Hunker down, folks. The Diddlin’ Bibbles Live in Concert by The Diddlin’ Bibbles at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival are here.

With a name like that, one might expect a night of wholesome southern music, a kind couple in love, glowing with that rustic small-town charm, smiling as they welcome you into their dusty little world of warm sunbeams and a gentle pace, drinking sweet tea on the white wicker porch chairs. Continue reading The Diddlin’ Bibbles Live in Concert (The Diddlin’ Bibbles) 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival Review →

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into 6 Quick Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation, a show byTim Motley playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Was it a pornographic? Was it a police procedural?  And how are you supposed to say that name without getting tongue-tied? Turns out, it’s a magic show mixed with a 1940’s film-noir detective story with a dose of comedy thrown in. Continue reading 6 Quick Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation (Tim Motley) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review →

Who, Me. is a meditation on fandom written by and starring actor and big-time Whovian Rob Lloyd.  An Australian native, he has taken his theatrical lampoon of BBC staple Doctor Who to stages around the globe, now including Toronto for the 2017 Fringe Festival.

Continue reading Who, Me. (Rob Lloyd) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review →

Pulse Theatre‘s production of A Flea in Her Ear, playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival, opens with a dominatrix cracking a whip on a submissive man dressed as a tiger. This is a strange image to experience at the beginning of a production, but I later realized that A Flea in Her Ear wears its strangeness as a badge of honour. The play combines overt sexuality, snazzy 70s fashion, and absurdist comedy to create a production that is colourful, energetic, and undeniably sexy.

Continue reading A Flea in Her Ear (Pulse Theatre) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review →

Olive Copperbottom: A New Musical by Charles Dickens and Penny Ashton, produced by Penash Productions, brings an abundance of Victorian delights to the Toronto Fringe Festival. Inspired by Charles Dickens and bolstered by fun musical numbers and a tremendous amount of energy from one-woman performer Penny Ashton, this was a show I enjoyed down to the very last drop — of gin, obviously.

Continue reading Olive Copperbottom: A New Musical (Penash Productions) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review →