Fringe Festival

A collection of everything to do with the Toronto Fringe Festival, including reviews, features, press releases etc.

Fringe for Free! Toronto Fringe ticket giveaways for shows playing on Thursday, July 3rd

fringe for free graphicFringe opens tomorrow! Are you ready? Have you gotten all of your tickets? Remember, 100% of the tickets to each show are available for pre-sale this year.

But you might need to buy a few less tickets if you win on day two of our Fringe for Free contest!

For every day of the festival, we’ll be giving out tickets to 5 shows. Exciting, right? What’s even more exciting is how easy it is to enter – you can enter each of the five contests by sending us an email (more details below).

Remember, you need to enter each contest individually. If we pick your name, you’ve got two tickets heading your way.

Check out the list of the 5 shows playing on Thursday July 3rd after the jump.

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Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare BASH’d) 2014 Toronto Fringe Review

Hallie Seline photograph by Jesse Griffiths and Kyle Purcell

 Shakespeare BASH’d is once again inhabiting the upstairs room of the Victory café for this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival. Even though Shakespeare BASH’d has been performing at the Toronto Fringe Festival for 3 years, this is the first year I have managed to fit it into my schedule or to get a ticket. And I was certainly glad I got to see their rendition of Love’s Labour’s Lost.

As I climbed up the stairs of the Victory, I could hear cheering and general camaraderie. As it turns out I walked into a Shakespearian game of Ye Olde Beer Pong, in keeping with the casual vibe at this local annex pub. This casual setting fitted perfectly with Shakespeare BASH’d’s interpretation of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Continue reading Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare BASH’d) 2014 Toronto Fringe Review →

Commencement: a Work of Fiction and Musical of Sorts (Rainy Day Theatre Company) 2014 Toronto Fringe Review

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Set in the University of Toronto’s University College Junior Common Room, Commencement: a Work of Fiction and Musical of Sorts is a bring- your-own-venue show at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

Maybe I am too bitter, too cynical, and way too close to the subject matter, but Rainy Day Theare’s production didn’t quite feel like it met the Honours-level that lead character Kate was bragging about graduating with.

The title of Commencement: a Work of Fiction and Musical of Sorts is a bit deceiving: it is not a “Musical of Sorts” but rather a completely traditionally musical. It even came complete with a classic musical-style magic love plot.  The piece follows Kate, a recent grad who moves out of school and into the work force, where she finds love and sexism.

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Amusement (Nobody’s Business Theatre) 2014 Toronto Fringe Review

cast of Amusement

Heading to Nobody’s Business‘s Amusement at the Helen Phelan Gardiner Playhouse I was super excited to be seeing my first Toronto Fringe Festival show of the year. It was an adorable way to start.

Amusement is a classic musical comedy that you so often find at Fringe. The perfect mix of modern reality, humour, fairy tale drive, and a splash of mouse ear references. 

We are introduced to the Disney theme when Sebastian, one of the heroes, of the story wakes up with animated chirping birds offering him tea. And we get the urban equivalent when Rose the other character gets woken up by a raccoon offering her a beer after a one night stand. I enjoyed these two slightly off-kilter characters.

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Talking Fringe – Alinka Angelova on MUTE: A Musical Against Bullying! playing at Toronto Fringe 2014

The title of MUTE: The Musical made me do a doubletake. “Say what?”

MUTE: The Musical (Infinity Arts Productions) 2014 Toronto Fringe Review

 

So I asked the show’s creator, Alinka Angelova, to talk me through this ensemble performance about bullying, finding yourself, and liberation that has already toured the Canadian Fringe circuit to acclaim. It premieres July 2nd at the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival (and I’ll be doing a review, too). Here’s what she told me:

 

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