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 […]
Fringing in the French Quarter
Rapide! Dispatch one accordion player, one mime and more wine to La Cite Francophone immediately! Mon Dieu, those poor tourists have nothing to do while they’re waiting for their plays at the Fringe! So polite. Some people out East actually can’t believe that Edmonton has a French Quarter – but there it is, just a […]
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 […]
MUSIC: Mayhem by day, Kraftwerk by night
What happens when metalheads make dance music on modular synthesizers? Noisy dance music, that’s what. When local soundman and musician Jason Borys got together with Jeremy Greenspan of Hamilton synthpop duo Junior Boys, the resulting album yielded iterative beats and dark undertones that feel like they belong at a dance party in some seedy, dimly […]
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: Moscow Stations anything but life affirming
Actor Clayton Jevne is so flawlessly believable as a decrepit drunk that you can almost smell the booze on him. Listening to him talk for 80 excruciating minutes is even worse. In “Moscow Stations” (Venue 7), adapted from a novel by Russia’s Venedict Yerofeev, Jevne delivers a stellar performance as Venya, a pathetic and completely […]
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 […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Mac Attack bombs
Imagine going to McDonald’s, ordering a Big Mac and being given a Filet o’ Fish. Any reasonable response would be to say “Yuck, I didn’t order this” and hand it back. No such luxury is afforded audience members at Fringe plays that turn out to be something completely different than advertised. You just have to […]
