No Place, produced by Pressgang Theatre, is performing at St. George the Martyr Church as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. For many who come across an autobiographical, one-person Fringe show about someone who grew up in a small town and had a difficult relationship with their mother, the description may as well read, “Run as fast as you can, in the opposite direction.” I get it. These types of one-handers are really hard to pull off well, and when they’re done poorly the result can be excruciating.
Continue reading No Place (Pressgang Theatre) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review
Fringe Festival
A collection of everything to do with the Toronto Fringe Festival, including reviews, features, press releases etc.
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Slow Blue Lions/The Howland Company) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review
I knew I had to see Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, co-produced by Slow Blue Lions and The Howland Company, and playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival, when I watched it receive a Cayle Chernin production award (supporting women in theatre and film) earlier this year, and found myself fascinated by the premise. A couple, lawyer Bernadette (Ruth Goodwin) and musician Oliver (James Graham), struggle against a new law that’s been put in motion: each person is only allowed to speak as many words in a day as there are characters in a Tweet. Yes, that means 140 words are all you get. Words in all their various permutations are my life, so to me this was a horror movie cloaked in a relationship story. The play does manage to marry those elements of romantic comedy and existential dread in ways that are surprising, charming, and poignant. While the concept might seem outlandish, the execution is sharp and thoughtful.
SCAT (Laugh Serious Theatre) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review
Laugh Serious Theatre’s SCAT is designed to make you uncomfortable. The site-specific play, staged for the Toronto Fringe Festival in the waiting area and public bathrooms of the Queen West Community Centre, is an intimate portrayal of the impact of restroom politics.
Continue reading SCAT (Laugh Serious Theatre) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review
Kara Sevda (Now What Theatre) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review
It’s the end of the world, and two strangers find themselves sharing a bench in a train station, waiting for the lottery that will decide who gets to take the last train south from Paris. In Now What Theatre‘s Kara Sevda, playing as part of the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival, the question is not so much if the world is ending, but what it means to keep surviving. Continue reading Kara Sevda (Now What Theatre) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review
Madeleine Says Sorry (Prairie Fire, Please) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review
At the end of the two-hander Madeleine Says Sorry (Prairie Fire, Please), playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival, Madeleine Brown, the playwright and one of the actors, said to the audience, “If you liked it or didn’t like it, tweet about it. That’s all that matters.”
Oh that I could just tweet 140 characters, go ahead and write my next review, and go to bed, but my editor expects an actual review. Continue reading Madeleine Says Sorry (Prairie Fire, Please) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review