So let's say -- hypothetically -- that you're a loyal Fringe reviewer, and so dedicated are you to bringing your insight on the Fringe phenomenon to the masses that you stay late at the Fringe bar on Saturday night -- for the purposes of research, of course. And let's say you roll out of bed on Sunday just in time for a coffee before your next show. In your fuzzy, sleep-deprived state, what's the one theatrical experience you would yearn for beyond any other? Why only a rock musical on the growing pains associated with turning thirteen! What could give...
Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog is a 2008 musical tragicomedy miniseries in three acts, produced exclusively for Internet distribution. The team wrote the musical during the WGA writers' strike. The idea was to create something small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike.
Yes you can see the award winning internet production on YouTube, or purchase it through i-tunes but first see it mounted as the extraordinary live production at this year's Fringe.
This is how I was introduced to the musical and time stood still.
All gong and no dinner. A lot of Fringe shows suffer from this condition - a decent premise but miserable execution. You see, a show about a black woman becoming the Queen of England seems like a sure Fringe bet. Especially if you toss in a solid performer (Valerie Mason-John) with phenomenal British elocution wearing a silly blonde wig and hot pink prom dress. But no - Brown Girl in the Ring is a full-on disaster.
Our erstwhile queen starts the show with a series of pointed proclamations for her Canadian subjects - then proceeds to descend into what I...
7 (x1) Samurai is a comedy one man show is based on Akira Kurosawa's epic film Seven Samurai. You may also know this story from the 1960 western classic The Magnificent Seven.
The performers in The Dali Hours are the Maple Salsa, from Alberta, who list two previous creations. Their program is full of words: "We reflect on time and childhood. Many are familiar with Salvador Dali as a painter, but few with his endeavours as a philosopher and intellectual. We have based this piece in Dali's ideas of taking over the notion of time, bend it, expand it. We were brought back to the only stage of our lives when time was our best friend." Their production is not: the only words are "over here" twice, some total distortion of simultaneous...
Director Kathy Parsons pulled out her clipboard, put on her plastic glasses and wanted to know what I did in order to escape. My answer was incorporated into show.
Moments later the audience was put into the play in the fire escape. A photographer attempted to take a picture of a bride before the ceremony, but she ran up the steps and we followed. The bride literally had cold feet - she wore moccasins. The photographer listened to her quandary. “Divorce is always an option,” he suggested. She wanted to escape, (I’m not going to give the story away.)
The program brochure led me to expect at least a duologue when in fact this is another male monologue. The brochure credits Jeff McMahan only as writer of The Boy who had a Mother, when also presumably he is the performer and probably self-directed.
Jon Paterson in Daniel MacIvor’s award winning play House is mesmerizing and explosive. I left the theatre feeling like I needed a good stiff drink or a neck rub … preferably both.
It was very pleasant to sit under the awning in Caroline’s backyard (where blankets are provided) to enjoy Green/Roof, this most inventive use of neighbourhood space as theatre. The bushes shake as a stealthy, die-hard-positive guerrilla gardener, played convincingly by Caroline Sniatynski, clamours over the chainlink fence, on a mission to transform this neglected garden with green life. However, she is not alone; unknown to her, a woman is secured above to the chimney by a long cable, armed with binoculars, obsessed with the minutiae of neighbourhood developments. It wasn’t entirely clear whether this woman was a squatter on the...
