Fringe regular Ryan Gladstone has returned with a remount of his one man show No Tweed Too Tight: A Grant Canyon Mystery. The year is 1976 and Grant Canyon, (Gladstone), a perpetually inebriated insurance investigator, weaves a tale of dead bodies, satisfied ladies, and many empty bottles.
Directed by Bruce Horak, Gladstone nimbly navigates the twisting and turning 60 minute script (written by himself and Horak), slipping between characters, locations, weapons and fight scenes. While Gladstone is alone on stage, special mention needs to be given to the score by Drew Jurecka and Robbie Grunwald, which brings another...
Awkward Stage Productions has established a solid reputation of presenting consistently strong musical productions with young casts and Cannibal is no exception. I applaud Awkward Stage for taking a risk by producing a show that pushes boundaries. For a company that I consider family friendly, this is no small thing. Do not take the kids to this one or anyone easily offended. Do take everyone else though.
This is the second stage version of Trey Parker’s Cannibal that I have seen. Trey Parker’s original script was written before South Park while he was still in University and it reads as...
Tthis “Feisty Old Jew” is forcing me to question my preconceptions. “She gets too hungry to wait for dinner at eight / She loves the theatre, but never comes late / She'd never bother with people she'd hate / That's why the lady is a tramp…” This is the classic Tony Bennett tune playing as I walked into the Performance Works Venue on a sunny weekday afternoon.
The bar doesn’t open for two hours and the crowd is sparse and the lights are up.
The Fringe schedule can be a challenging mad dash to find the right show in the right place at the right time, and sometimes leave one screaming “I’m late! I’m late! and I don’t even have a date!” I was in the Cultch and still trying to get a “Lovelash” out of my eye, when I realized that Ramshackle Theatre’s “We’re All Mad Here” was only 15 minutes later in time yet some unknown city blocks off in space. It’s a BYOV (Bring Your Venue).
Luckily, my east-side elder sister, who knows where madness lives, graciously offered to drive me to...
Fringe Description: Weird · In Your Face · Shocking
You enter the venue to the sounds of musician Michel Vles playing a variety of instruments to entertain your pre-show. This is a fitting beginning to a story about music in our lives and three young men’s quest to find a rare Japanese flute called a shakuhachi in Vancouver.
Jim Sands is a talented storyteller that weaves his tale of this quest with the help of the music and performance of Michel Vles. Although a few times Sands’ words got away from him, he recovered quickly and took the audience on a journey reminiscent of one...
Ludwig and Lohengrin is now my top pick out of 21 shows. Kyall Rakoz has researched the life of Ludwig II of Bavaria and retells it on stage through bit players in Ludwig's life. One of the characters is the tour guide in Ludwig's fairy tale castle and I was transported back to my visit there with the familiar information. There are mysteries in Ludwig's life so Rakoz may be taking liberties with the "facts" from time to time but it is all plausible.
The words I've used most often to describe this show have been brilliant...
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Magnificent welcomes you to the Greatest Monkey Show on Earth. For what you are about to experience, You’re Welcome.” Meet Charles the Monkey, the most intelligent monkey performing today. There will be no trainers or handlers in attendance at this show, just Charles and the audience, but never fear there are safeguards in place to ensure that the audience is safe.
Be assured that no monkeys were harmed in the making of this show. Ross Travis becomes Charles the monkey so completely that you will forget that there is a man onstage and only see a...
The first 16 bars of the Jurassic Park Theme song are perhaps my most favourite instrumental 16 bars of music. Walking into a theatre that happened to be playing these bars raised my expectations pretty high. Were they met? Very nearly yes.
Written and performed by Kira Hall and directed by Andrew Young, this 60-minute solo show was a late addition to the Fringe Festival, finding out only a few weeks before the Festival began that they got in. It is to the benefit of Vancouver audiences that they did.
As you enter Studio 16 you are greeted by your host The Hatter (Andrew Wade) who offers you a spot of tea from a table that has piles of all types of tea spread around it. I had a cup of chamomile which was lovely and made me feel welcome at his tea party. This is not just any tea party but one hosted by the famous Mad Hatter, although as we are soon to find out he is not very mad anymore, in fact he is quite sane and thus has been cast out of Wonderland. This show is...
I didn’t know what to expect from “Lovelash”. I originally thought it was “Love Lash”, and therefore anticipated a mascara and drag queen show. But Entr’acte Studios from Scarborough, Ontario serves up a “whiplash from the heart”. And you never know what will hit you at the Fringe.
Thank you for the polished, well-published Playbill programme so that I could quote the Writer’s [Terrence Vince] Desk, which was very insightful. I was just happy to receive a programme at the venerable doors of The Cultch Historic Theatre (aka VECC) as the grande dame has had a facelift, but...
Fringe Description: Funny · Musical · Family Friendly
