Excerpt from press release:

Boy meets girl. Boy has broken vaporizer. Girl has bed bugs. Ten Creative Ways to Dispose of your Cremains is not just the longest title ever, it’s a millennial love letter to the misfits of the Peter Pan Generation. Written on the fringe for the Fringe, Ten Creative Ways… is a  story about trying to turn a corner, but somehow, always ending up in Trinity Bellwoods with an urn of ashes and six popsicles. From the writer of Oregano at the Storefront Theatre and the director of Plucked at Summerworks, Ten Creative Ways… stars Jakob Ehman and Rose Napoli.

Shortlisted for the Fringe New Play Award, Safewords New Play Contest, Ten Creative Ways…  was developed with support from Theatre Passe Muraille and the Ontario Arts Council. Rose Napoli is a Toronto-based actor and playwright and is currently part of the Playwrights Unit at Tarragon Theatre. Her play, Lo (or Dear Mr Wells) will play this fall as part of Nightwood Theatre’s 2017/18 Season in association with Crow’s Theatre.  

Helming the production is director Carly Chamberlain. A graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada’s Directing Program, Chamberlain’s recent productions include SummerWorks hit Plucked (Best Production Runner-up, and Now Magazine Outstanding Direction), and the critically acclaimed Much Ado About Nothing at Hart House Theatre (Subscriber’s Choice, Best Direction). Chamberlain was recently nominated for the OAC’s triennial John Hirsch Directors Award.

Details

• Ten Creative Ways to Dispose of Your Cremains plays at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. (16 Ryerson Ave.)
• Tickets are $12. The festival also offers a range of money-saving passes for serious Fringers.
• Tickets can be purchased online, by telephone (416-966-1062), from the Fringe Club at Scadding Court, and — if any remain — from the venue’s box office starting one hour before curtain.
• Be aware that Fringe performances always start exactly on time, and that latecomers are never admitted.
• Content Warnings: Smoking, Mature Language.
• This venue is wheelchair-accessible, with some tight cornering. Accessible seating is in the front row.

Performances

• Thursday July 6th, 09:30 pm
• Saturday July 8th, 03:15 pm
• Sunday July 9th, 08:00 pm
• Monday July 10th, 05:45 pm
• Tuesday July 11th, 10:15 pm
• Thursday July 13th, 01:00 pm
• Friday July 14th, 08:45 pm
• Sunday July 16th, 02:15 pm

Image by Kyle Purcell. L-R: Rose Napoli and Jakob Ehman.

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Excerpt from press release:

After undergoing surgery, Kate is left with a brain injury, completely upending her sensory perception and relationship to the world. As she struggles to navigate her new life, she looks to her deceased grandmother, a medium who communicated with the spirit of famous Canadian neuro-surgeon Wilder Penfield, channeling his message of hope for a conscious mind that outlives the physical brain. At the core of Kate’s path to recovery is a desire to create art that speaks to her new perceptions, but the process is fraught with seemingly unsurmountable obstacles.

Those living with brain injury know that the linear narrative of a triumphant journey of recovery is often not available. The experience of living with a compromised brain is difficult to endure and explain. In BRAIN STORM, we look to theatre to provide us the tools to explore the unexplainable. By investigating the experience using movement, sound, and image, we attempt to display the results of our own personal surgery – the dissection and examination of moments too mysterious to describe in words. We ask the audience to approach this piece as both the surgeon and patient: with an attitude of curiosity crossed with vulnerability, allowing oneself to be explored and even prodded through the process.

Creation History: Director Taliesin McEnaney’s grandmother was a ‘script mentalist medium’ who channeled written messages from the spirit realm. One of her spirit guides was Dr. Wilder Penfield. Fast- forward 40 years and Taliesin is dealing with a major brain injury within her own family and struggling with many of the questions that Penfield devoted his work to: sensory perception, epileptic seizures, and cognitive changes. Using the scripts from her grandmother’s writings as a textual resource, and translating them into a physical and visual style, BRAIN STORM is Taliesin’s metabolization of these decade-spanning events which asks the question: are our brains magic, machines – or both? BRAIN STORM is co-created and performed by Hayley Carr, Maïza Dubhé, Shayna Virginillo, and Alexandra Montagnese. Conceived of and directed by Taliesin McEnaney, set and costume designed by Will Bezek with lighting design by Claire Hill. LUCID LUDIC is partnering with the Brain Injury Society of Toronto (BIST) on this production to raise awareness of the challenges facing those living with brain injury.

Details

• Brain Storm plays at the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace. (16 Ryerson Ave.)
• Tickets are $12. The festival also offers a range of money-saving passes for serious Fringers.
• Tickets can be purchased online, by telephone (416-966-1062), from the Fringe Club at Scadding Court, and — if any remain — from the venue’s box office starting one hour before curtain.
• Be aware that Fringe performances always start exactly on time, and that latecomers are never admitted.
• This venue is wheelchair-accessible. Accessible seating is in the very front row.

Performances

• Wednesday July 5th, 07:00 pm
• Friday July 7th, 09:45 pm
• Sunday July 9th, 12:00 pm
• Tuesday July 11th, 06:15 pm
• Wednesday July 12th, 11:30 pm
• Thursday July 13th, 01:45 pm
• Saturday July 15th, 07:00 pm

Photo credit: Dahlia Katz. Featuring: Maïza Dubhé. 

Before the start of the Toronto Fringe Festival we told you about some of the shows that were most popular amongst our staff. Then, after reviewing all 148 shows in this year’s festival we shared our list of the shows we recommend.

Now it’s your turn; we reveal the list of our readers’ most buzzed about shows based on the popularity of their Mooney on Theatre reviews. So here’s the list of the top ten (ish) most-read Fringe reviews on Mooney on Theatre this year**: Continue reading Mooney on Theatre’s Most-Read Reviews for the 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival →