringe productions, including Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana, this time they are floating Puccini’s last opera, Gianni Schicchi. The pocket comic opera with its madcap characters and humorous plot were […]

FRINGE 2019: Go to bed or BABA YAGA will get you!

FRINGE 2019: Go to bed or BABA YAGA will get you!

Baba Yaga Stage 6 (Strathcona Community League) Baba Yaga is a fearsome creature used for centuries to frighten Slavic children just before bed. She is described as a witch but has assumed many shapes and forms. and is probably best known for living in the forest in a house on chicken’s legs. The Alberta Opera, […]

FRINGE MEN SPEAKING TRUTH PART 3: Always Never There a powerful piece

FRINGE MEN SPEAKING TRUTH PART 3: Always Never There a powerful  piece

Always Never There, Never Always There: Meth, Men & Mental Illness Stage 9 (Telus Phone Museum) Edmonton writer and performer Antonio J. Bavaro bares both body and soul in his one man-show that discusses his history of relationships, and struggles with addiction, mental health, and being neuro-atypical – all from a queer perspective. Bavaro, who […]

FRINGE MEN SPEAKING TRUTH, PART 2: Game of Crohn’s about coping

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. […]