THEATRE: Chris Wynters plays John in Four Lads Who Shook the World
Chris Wynters – Captain Tractor dude, open stage maven and all around musical theatre-type guy – claims that for the first 12 years of his life he listened to nothing but the Beatles. All Beatles, all the time. And now he gets to be one of them for the next three months. How sweet is […]
Area grandfather becomes living art installation at Latitude 53’s In/Stall/Ed
Nick Shostak Sr. may have not known what he was getting into when he agreed to take part in a performance art project with his granddaughter Amy – who, as the artistic director of Rapid Fire Theatre, gets up to all sorts of zany things. The 81-year-old patriarch of the Shostak Clan will become a […]
Madame Butterfly illustrates opera with nightly fireworks
OK, lesson number one in populism for the good folks at Mercury Opera: if you’re going to explain an addendum to your plot, don’t give away the ending in doing so. Of course, this is Madame Butterfly, not the line outside the Empire Strikes Back, so perhaps there’s an expectation that ye olde opera buffe […]
Edmonton’s most depraved festival gets the dead out
This is not a festival you can bring the kids to. But if thrills, chills and brutal gore are your thing, DedFest will be right up your alley. “We like to call it ‘The best in fucked up cinema,’ ” says Derek Clayton, who co-produces DedFest with his friend Kevin Martin. This year will be […]
Giant Invisible Robot, The Unseen honoured as Edmonton Fringe breaks attendance records
It’s not called North America’s biggest Fringe festival for nothing. Fringeopolis, this year’s edition of the annual theatre fest in Old Strathcona (and more far-flung locales), has set a new record, hitting somewhere around 102,000 tickets sold on Saturday. If that sounds low, keep in mind that’s just show attendance; the festival as a whole […]
GIGGLE CITY: The Birdmann thinks outside the nest
To atone for banging on Australian street performers who ruin every summer festival in Edmonton (No. 4 on list of Eight Dumb Things About the Fringe), our special guest today is … an Australian street performer! The Birdmann (Trent Baumann) is actually working “inside” at this year’s Edmonton International Fringe Festival, even though his act […]
THIS WEEK: Top-drawing Fringe plays advance to Bonus Round – the Holdovers!
The people have spoken. Eleven of the top-grossing and most critically acclaimed plays (for the most part) at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival are going onto the BONUS ROUND! Otherwise known as the famous “Fringe Holdovers,” these following productions will enjoy extended runs at three area theatres: The Westbury in the Arts Barns, the Holy […]
META-FRINGE – Grim & Fischer laugh in the face of Death
What follows are mixed cocktails of published recent reviews of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival – conflating the critical writing of the brave theatre reviewers from the Edmonton Sun, Edmonton Journal and Vue Weekly magazine. (Brackets) – mark a change from one voice to another. Three out of three reviewers agree the following Fringe plays […]
Eight dumb things about the Fringe
The Edmonton International Fringe Festival is the best festival in Edmonton. There. It had to be said. Seriously, you won’t find a higher concentration and variety of artistry in one spot at one time anywhere else in town any other time of the year, the folk fest being a distant second. The Fringe draws around […]
META-FRINGE: Rocket Sugar Factory, Bye Bye Bombay, Pornstar USA and The Hysteric
At this point in the International Fringe Theatre Festival, continuing at almost 50 different venues through Sunday, canny fans know what’s good and what’s not-so-good – thanks to a dedicated legion of theatre critics, most of which come out of the woodwork at roughly the same time every summer. What a coincidence that there’s a […]
