Silk Bath, mounted by Silk Bath Collective, is a chillingly powerful Toronto Fringe Festival debut with its own original take on things like reality television and futuristic dystopias. Currently playing at the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, this hour-long show forces its audience to consider the dilemma of four immigrants forced to fight for a place in their new country via a reality show competition.
As Silk Bath‘s four characters try to secure their futures, resigned to accepting crude stereotypes and incomprehensible rules, what will they be forced to do for our benefit? This glimpse into a too-plausible future is excellent theatre: disorienting, unsettling, provocative.
You Are (Not) Dead, a one-woman Shed Show about first loves, first heartbreaks, and mental illness, is currently playing inside the Fringe Club at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Performer/Director/Writer Katie Bell packs a lot into this 30-minute show, but her sensitive and heartfelt delivery of the difficult material shows a lot of promise.
I chose the best way to kick off this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival — with a cold beer at the air conditioned ROUND venue for a rock show. Well, kind of. Binge is the story of two band mates wrapped up in the drunken downfall of rock and roll resulting in one helluva ride.
Okay, I had incredibly high expectations going into Theatre Brouhaha’s Bright Lights at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival. If you were to hand pick an all-star team to mount a Fringe show it would look like the team behind this show. There is a lot of seasoned talent in the room and the result of this grouping is sheer theatrical alchemy. Bright Lights is one of the smartest, most uproariously funny and best-performed shows I’ve seen at the Toronto Fringe in recent years.
Gavin Williams — whose intended improv buddy got called away on serious comedy duty — will be performing with a different “Plus One” from the audience each night. His partner — as well as various elements he must incorporate into the show — are mysteries to him until show time.
Backyard Spaceship’s