“[A] darker tone and feel than Mort, but the wit and satire that are Pratchett’s trademarks are still there!”

From press release:

Socratic Theatre Collective is proud to conclude its third season with a sitespecific production of Terry Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment, adapted by Stephen Briggs, presented at the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Terry Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment is the stage adaptation of the thirty-first novel in Pratchett’s award-winning Discworld series. It tells the story of Polly Perks, a Borogravian barmaid who disguises herself as a boy to join the army in search of her lost brother, and the band of misfits who make up her regiment.

Continue reading Terry Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release →

Celebrate the bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice by diving into Elizabeth -­ Darcy, a fresh twist on a classic.

From press release:

Tom Arthur Davis (smash hit award winning Mamoud, Toronto and NYC Fringe 2012) is directing Hallie Burt (John and Beatrice, The Queer Bathroom Monologues: Patron’s Pick Toronto Fringe 2011) and Kate Werneburg (The Centre of Everything Civilised, A Midwinter’s Dream Tale) in a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that promises to be fast-­paced and fun: the 75 minute site–specific Elizabeth – Darcy at the Campbell House Museum during this year’s Toronto Fringe.

Audiences will experience the beautiful and historic home in a truly immersive way, by following the players through the house as the action moves from room to room. Burt and Werneburg take on all the parts, but this gender­bending version is more than just a sight ­gag.

Continue reading Elizabeth – Darcy – Toronto Fringe Press Release 2013 →

“I went there to find myself, but lost my mind instead.”

From press release:

Sometimes it takes years to get a story right.

The true events in Alex Eddington’s new storytelling-and-music show Yarn happened a decade ago, when he took a summer job on the remote Isle of Mull, Scotland. Yarn will run at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival (July 3-14, 2013) – but this isn’t the first time he’s shared these stories.

Alex wrote Wool in 2006 and toured it to the Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton Fringe festivals – his first Fringe tour of five. Back then, he was a composer newly turning his hand to writing; Wool was a poetic travelogue without a strong story arc. Alex put Wool in his back drawer and wrote several very different plays, including the solo musicological comedy-thriller The Fugue Code in which he played 11 characters at the 2007 Toronto Fringe.

But the Mull stories kept resurfacing. In 2011 he created Fuzzy Logic, a composition for narrator and six musicians based on his observations on the habits of sheep written during that summer on Mull.

Continue reading Yarn – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release →

“A Finnish Fringe First”

From press release:

In keeping with the Toronto Fringe tradition of presenting emerging artists and supporting new works, the Randolph Academy will present the North American premiere of I Hired a Contract Killer by Aki Kaurismäki at the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival. This is the first-ever stage adaptation of the Finnish auteur’s cult favorite film of the same name that featured a soundtrack by The Clash’s Joe Strummer.

Hailed as “delightfully preposterous” by The Guardian, I Hired a Contract Killer will be directed by Bruce Pitkin, who says, “Aki Kaurismäki’s film I Hired a Contract Killer was made in 1990, but speaks to us today about the nihilistic state of the working class, where marginalization precludes all hope, and yet, even in fallow soil, a seed of hope can take root.”

He continues, “Kaurismäki finds absurdity in the most painful of human experiences: being fired, suicide, loneliness, depression and death. Adapting it for the stage presents enormous challenges, in maintaining the stylistic balance between his humour in the story and the suspense propelling it forward, especially since he writes in a very low-key style.”

No stranger to directing Toronto Fringe shows, director Bruce Pitkin has helmed Makbeth, Kassandra and 2012 Critics Pick The House of Bernarda Alba. Bruce has performed, directed and taught in Japan, Germany, the U.S. and Canada. Other directing credits include Albertine in Five Times, Road, Elecktra, Mephisto, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Uncle Vanya, The Trojan Women, Top Girls, and Our Town.

In I Hired A Contract Killer, civil servant Henri Boulanger is distraught at being ousted from his job and hires a professional to murder him. When his luck in love and life starts to change, Henri tries to cancel the contract, but is unable to do so. Faced with his imminent demise, Henri tries to drop clues to the contract killer that he would very much like to live. Will he be able to convince the hired gun to stop his pursuit?

The troupe of emerging artists who form the cast are all in their final year of training at the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts’ Triple Threat® College Program.

I Hired A Contract Killer, presented by the Randolph Academy (in association with the Toronto Fringe Festival) plays the following dates at the Annex Theatre (730 Bathurst St.):

• July 3, 8:15 p.m.
• July 5, 3 p.m.
• July 8, 10:15 p.m.
• July 9, 4 p.m.
• July 10, 5:15 p.m.
• July 12, 12 p.m.
• July 14, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $10 and can be bought at the door, or purchased in advance at fringetix.ca or by phone at 416-966-1062, extension 1. Additional fees apply to advance purchases.

Please note that latecomers are never seated at Fringe performances.

“[A] hilarious look at the world of touring children’s theatre.”

From press release:

Solo performance sensation Jeff Leard is coming back to the Toronto
Fringe Festival (July 3-14) with a hilarious new autobiographical tale about the travails of a children’s theatre company touring through northern Rocky Mountains.

In The Show Must Go On, Leard relates war stories of the six months he spent in a van with a hot young ingénue and a grizzled veteran of the school circuit, bringing a production of Rumplestiltskin to
schools in BC’s isolated mountain communities. Over more than 5,000 kilometers travelled, Leard performed for incontinent children, was nearly stampeded to death by a herd of caribou, and was robbed
at gunpoint of all his belongings – all in the name of bringing art to kids.

Leard is best-known to Fringers for his hit solo show Gametes & Gonads, a high-energy physical comedy that turned the human reproductive system into a multi-character sci-fi epic in the vein of Star Wars, which toured Canada and played at the Toronto Fringe in 2011. The Show Must Go On sees Leard once again display his mastery of athletic physical comedy, mime, character voices, and brutally funny observations to tell a personal story about the power of art to transform both the artist and the audience.

Leard, a Victoria native who now calls Toronto home, created the show with direction from his father James Leard, a fixture of the Victoria theatre company and owner of Story Theatre Company, which creates
children’s shows to tour to elementary schools in British Columbia.

The Toronto Fringe is just the beginning for The Show Must Go On, which is touring the Fringe Circuit across Canada this summer, playing festivals in London, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Victoria.

The Show Must Go On, presented by the Random Samples Collective
 (in association with the Toronto Fringe Festival) plays the following dates at the George Ignatieff Theatre (15 Devonshire Place):

• July 5, 7 PM
• July 6, 11 PM
• July 8, 2:45 PM
• July 9, 7 PM
• July 11, 9:45 PM
• July 12, 1:45 PM
• July 13, 11:30 PM

Tickets are$10 and can be bought at the door, or purchased in advance at fringetix.ca or by phone at 416-966-1062, extension 1. Additional fees apply to advance purchases.

Please note that latecomers are never seated at Fringe performances.

Photograph of Jeff Leard by Dahlia Katz.