S. Bear Bergman has great faith in the power of theatre to make change, and has been putting his money where his mouth is on that one for some time. A writer, performer, and lecturer, Bear works full time as an artist and cultural worker and loves to see as much live performance as possible – making this a fantastic gig for him.
The version of Winners and Losers showing at the 2018 SummerWorks Festival is adapted from the original play of the same name, written and performed by Marcus Youssef and James Long. Youssef and Long, like Valerie Planche and Makambe S. Simamba, are friends, artists making work in Canada, and of markedly different backgrounds (by which I actually mean backgrounds and not “background as a euphemism for race” – though also that). In the show, Planche and Simamba play a game where they throw out nouns from “TTC” to “Space Soldiers” and discuss whether they’re winners or losers.
Thaya Whitten, the subject of The Red Horse Is Leaving in the 2018 SummerWorks Performance Festival, was clearly a woman ahead of her time. The performance of her character, drawn heavily from her own writing and speaking engagements, is full of chewy, delicious ideas about art, commerce, relationships, colour, light, music, and fear. Whitten, who convened panel discussion and drew them live, who engaged people about their deep feelings and expectations around artwork, is utterly fascinating.
There’s nothing like a Morro & Jasp show: not in other time slots at Tarragon Theatre, not in the whole of the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival, not ever. Toronto’s favorite clown sisters have a new two-hander in the Fringe this year and it’s everything you ever wanted from them – bickering, antics, deep emotional engagement with the foundations of human connection, belly laughs and snacks.
Having loved (and cried during) The Nance on Broadway, I felt somewhat prepared to love (and cry over) The Pansy Craze: A New Musical, showing at the Randolph Theatre as part of the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival. The shows both throw the Gay Wayback Machine back to a liminal time in queerness, exploring a shimmering moment in history when gender-independence was briefly allowable in public before law-enforcement clamped its unforgiving jaws back down. I did love The Pansy Craze: A New Musical, and I did cry, and I am keen indeed to see how this show progresses.
What you see is what you get with Adam Schwartz, who references his lack of a filter and propensity for truth-telling repeatedly in his stand-up fringe show, Aspergers: More Tales of a Social Misfit. Playing the Annex Theatre as part of this years Toronto Fringe Festival, Schwartz’s short set is a set-up-and-knock-down series of jokes about how his Aspergers affects his life, what he’s learned and, of course, his mother.
Having loved (and cried during) The Nance on Broadway, I felt somewhat prepared to love (and cry over) 
What you see is what you get with Adam Schwartz, who references his lack of a filter and propensity for truth-telling repeatedly in his stand-up fringe show,