2009

What you don't know can save your life.  According to Vagan, a motivational speaker who expounds the power of ignorance, we need to cultivate confusion which is the boulevard to ignorance. By following the Ig Mantra (slowly repeating DUH several times), you can apparently create ignorance and overcome the fact that many others may call your new philosophy absurd.

You can't ignore me.

Caberlesque is a cross between Cabaret and Burlesque. OK, let’s see some hot and saucy stuff. Lather me with the rompiest, sexiest show.  I am ready! 

Unmet desire.

I can almost see the emotions in this play as if they were instruments in an orchestra. A quiet and cautious beginning with a dash of quick chirps here and there, like a sugar rush and too much coffee. A long soft clashy melody goes back and forth with the tempo quickening steadily. As the melody plays on, the notes become sharper, louder intense and harsh.

The Lesson

Catherine Montgomery (writer/actor) is a spitfire manic performer and she pours everything she has into her balls-to-the-wall --  sorry, pussy-to-the-wall -- performance in Straight From That Side of Town. Whether you want to go to that town is another story, but hey, this is the Fringe. Sometimes we're forced to go to places we don't really want to go to.

Straight from that Side of Town

Twice the Same River is a comic existentialist romp that tackles the meaning of love, adultery, and identity.  Four faithless lovers become entangled in a web of supernatural intrigue that leaves them profoundly confused about the nature of the self and the soul.

Twice the Same River

I have been praying to the Theatre Gods to send someone to write a play about ghosts that would leave my skin crawling and my heart pounding. Well, someone up there heard me, and sent Andrew Templeton along with MachineFair and Craning Neck Theatre baring their newest creation: Biographies of the Dead and  Dying.

Biographies of the Dead and Dying

Verbatim theatre to me is like a documentary or an interview where the names and faces have been altered to keep the people anonymous.  The characters in this show were as if you had met them before and listened to their stories. The stories besides the main character, Jackie, are real accounts from elderly people who reside at Emmy Monash Home for the aged.

Grandpa Sol and Grandma Rosie

Vancouver: John Hefner, estranged 2nd cousin (or is that first cousin once removed?) of the world famous playboy himself, Hugh Hefner, brings us a true tale of life in the shadow of a name.

The black sheep of the bunny house

The actor who portrays the titular character of this one-man show – he isn't introduced anywhere as the performer but I'm guessing either Jeff McMahan or Chris Cook, the two guys credited with 'created by' in the Fringe guide – is a charming, confident and comfortable performer.

Getting stuck.

Vancouver: What a premise, I thought. If I ever ride the rails from coast to coast, what more could I ask for than a Canadian soundtrack performed live by a guitar virtuoso? Not much but the artists themselves and the time-travelling ability to catch the train in 1969.

Colin Godbout

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