“Slumming” is a new work by Barbara Ellison; Ellison also directs. The show introduces us to the complex lives of recently fallen from grace, middle-class Grace, played by Terri Anne Taylor, and a young sex worker Brittany, played by Stevie Jackson. The program notes tell us the play had its genesis in the Downtown East Side (DTES) as Ellison observes a sex worker at work from the rehearsal hall at the Firehall.
Half an hour before the show started, the Firehall was already packed with an upbeat vibe. Everybody was ready to start this year's Vancouver Fringe Festival with a high note. Did this show deliver tonight?...yes it did!
Comedy, Musical Theatre, Queer, New Work- http://www.riverviewhighthemusical.com
So – here is my Fringe prediction. James Gangl will win your heart with his charming, funny and oddly innocent ways. If I was single, I'd be looking this man up for a good time. (In fact, I may just do so anyway... sorry honey.)
One of the 14 onsite shows at Granville Island, Pirates? features a lively cast of seven performers from Quimera Collective. Their program includes helpful instructions on how to fold the paper into a sailor hat... which should tell you a great deal about the tenor of this performance which takes place at the Kids Tugboat near the Kids Market.
Produced by a company called Me, Myself and I, this show is precisely as advertised in its fairly brief show description. A one-woman show with four characters, we meet multiple generations of women in one family who have some divergent issues with their respective chests.
Comedy, Drama, New Work - http://www.gailmackenzie.com/
The Hip.Bang! Improv duo of Devin Mackenzie and Thomas Hill provide some decent entertainment. They both have clearly mastered – well, learned – the tricks of the trade that can keep their audience engaged.
Comedy, Improv, Physical Theatre, New Work - http://www.hipbang.ca/
Poor little Otto. Poor little Astrid. When Mr. and Mrs. Rot got crushed by a train or eaten by an escaped lion (Otto and Astrid disagree on this point), the siblings were shuttled off to relatives who were mean to them and made them do, “folk dancing dressed like squirrels.” So they ran away and set up life in a Berlin squat.
A particularly dramatic moment, is it not, Comrade?
Terre Haute marks a stark departure for director Alistair Newton and his company, Ecce Homo. Their trademark style of ironic white-faced cabaret that has served them well in previous Summerworks productions The Pastor Phelps Project and The Ecstasy Of Mother Teresa, is notably absent, replaced by simple and profound naturalism – a choice dictated in part by Edmund White’s dialogue heavy script.
From writer Nicolas Billon and directed by Ravi Jain, Iceland is set largely in a swank downtown Toronto condo and is structured as a series of three narrative monologues each delivered from a spot-lit chair.
