Unfortunate Ruth at 10 p.m. was my fifth show of the day, giving me a special high, a special buzz (is there a better word for this?), but far from my best reviewing self.
There are two Ruths, identical twins in parallel realities, both - of course - played by Tara Travis, the author, directed by Jim Travis. One Ruth is toothy and wears glasses while the other has made herself more attractive. They work at desks at opposite sides of the stage, busied with phones and intercoms.
Generally, I don’t like clowns; there is something unnerving about a clown. And after a particularly tough Saturday this reviewer wanted nothing more than to head home and crawl into bed. But, instead, I headed on over to the east side and saw MOM? And it was just what the doctor ordered – light, funny, skilled and infectiously joyful.
To begin there is just a blue box on top of a mountain. The literal box of clowns for which, I imagine the troupe gets its name. It is from this box that the clowns emerge to scatter the ashes of...
Natalia Hautala is Grace. And Grace is Muse. We know from the voice over of Dr. McDougall (Doctor Doodoo) and Nurse Vicky that Grace has had neurological damage, is OCD and doesn’t speak.
As we enter Studio 1398, Grace is playing the cello and singing. She plays, sings and speaks a lot and somehow Hautala makes it clear to us that we are inside Grace’s head and can hear her unspoken thoughts.
Hautala invites the audience to follow Grace’s hand gestures to become her backup singers. Entranced, we comply. Ba da DUM. Ba da DUM. Ba da DUM. She smiles at...
Fringe Description: Funny · Warm and Fuzzy · Poetic
The script of Greenland is published, one of the three scripts in Fault Lines, which won the Governor General's award for Drama last year. Thus sophisticated comparisons between text and performance might be made. One of the other two, Iceland (obviously related), was well staged in April at Studio 16.
Greenland is presented on a tug moored beside the Public Market, an original BYOV. The audience, limited to 30, is divided into groups of ten, two of whom will hear monologues at the ends of the boat, outdoors, with the third group squeezed into the tiny cabin. Finally all...
The Mad Hatter has become stuck in reality. Perhaps he can open a portal that will lead him back home if he can recreate the silliness of Wonderland. Andrew Wade's one-man performance at Studio 16 showcases his quick wit and improvisational talent. However, the world, the character, and the story felt half-formed and ultimately inconsequential.
Some moments were quite fun. My fellow audience members had gusto when it came to singing the Unbirthday Song, even though everyone seemed to be making up their own tune. After requesting a title, Andrew created a song on the spot which had a surprisingly...
Any event that shows at the Cultch’s Historic Theatre is automatically under pressure to be amazing and live up to the expectations of being intellectual, classy, and well-organized. The venue, one of East Vancouver’s most prestigious and well-respected performance spaces, is elegant and has beautiful acoustics.
Intellectual drama Apophis puts good effort into meeting these expectations, but drags on a smidge too long for comfort.
Apophis’ script focuses on dialogue rather than action. The conflict is a push-pull dynamic between three young adults who argue about which of them are going to stay put or flee the city...
Slumming is one of the more dynamic, dramatic works in this year’s Fringe. This is due in no small part to Sharon Crandall’s portrayal of street worker Britney who laughs like thunder, crawls across the stage in bloody-thigh agony, and sings like an excommunicated goddess. Terri Anne Taylor’s Grace juxtaposes her well as she cracks open the character’s subdued chrysalis and emerges as a powerful woman of rage, passion, and vengeance.
The two provide a powerful contract of how strong people respond to the challenges of their lives: one takes action to change the dynamics of situations, while...
Ah, the artist’s ideal day job: well-paying, good title, solid corporation, some creativity involved…then the company sells out, and the layoffs hit. But they don’t hit like a punch, a sudden blow that leaves you dazed and disoriented -- they hit like one of those time-release breakups that burn slow and crazymaking like a slowly-peeled bandaid.
There is something about the story of Lord of the Files that rings so true, so close to the spinal cord of so many artists and art enthusiasts. The show has been packed-house since its opening, and despite the modest advertising...
Lac/Athabasca by Len Falkenstein is the premiere production of a project to hone a play inspired by the train derailment and fire at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec last summer as well as another similar oil train derailment and fire that took place this past spring in New Brunswick. Produced by Theatre Free Radical, a company of artists out of New Brunswick, these incidents and the web of economic and social circumstances and choices that led to them hit, literally, close to home. The piece is a strong beginning – the monologues and scenes personalize what was, to me, a terrible...
Al Lafrance is a funny guy, and his one-man show, The Quitter, has some interesting insights. Anyone who attends Fringe knows that one-person shows based on personal memoir are perhaps 25-50% of all shows, and this is another one in that category.
In this autobiographical work, Al describes how he gets used to the idea of failure and quitting. It starts in high school, where he tires of being the "smart kid" who is sometimes ostracized and who misses out on various social activities because of his emphasis on being a great student. He goes on from failing a math...