Vancouver Fringe 2011 Reviews

The Sun Yat Sen Garden is an iconic Vancouver location and not one that is intuitively a great place to put on a show. But in the epic Fringe play, Siddhartha, the performers use every inch of this space to bring the audience into another world – a beautiful world of rustic villages, primeval forests, wondrous cities and peaceful secluded spots down by the river.

Moxie, performed at Studio 1398, is a three-act show featuring stories of women set in different eras showing “moxie”.  I was not impressed with this play or the performance.  I must have a different operational definition of the word moxie.  I think of moxie as a demonstrating strength and determination in the face of difficulty. 

Chanti Mullen is a performance artist and healing facilitator who combines dance gestures and monologue in Mana, presented at the False Creek Gym.  While the actual meaning of the word Mana depends on the context in which it is used, Mullen defines the term as being “the substance of a soul”.  She takes us on a spiritual quest.  

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party is a fast-paced, interactive performance loosely based on Alice in Wonderland.  Playwright and actor Andrew Wade manages to assemble components of the original story into a cohesive tale of the Mad Hatter, whose personal demons drive him to take refuge in the rabbit hole.