First of all, let us get the obvious out of the way: what the hell does "bildungsroman" mean and how do you pronounce it? With the help of Wikipedia, here is what you need to know:
The bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [?b?ld??s.?o?ma?n]; German: "formation novel") is a genre of the novel which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. Change is thus extremely important. The genre is further characterized by a number
Allan Girod has a captivating physical presence on stage. He is truly mesmerizing. I liked nothing more than watching this six-foot-nine Australian man contort himself into a child, a louche motivational speaker and an asocial perfectionist.
When Harry Met Harry introduces us to a lonely man so isolated even from himself his dreams retell the moment he was abandoned as a boy. (Hats off to the lighting design for the eerie mindscape.)
Girod’s flawless control of his long limbs transformed the stage. He built his characters on the physical movement and shape of their bodies, transforming his own to fit...
Canary is a show about two things. It is a story about a woman's journey down a yellow brick road of confusion and desperation and how the people around her try to help even when they don't know what it is they should be doing to help her. The second thing this play is about is the dangers of electromagnetic energy and how it can affect people in ways we don't fully understand. I admit that this is something I have always been interested in and I lucked out when this play was randomly chosen for me to review.
Capital, Alice!, playing at Studio 16, is a retelling of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll. In this production, Alice is a worker in a retail store and has her adventure inside of a typical suburban mall.
The story begins, of course, with Alice. She is folding jeans in an average retail establishment, a boss type person enters, says something I didn’t quite understand, and then the character of Alice falls asleep on a pile of jeans for no discernible reason. Where was the White Rabbit or some mysterious hole in a wall for Alice to investigate? Why didn’t...
The day after I saw Capsule, I headed back to the Boca Del Lupo studio to catch their other fifteen minute show, Value Village. This play is perhaps the best experience I have had at the Fringe for quite a few years. It is short, direct, and involves a great deal of improvisation - always a risky prospect if you don’t have a strong enough actor. Luckily, the actor they have for this show is amazing.
To explain what I mean, here is the set up before the show. An audience member chooses an object tacked on a board outside...
Capsule is fifteen minute short about two astronauts lost in space. They have been out in space for some time (orbiting Jupiter) and have not had any communication from Earth for quite some time. The two astronauts eventually meet up and chat, one providing the other with more information about the fate of our planet. As the story progresses, we learn that zombies or “face rapers” have taken over the world and most (if not all) of the world’s population is gone. As the hope of rescue evaporates, this leads to some discussion about how the characters will take control...
Poison The Well is a very, very, very, very, dense script. In fact, the script is much too dense for a show featured at a Fringe anywhere in the world. The show should be a feature film! It is that good.
The story follows a not-so-chance meeting between Maya and James, representatives for opposite sides of a hostage negotiation. As the story progresses, we find out they already know each other, two kids from the same neighbourhood. They are separated at the age of sixteen in a violent clash; one trapped in the war-torn country while the other escapes to...
If you take your foreplay with a side of voyeurism and kink, you’ll like the disquiet of Wicked Shorts and these four one-act plays that hinge on perversity, farce and that ultimate rite of passage—the first date.
Opening with “Matador Love” by Morwyn Brebner, we meet a librarian and hear about her bestial fantasies (about fucking horses, those long-dong beasts of the animal kingdom). She also orgasms at the touch of strangers. (“We’re establishing a rapport here,” breathes the man responsible.) Sheltered and shut-in, she’s ultimately pent up; a crowded sidewalk is orgiastic and she pairs her conservative knitwear with...
One Man Show takes us down the metaphysical rabbit hole of Fringe theatre. What’s a one-man show if it’s a two-man show? It’s a one-man show in a fringe festival.
Zdenka Now! was hilarious and revealing until Precious Chong abandoned us on a bus with an Inuk teenager and broke the whimsical and romantic reverie of her off-the-wall characters.
Moving but non-sensical, Zdenka Now! held together thanks to the utter commitment and talent of Chong. Why these characters are on stage, I can't say, but I was gripped to know what sorry case would pop out from the racks of clothing and Chong’s bizarro brain.
Barely clinging to the premise of its format, the audience is introduced to the No. 1 television talk show host of the former Yugoslavia, Zdenka,...
