I have to admit a couple of things before I talk about this play: I like solo shows because they are the most intimate of performances and I loved Denis Simpson. What does Denis Simpson have to do with this play? Directly, very little. Indirectly, everything. I will get to that in a minute.
If I could have babies, I would have Ryan Gladstone's babies. His babies would be funny, talented, and would attempt things that no mere mortal would ever dare try. Imagine if we populated an entire Fringe with his talented, crazy, babies - people would be entertained for weeks on end and never get bored of the shenannigans his babies would get into. Unless we clone him now, we do have the technology, I hear. Anyway, let's move on to talking about the show itself because my imagination is running away with me and thinking about how many babies Ryan should...
When I write a review for the Fringe, I like to go in cold. I try to know as little as possible about the work I am about to see. I like to be surprised when the actor or actors walk on stage (or run) and start to tell me the story. I love that moment when you don't know what it about to happen and, as the performance unfolds, you get a sense that you have missed out on something. That happened to me when the Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Project started.
When I received my random assignment of shows for this year's Fringe and I glanced down the list of titles, I had no idea that one of these shows would feature a clown, killer rubber ducks, an inflatable dinghy, and a pop-gun. If I had known, I may have attempted to trade the show with someone else on the Plank review team but I am glad I didn't. Duck Off, a production between the Fringe Onsite program and Kazoomco'sMelissa Aston is so awesome that I think every other show in the entire Fringe...
If you don't drop that duck, it will eat your face off
The Devil and Billy Markham has been around for quite some time and I was happy to see that it was being done again at the Vancouver Fringe. I hadn't seen it performed live before (except a few video snippets here and there online) but I can say for certain that this performance wasn't the greatest but it wasn't bad either. It was "just good". I wasn't expecting Shakespeare or Faust but I felt something was missing. The Devil and Billy Markham is a show about a down and out know-it-all hard-drinker type who...
At Cabaret Terrarium, I laughed so much I was worried I might die of asphyxiation. I must apologize to everyone who saw this show the same night I did. That obnoxiously loud laugh house right, that was me.
I have to admit that I don’t really know much about B movies, other than the obvious: they’re kitschy, they tend towards the fetishistic, and they’re usually either bad or frighteningly bad. I was hoping Night of the B Movie would be a send-up that would help me understand and appreciate the genre, but instead I left the theatre with an understanding of squandered potential.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t a horrible show. Circus Maximus had the best production values that I’ve seen in any Fringe play. They had great props and make-up— probably better than some of...
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Dating is not my favourite topic for a play. I feel it's over-used and usually petty. So I wasn't going in expecting to be blown away to begin with. And I was almost pleasantly surprised. This play does have potential and I know this is the debut performance, so I have high hopes for future incarnations. The first few minutes in BC Ceramics had me thinking “Huh. Maybe this will be an unassuming but human piece, saved from its cliched subject matter by involving the audience and getting us to really care for the character's plight.” And, for the first...
I'm not a hockey fan. I tell people it's because I wasn't born in Canada. But the truth is I just don't see the point. So I was a little worried about reviewing this piece. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it.
