sex

As I was waiting for Badmatch to start, I chatted with my seatmate about our own experiences with online dating in Vancouver. Clearly it is a subject many are familiar with since Studio 16 was sold out for the show. In Badmatch, Leanne Kuzminski shares the love lessons she learns on her dates from hell as she tries to find love in Vancouver’s notoriously aloof dating scene.

I was a bit impatient with the opening sequence when they asked the audience to recount our first loves and what we would do on our perfect date. All I really wanted was for them to...

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...

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...

We've all done stupid, stupid things. That’s how learning happens. MacLeod’s cosy set delivered in discrete acts highlighting different lessons learned in self-regulation, thematically reinforced by the musical number, courtesy of the Heartbreakers. I Had Sex Until My Heart Stopped is well-choreographed and tastefully lit.

A monologue starting from a cozy set more than a little reminiscent of Zach Galifianakis's Between Two Ferns, MacLeod relays the possibly questionable decisions made in the throes of youthful exuberance and under the influence of… many, many things. Each vignette has an epithetic moral that brings laughs, knowing head nods and sounds of recognition from the...

Cameron MacLeod

WRITTEN AND STARRING JAMES GANGL

“In Search of Cruise Control” starts with James Gangl showing up and reading to us birthday cards his mother has sent him. The relationship with the audience continues as he acknowledges his tripping up in some of the script and the silliness of his staged actions to resemble a conversation. This breaking down of the wall between the audience and the play invites us into Gangl’s life. As the play progresses it feels like we could have been at a support group meeting and we are hearing the story of one man’s journey of understanding...

Troupers. That’s what these two are. Troupers. The intimate setting of the Revue Stage, Granville Island, was even more intimate with the excited, jovial early bird Fringers, taking in an early show on festival opening. For an act that wasn’t even on the program, due to a presumed scheduling challenge with the act that was supposed to appear. Ah, well, I think I lucked out. 

Vincent Leblanc-Beaudoin and Caitlin McFarlane brought their Victoria Fringe show to Vancouver on very short notice. Like, last Friday night kind of notice. I can only imagine what that must have felt like, both terrifying...

Drawing from a number popular dystopian themes, Broken Sex Doll is a slick, silly, scifi satire. Kinda like if Ray Bradbury had written Grease.

The story revolves around, as you can imagine, a “broken” sex doll but there are a number of twists and turns in the plot to keep you on your toes. The musical numbers are strong, the set is fabulous, and the acting is fun and fearless. Without giving too much away I’d like to say that my favourite parts were the very first action sequence, the umbrella montage and some very expressive leg acting.

The ensemble...

photographer Bettina Strauss

Out Innerspace Dance offered by far the most dynamic interpretation of the love, sex, and death themes that were the subject of the VIDF's free performances this year.   David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen have a powerful rapport, and their vocabulary is intricate, intimate, and refined.  The performance lived up to the company name, in that movements implied a physical and an emotional space simultaneously.  

Out Innerspace Dance

Everyone remembers their first time, right?  I do and it was quick to forget it.  Unfortunately, you can't forget your first time.  Come on!  The first time is always something you remember even if you want to forget it.  The First Time is a production that covers this fact in great detail whether your first time was good or not.

I know you wanted your first time to be with Elvira!