Victoria Fringe 2009 Reviews

Victoria: @LIFE explores the exclusive lives of video gamers in an attempt to create a window into their beyond-messed-up “reality”—you know, being a superhero, saving the world, having big breasts . . . that sort of thing. While the premise is very in-the-now, the play fails to engage the audience and doesn’t live up to its potential.

Victoria: Pete’s a synopsis writer; Anna’s his apparently feisty intern. An updated copy of Anne Frank lands on Pete’s desk; Pete goes loonier than Bugs Bunny on drugs. Throughout the course of the play Pete (who is not too bright, but seems to be bright enough to give the audience lectures about how great he is) procrastinates against his 50-word blurb, without the faintest idea that he could just Google the book instead of reading it, writing the synopsis and be done.

In the style of High School Musical, Back to the 80’s is a same-old-same-old story about an average guy after a cool girl – the exception being that it’s chockfull of pop culture references custom made to fit a playlist of hit songs from the 80’s. If you were around for the side-ponytail, the oh-so-trendy aviator shades, the neon, you’ll enjoy the nostalgia, probably sway in your seat and clap your hands.

Victoria: When a fire tuck, sirens ablaze, pulled up alongside a burlesque venue, the awaiting audience and I figured we were in for something hot. But then reality kicked in; the truck had arrived to aid someone in the townhouses beside the University Canada West venue. And the show? It’s less hot and more edutainment. And that’s okay.

Victoria: Upon entering the theatre, we meet Ms SugarPuss who proffers tickles with a boa feather duster, patting every bald head taking their seat, "I don't have time to kiss everybody!" She tells more than enough sausage jokes for any "hornithologist." Guess how many jelly beans make up the jelly bean outfit worn by Ms Prairie Fire, and the winner takes home a bottle of pinot.

Victoria: You wouldn’t guess it from its boring, humdrum write-up in the fringe brochure, but Fall Fair is most likely the best show you’re going to see this year. Jayson McDonald, who has been a, if not ‘the’, fringe favourite for the past two years is back and brilliant, playing an assortment of characters all converging on the last open day of the local fair.

Watching From Grandma’s Attic, I wanted to feel nostalgic, as it's not only in old age that we look back on our lives. Barbara Eadie plays Bea, an elderly woman who reminisces and connects with her memories through song.

Victoria: Opening night for Full Blast drew in only a modest crowd (though something lured in Atomic Vaudeville’s Morgan Cranny), but the premise seemed promising. It seemed like something madcap and fun! A real spectacle!

No such luck.

Victoria: There comes a point where most people start to dread their birthdays. For Jackie (Lana Schwarcz), it’s all downhill after 30, a slow downward decay into old age. She diagnoses herself as a “gerontophobic “—one with an intense fear of aging. So, she sets off to conquer this fear . . . by taking a job at a Jewish nursing home in Melbourne.

Written by Lee MacDougall of Canada, High Life was adopted and adapted by the theatres of Japan. It is Tokyo’s Ryuzanji Company that has delivered back to us this complete, polished and intoxicating theatrical parcel about ex-cons planning the robbery that will, finally, set them free.

Victoria: To speak in first person for a moment, I’d like to think I saw Imprint the way most of its audience will: without the knowledge of dance to appreciate it formally or the vocabulary to talk about it accurately. Despite my handicaps, however, Imprint was nothing short of spellbinding.

Victoria: The only "Improvised Theatre" troupe to perform at this years' Fringe, Rosa Parks Improv hail from Vancouver and have been together for about a year and a half; and it looks like things are starting to jell. The very nature of improv dictates that if you go to a RPI show it's not going to be the same show I've just been to, so reviews are a little tricky.

Victoria: Growing up in Canada, I had many friends who were born here but whose parents were not. My best friend of over 30 years falls into this category. Even with all the time I spent at his house growing up, I didn’t get as clear a picture of what being raised in a home where language and cultural barriers exist as I did when I saw Japanglish.

Victoria: Don't let the words "Performance Poetry" frighten you away from seeing Jem Rolls' one man tour de farce. Imagine, instead, a mythical hybrid of John Cleese and Eminem spewing out a rap line of observational humour with such speed and verbal dexterity that it'll make your head spin.