There’s an obvious choice of word that comes to mind when you hear “the F word”.

It’s the polite stand-in for an expression of profanity, although the full range of this word’s meanings and uses are substantially more diverse. As far as connotations of the word go, it’s very useful. But it’s far from being the most expressive, exciting, or meaningful "F" word in the English vocabulary. Through well-integrated and interspersed PowerPoint slides, playwright and performer Yvette Dudley-Neuman introduces and unravels the definitions of some of the more overlooked "F" words, exploring their significance through the life of...

Hands Around by Arthur Schnitzler, translated by A. Koren, adapted by Dylan Coulter, is disturbing because, though first read aloud in 1900, it is relevant today in its far too realistic account of the messy, gory, sinister assortment that is love.

Set in 1980, Vienna, the story follows ten individuals as they power-play each other in the name of love. As Hands Around progresses, lips are kissed, promises are broken and betrayal becomes expected. There is not simply one perspective of love. One man believes that "all men, really, become disgusted by love." A married man admits to his...

Curious Creations brings the anticipated Waiting For Garbo to the Vancouver Fringe Festival of 2016. Writer and Director team Dawn Moore and Desmond Price worked together to create a play focused on recycling and its message is seen, first and foremost, in its content. What makes Waiting For Garbo stand out is its method of recycling dialogue, images, songs and characters, and piecing them together throughout the play. As you watch, a familiar melody will echo through the theatre, reinvented. You will recognize a retelling of a story, repurposed for this play. Bits of public lectures, video and script...

Great Day For Up was written and performed by Jonathan Young while he was a student at Studio 58 in 1996 and the version presented in the 2016 Vancouver Fringe Festival is an evolution of that student project. Using the lighting, sound and space of theatre, Young presents a homunculus who struggles with angst and self-doubt to finally have an epiphany.

I am so relieved that they provided an afterward in the program to Great Day For Up. After the 30-minute show I left the theatre confused and disoriented. To provide some context, I like shows that have a...

This show is actually 3 smaller shows strung together with perfect harmony. Each show is just as well done and poignant as the last. The acting for all three was phenomenal. I laughed, I cried and I had some ideas to chew on as I left.

Show #1 was called Living on the Grid. This story of a tree come to life was really touching. I really felt for the tree and even felt a little teary towards this cute but driven story. Big props go to Olivia Etey on a beautiful masterpiece. Symbolism with foam boards and...

Below is a Twitter synopsis of Generation Hot Program A - I’ve tried not to have spoilers, but you may want to skip reading if you intend to go see this performance. The show includes three separate performances by young artists who are responding to our current climate crisis through the creation of new performances. They have been mentored by The Only Animal’s co-founder Eric Rhys Miller and mia susan amir of The Story We Be.

@AllysonMcGrane: Waiting for the start of Generation Hot Program A! Three shows in one based on ideas about global warming from emerging artists....

2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick is performed by actor and playwright Tim Motley from Melbourne, Australia.

The lights went on and a rumpled sort of Humphrey Bogart, in the requisite raincoat, appeared. Smoking a cigarette, and talking like someone out of a B detective movie -  in both dialect and dialogue. I think if it had only been this, and our “Dick” had only told a few jokes I would have been satisfied. But there was more – much more.

Tim Motley – ( insert your joke here ________) - the only actor in the play (other than a few...

Can happiness be trademarked? Can two guys looking for happiness, prosperity and luxury get along? Can they really do 500 pushups?

The situation is this. We're witnessing the launch and behind-the-scenes rehearsal for not one, not two, but three new HPL(TM) products designed for your consumer pleasure. At a price, you can be happy. Yes, you!

Tony Adams and Cory Thibert are of the Fringey high-energy duo style. Verbal and physical pacing play off each other from the start with the, “We're so happy you're here” handshakes of the audience to the final (rather absurd—in a good way) scene. In...

Weird! Silly! Only at the Fringe are these high compliments. Add in a couple of hundred shadow puppets, an environmental message, a multiracial performance team and you've got Space Hippo.

The show was sold-out and the entire audience seemed to love it.  I'm a fan of Mind of a Snail local shadow puppet troupe and I'll bet they and their other fans love this show. Shadow-puppet-love was visceral and audible. Endorphins were just all over the place. Go and soak up the good cheer.

The creators and performers are Daniel Wishes and Seri Yanai and they are, well,...

This is a fast-moving review of the last 88 years of Oscars, and will work best for you if you’re a film buff, but really, anyone who has been to the movies anytime in the past century (that’s most of us) will remember some of these films. They’re rapidly and irreverently evoked by this high-speed, mobile-faced team. There’s Casablanca (of course), a bit of every song from Mary Poppins, (uh-oh, or was it Sound of Music?), a painful pronouncement from The King’s Speech, a longer one from Forrest Gump, a puppet version of Kramer v Kramer, and evocations of...

I'm a big fan of the site-specific shows. Since I loved The Elegant Ladies Collective's Eidola (the women from Shakespeare), I was pretty sure I'd like Peripeteia too. And I did.

The Elegant Ladies Collective was founded by Leslie Stark in 2014. For Peripeteia she has pulled together 12 (and this number is important, so pay attention) individual performances of “turning points”, added an opening context builder, a conclusion/epilogue, and a bit of audience participation. You get a variety of performances in a beautiful setting and some things to ponder.

The performances range from opera to improv dance...

The Chronic Single’s Handbook, is a one man show written and performed by Randy Ross. The one-hour show has been featured at venues around New England and at fringe theater festivals in the U.S., Canada, and Edinburgh, Scotland.

Fringe veteran Randy Ross provides his perspective on how men feel about sex, love, marriage, and online dating. The Chronic Single’s Handbook (which Ross also sells as a separate book) sounds a lot like a diary of 56 year old, never married, unemployed sex traveller.

In 2007, Ross has been laid off from work and has received a large severance...

Musings about being an actor before an audition for “cashier #2”, Vancouver-based film and television actor Morgan Brayton reflects on her adolescent ideas of being a successful actor and all her apparently “golden ticket” opportunities in Give It Up.

The show is filled with moments that make you laugh because they are true. Like the second-hand embarrassment you feel when Morgan shares with the audience how she has failed all her prepubescent dreams of having a spin off series, sharing the cover of Teen Beat with Scott Baio and being invited to late night talk shows.

Never...

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed when I realized that each of Henry’s wives were going to be played by the same actor. One of the things I look forward to in theatre, especially in period pieces, is the costumes. With one woman in one costume I could tell this wasn’t going to be a “costume drama”. So with the revelation that Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII was a one-woman show, aka, a one costume show, I prepared for an attire-less evening.

Within minutes all my disappointment evaporated with the laughter that engulfed me from...

Presented by Gas Pedal Productions, Love, Lust, & Lace is a 60 minute Commedia dell'arte performance that has a little bit of everything. It’s like watching a live cartoon: there’s action, buffoonery, clowning, lots of audience interaction and of course romance!

A sensual evening set to the classic tale of two lovers, it is full of wonderfully dramatic characters and includes lots of audience participation. These actors are ready to do anything, and they are ready to handle anything their audience throws at them. I was very impressed with the actors` ability to take input from the audience and...

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