My Korean Canadian Friend by Lunar Way Studio is part of the Primetime series in the 2021 Toronto Fringe Festival. Stylized like a Korean variety show, this performance explores the lives of two Korean immigrant boys as they navigate the perilous world of Canadian high school.
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The drama club at the St. Catherine’s all girls school is struggling to put on their first play, Sophocles’ Antigone. This all-girls Catholic school in the ’90s has their work cut out for them in staging this famous tragedy but if the struggles in the play alone weren’t enough, their male director is caught in a scandal right before opening night. Playing at this year’s digital Fringe Festival, Antigone, As Presented by the Girls at St. Catherine’s (An Excerpt), presented by Monologue Slam Canada, is a coming of age story that deals with all the pitfalls of growing up.
Swallow This Skin by the Unhushed Theatre Collective, currently playing as part of this year’s Digital Fringe Festival, currently exists as an audio play. It details the life of the dancers at a run-down Toronto strip club in the few hours before they open for another night.
Stylized similarly to The Vagina Monologues, this audio play is peppered with provocative monologues that touch on topics from racial fetishization and sexuality to reproductive health and religion. When a former dancer returns to the stage and a customer lingers around after last call, this night spirals far from being an average night at the club.
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Daphne’s Inferno by Bad Seed Productions, playing virtually at the 2021 Digital Fringe Festival, is a take on the classic tale of Dante’s Inferno. Daphne (Barb Scheffler) wanders into a strange little coffee shop, the Inferno Café, while looking for her husband. There she is greeted by the barista Virginia (Jillian Rees-Brown). When Daphne tries to leave, she sees that the door is blocked. Virginia informs her that she cannot leave the way she entered; the only way out is through.
As Daphne gathers her thoughts and prepares for her journey, she is greeted by the mysterious Lucy (Erin Eldershaw) who informs Daphne that she is indeed at the gates of Hell and in order to find her way out she must traverse through the circles of Hell.
In doing so, Daphne is forced to confront the darkest chapters in her life, from her abusive father, her horrendous high school relationship, to her sexual abuse at the hands of a neighbor. But when she hears the tragic truth from from her daughter, she finds herself at the edge of no return.
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The Mad Ones is a virtual musical about the internal struggle before a Big Life DecisionThe Mad Ones, a virtual musical by Russo Richardson Productions, is an emotional story about embracing a big life decision and the internal struggle leading up to that. Filmed remotely and presented as a Zoom call inside Samantha Brown’s mind, this performance managed to successfully utilize the limitations of producing a show during a pandemic to their advantage.
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