Written by Sheila Callaghan and directed by Sarah Rose, Lascivious Something features a tale of an American who lives on a Greek island with his attractive Greek wife.   He operates vineyards, hoping to create an exceptional new vintage.   The day is the last of the grape-picking.   Whether he really knows much about wine is one of several intriguing unanswered questions.   He is played by Sean Bygrave in a rich, utterly grounded performance.

An old girl friend - American again - of his arrives unexpectedly.   The core of the drama is the evolution of this triangle, over two...

Fringe Description: Intense · Poetic · Intimate

This was a must-see show for my friends who met many years ago in the restaurant business so I went along.  What a fabulous way to end the evening.  It takes place every day at 11 or 11:30pm at the Edible Canada restaurant where our main cast members (Pippa Mackie, Nik Bunting and Lauren Jackson) all work.  There's music, there's dancing, there's lots of funny scenes and few poignant stories of life as a restaurant worker/actor.  

Since this is a real restaurant, there was a quick scene change before they were ready for us.  The chairs are...

Fringe Description: Funny · In Your Face

This was my longest Fringe hour.  There were some very funny lines but I realize my laughs were  in direct proportion to my familiarity with the movies referenced and my ability to catch the reference in time.  

The pre-show started with Jon Paterson and Kurt Fitzpatrick "recognizing" and interacting with famous personality lookalikes in the audience.  By the time they also included the pre-show announcements about cell phones and sponsors I was getting a bit bored.  

Then the show started with a scene from Casablanca, complete with Tara Travis as a piano, and the fun began. It was...

Fringe Description: Funny · Silly · Weird

Stroke of Luck is a one man show written by and starring Jacques Lalonde. It is part stand up, part TED talk, part catching up with an old friend with a little bit of revival thrown in.

I have to confess I have never seen a Jacques Lalonde show. I know he is one of the faces of the Fringe having been involved both as a performer and volunteer at each of the 30 years of Fringe in Vancouver and I learned in the line-up how beloved he is by the Fringe community. And I can see why...

Fringe Description: Funny · Warm and Fuzzy · Family Friendly
I haven't had the pleasure of seeing James Brown and Jamesy Evans before but clearly there were many in the opening night audience who were well prepared for the audience participation opportunities. Make sure you sit in the front row if you want to participate.  Costumes are provided. 
 
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Fringe Description: Funny · Family Friendly · Intellectual
Her odds are good, but the goods are a little odd. Shirley Kirchmann is 35 and single. In Deranged Dating, she uses stand-up and caricature styles to tell us of her strange experiences in the dating world.  
Fringe Description: Funny · Naughty

I have to admit that I love instruments like the shakuhachi a lot, and so I was definitely looking forward to this show. It was even better than I expected.

This production has the storyteller (and sometime musician) Jim Sands and the highly versatile and accomplished musician Michel Vles on stage. They work together seamlessly combining prose and music. I would have been happy with a show of either on its own, so to get both elements working together so well is magical.

The story weaves together

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Fringe Description: Musical · Tear-Jerker · Poetic

I applaud Good Theatre’s innovative use of sensory stimuli. “Smell-o-vision” has been waxed poetic about as a possibility in theatre and film, but this is the first production I have seen that actually turns the concept into a reality.

I sat in the “High Intensity Scent Zone” -- a section of the theatre comprising about a quarter of the seats was so marked -- but only noticed the aromatherapy when I specifically thought about it. The main note was mild citrus, or perhaps verbena, which changed to a rick dark liquorice-y scent when the tone of the play...

Fringe Description: Naughty · Intellectual · Intimate

This show has excellent actors with lots of food-service and preparation experience, snappy music and choreography, and choice goodies and drinks handed out to lucky audience members. Pretty well all the elements you need for a successful show, I would say. This show snaps and sizzles and is just plain fun. 

The show is mostly light-hearted, although at times I felt a twinge of guilt wondering if I have ever imposed too much on a server or taken him or her for granted (well, I hope I'm not too bad -- at least I never order "hot water with lemon"...

Fringe Description: Funny · In Your Face

"The Show Must Go On" is a sweet and delightful show about the tribulations, and occasional triumphs, of taking a small theatre troupe on the road across Canada, across its length and breadth in all seasons. Jeff Leard played Rumpelstiltskin no less than 185 times in that year, but something new always seems to happen so that he does not get a chance to get bored. It was his first "real job" after university, and he knew he was lucky to get a full-time acting role. 

He displays a great sense of comedy and timing as his tales range from...

Fringe Description: Funny · Naughty

See this incredible show! Poor is one of the most incredible theatre experiences I have had in recent memory. The one woman show is funny, risky, tragic and surprising.

The writing, by Suzanne Ristic is witty, clever, sneaky, poetic, and brilliant. It is both of our time in its exploration of wealth and class and also a timeless human story.  Ristic has also created, in Shelly Cormorant, one of the most unique, heroic, disagreeable, alive and powerful characters that I have seen on stage in a long time. I started out laughing at and disliking Shelly, but over the course of...

Fringe Description: Funny · Shocking

Playwrights Cleo Halls and Kristina Hunszinger have updated the buddy story with this musical performance featuring lots of rhyming (as you’d expect) with new lyrics set to old and new compositions, augmented by YouTube videos and questionable montages.  I’m guessing that no animals actually went missing.

Much was made through careful blocking on this tiny but cozy stage with the two young women meeting at the employment office,  sharing a tent they call home and performing on the stage of the talent competition.  Both women have interesting singing voices with character and strength.  And there’s some mean ukelele...

Fringe Description: Silly · Musical · Warm and Fuzzy
Martin Dockery, unbeknownst to me when I sat down to watch “Moonlight After Midnight”, is a fringe icon. I, on the other hand, was much more distracted by sharing a name with lead actress, Vanessa Quesnelle (we are few, but we are mighty!). Although the blurb of “beautiful woman, mysterious man” didn’t grab me, the concept of an intellectual puzzle play struck me as quite interesting.
 
The setting, unfailingly, is a hotel room, in which our cast of two dynamically spar throughout. Who they are, and what is going on, are the central themes to...
Fringe Description: Weird · Intellectual · Intimate

I had heard about this show earlier on the tour, that Fringe artists were describing it unfailingly (and in rather a cult-like fashion) as “life changing”. Although I was unfamiliar with the reputation of playwright/star Jayson McDonald, I had high expectations for “Magic Unicorn Island”… and I was not disappointed.

Picture-perfect physical theatre opens the show; before your eyes the universe is created, mankind evolves, and one very important fact is asserted: that there has been NO time in human history where war was not present. This theme is built upon until we reach the surprising central narrative of,...

Fringe Description: Undescribable

Deranged Dating is a half-hour autobiographical tale padded with unrelated skits into an hour-long comedy show. Half of the show is related to the stated theme of the hazards and pitfalls of thirtysomething dating; the other half -- the first 20 minutes or so of the show especially -- seem to have been gleaned from other comedy routines.

Shirley Kirchmann uses minor costume changes and simple props to portray her thirtysomething self and a handful of peripheral characters including her meddling Aunt Hattie and a superficial-minded matchmaker. Her stage voice is clear and strong, but at times her words are...

Fringe Description: Funny · Naughty

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