P@VicF: paul's thinkings on victoria 2008

The 22nd Victoria Fringe Festival has drawn to a close and the organizers (the folks at Intrepid Theatre), must be pretty happy with themselves. With 50 shows, a dozen venues and record breaking attendance, this has to have been one of the best Fringes Victoria has ever seen.

By Paul McKinnon

The 22nd Victoria Fringe Festival has drawn to a close and the organizers (the folks at Intrepid Theatre), must be pretty happy with themselves. With 50 shows, a dozen venues and record breaking attendance, this has to have been one of the best Fringes Victoria has ever seen.

There was a lot of extra icing on the cake this year: block parties; free shows; late night cabarets; benefit shows. Favorite performers from previous years came back with new shows. New performers cut their theatrical teeth on the same stages as seasoned pros. And local talent showed that they can stand tall with some of the best shows on the Fringe circuit.

Hopefully some of those local artists will stick around town for awhile and show us what else they've got. And, hopefully, they'll get the audiences they deserve. Victoria is finally really starting to support homegrown theatre. And it's about time.

Gripes? I have a few. Not enough "all ages" shows. A glut (some would say "wealth") of "one person" shows, and not enough sketch comedy or dance. But these are minor details. There were genuine hits – Fear of A Brown Planet, Boatload and Jake's Gift come to mind – and even some of the misses had a weird charm to them – The Mathemagican's Apprentice was 20 minutes long, could only accommodate half a dozen audience members and was performed in the washroom of a downtown café.

With this many shows it was impossible to see everything, so let's hope that some of the performers remount their work and bring it back. If word got around at the Fringe that a show was worth seeing, it’s guaranteed a receptive audience the second time around.

So hats off to all the artists and their audiences. And to the organizers and volunteers. A job well done, you should all be proud of yourselves.

Bravo.