In the wide and wonderful world of Fringe, we all know there are hits and misses. I was keen to start myself off with a hit – to set the tone, so to speak – and picked Morro & Jasp: Go Bake Yourself as my first Fringe show. As ever, these Fringe-favorite clowns are delightful as they scrap and scheme.

Morro, the mischievous younger sister, and Jasp the older and-also-wiser-just-ask-her, have cooking show aspirations  but vastly different visions of how this cooking show will manifest. Morro imagines a Kitchen Stadium, BBQ Battle, Who Cooked It Better type of situation, and gears up accordingly in her kitchen armour for the fight. Jasp, a more mature young lady, sees a refined, classy cookery programme as befits her grand (self-)image. Hijinks, as you can doubtless imagine, ensue.

Continue reading Morro and Jasp: Go Bake Yourself (U.N.I.T Productions) 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival Review →

Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2: Kisses for a Pfennig is a cabaret night in the style of the 1920’s; songs  interspersed with comedy acts from the MCs, who also give you a two part story number regarding a corrupt, buffoonish character who becomes burgermeister (mayor) in a remote Bavarian town, a narrative attuned to the municipal politics of Toronto today.

A lot of the songs are from Kurt Weill who is, in my mind, one of the best examples of musicianship with an impact both emotional and political. He may have died in 1950 but his songs remain resonant today, and are adeptly handled by Soup Can Theatre. The costumes are fabulous, the music and song almost always compelling and the staging has that underground feel, where it is well choreographed but never too polished to delude you that these aren’t real, actual people up there. Continue reading Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2: Kisses for a Pfennig (Soup Can Theatre) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →

If it weren’t for the smell of jambalaya, I could have been in any doctor’s office – handed a bewildering form and a mostly-expired pen and sent to sit and wait my turn with nothing but a two-year-old issue of Canadian Living for company. The form at Shakespeare, M.D., however, requested a distinctly odd set of details about my astrological sign, personality, and favored snack foods.

Continue reading Shakespeare, M.D. (Spur-Of-The-Moment Shakespeare Collective) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →