All posts by Lin Young

Lin Young is a PhD candidate in the English Department at Queen’s University by day, an insatiable theatre-goer by night. She truly loves seeing innovative indie theatre, the strange sort of hole-in-the-wall shows that big companies would never take a risk on. She’s seen plays in basements, gardens, bars, and in old dilapidated houses, to name a few. She’s always on the lookout for the next theatrical experiment in the city, and loves seeing shows that have some quality of fantasy, historicity, or strangeness to them – especially if they involve puppets! She tweets about theatre, comics and the 19th century at @linkeepsitreal.

Debris (Mochinosha, The Wishes Mystical Puppet Company) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review

Debris poster: a crow filled with trash

Debris, playing at the Toronto Fringe, tells the story of a basketball, a fish, and a motorcycle stranded in the middle of the ocean after the 2011 tsunami disaster in Japan. Inspired by true events, Daniel Wishes and Seri Yanai  of Mochinosha, the Wishes Mystical Puppet Company use their shadow puppets to chart the journey of these assorted objects from the tragedy-stricken shores of Japan to Canadian beaches. It’s sort of like Life of Pi meets The Brave Little Toaster, which translates to a likeable show with lots of inventive puppetry and visuals. Continue reading Debris (Mochinosha, The Wishes Mystical Puppet Company) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review →

Swordplay: A Play of Swords (Sex T-Rex) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review

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Sex T-Rex castIn Swordplay: A Play of Swords, former knights Barnabas and Salvatore are on a quest to rescue the kidnapped Princess Pimpernel from the evil Baron Thorne. With their trusty foam swords at their sides, confident in the knowledge that dragons have definitely been extinct for thousands of years, these two comrades-in-arms embark on an epic quest that you can only find playing at the Al Green Theatre for the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Continue reading Swordplay: A Play of Swords (Sex T-Rex) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review →

Fringe for Free! Toronto Fringe ticket giveaways for shows playing on Sunday, July 5th

fringe for free graphicBy now, the Toronto Fringe Festival is in full swing, and you may already have some idea of what shows are on your “must see” list. As we continue our madcap tour through every show in this year’s festival, we’re still finding the time to offer you free tickets from our daily Fringe for Free contest!

While some Fringers are intense planners, mapping out routes between theatres, others enjoy a little spontaneity in their theatre-going. Maybe today’s shows are on your must-see list, or maybe they’ll be surprise additions to your schedule.

Either way, it couldn’t be easier to enter! For every day of the festival, we’ll be giving out tickets to 5 shows. You can enter each of the five contests by sending us an email (more details below).

Remember, you need to enter each contest individually. If we pick your name, you’ve got two tickets heading your way, so watch out for that confirmation e-mail!

Here are the 5 shows playing on Sunday, July 5th, after the jump.

Continue reading Fringe for Free! Toronto Fringe ticket giveaways for shows playing on Sunday, July 5th →

Exposure (Undershaft and Lazarus) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review

Laurel Paetz, Craig Walker, Christopher Blackwell in "Exposure"Undershaft and Lazarus‘ Exposure, currently playing at the Robert Gill Theatre as part of Toronto Fringe, bills itself as the story of the first selfie. That’s not strictly true, though it is a cute log-line. Rather, it’s the story of the first photograph ever successfully taken of a human being, back in 1838 when photography was in its infancy. If you’ve seen the picture in question, then I’d describe the show as a kind of behind-the-scenes fantasy of who that figure might be, and how he might be connected to Louis Daguerre, the inventor of the Daguerrotype process of photography. Really, it’s a great concept.

Continue reading Exposure (Undershaft and Lazarus) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review →

Shevil: The Musical (Comic Shop Productions) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review

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shevil_nadia_mear

It’s tough to be a girl, especially when you’ve got world domination on the mind. So claims Shevil, the comic-book musical playing at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse during Toronto Fringe, about a female supervillain and her struggles against good and the sexist world she lives in. What’s even worse, though, is to see the genuine potential in such a strong premise mostly go to waste.
Continue reading Shevil: The Musical (Comic Shop Productions) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review →