Kevin Armstrong’s Opera For Heathens is playing at the Tarragon Theatre, Solo Room at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Opera For Heathens should be playing in a concert hall or a German open air stadium circa 1989

Have you ever wondered what Mozart would sound like had he been heavily influenced by Johnny Cash? Similarly, what would Donizetti sound like under the influence of Metallica or Rossini under the influence of Bugs Bunny?

Continue reading Opera For Heathens (Kevin Armstrong) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →

I was really, really excited to see Excuse You at the Fringe this year. I love funny shows, I love memoir/biographical shows, and I love storytelling. As it turned out, Excuse You is a funny, fast-paced 50 minutes of comedic theatre and storytelling. Unfortunately, the show is 90 minutes long.

Let’s cover the show’s good points first, shall we? The cast is sturdy and game, with Erynn Brook (as Deborah) giving the whole business a little extra shine with her talent for character and accents and Chai Lavie, as Tony, holding it down as her classic foil, the Male Chauvinist Pig. And by golly they all tried.

Continue reading Excuse You (Theatre On A Thought) 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival →

The Secret Life of Walter Manny is playing at the Palmerston Library and is part of FringeKids!  This is the second exceptional kids show I’ve seen at Toronto Fringe this year.  Trent Arterberry’s one-man show is a fast-paced and high-energy adventure which both parents and their children will find fun and poignant.

The story is about the Walter Manny of the title, and the many adventures he has in his own mind—thanks to his very active and vivid imagination.  The show is about imagination—how much fun it is, and how it can sometimes get us into trouble. Continue reading The Secret Life of Walter Manny (Trent Arterberry) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →

Jem Rolls is a pretty dynamic man. He would have to be, to captivate an audience for a full hour with only his voice, his stories, his poems. Some people have this quality where they needn’t do much and people will enjoy watching them. Jem is one such lucky folk.

Not to suggest he isn’t talented. He’s a spoken word/performance poetry artist and his show jem rolls ATTACKS THE SILENCE, part of this year’s Fringe Festival, is clever, quick, teeming with wit. His delivery is theatrical and captivating. He has all the right measures of provocative bravado and norm-subversion that you’d expect from spoken word.

Continue reading jem rolls ATTACKS THE SILENCE (big word performance poetry) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →

For my last show of the evening, I went to the Tarragon Solo Room to catch a performance of Adopt This! written and performed by Dan Bingham. Expecting to see his usual style of comedy (which is hilarious), I was pleasantly surprised by the level of honesty and rawness in this production.

Adopt This! is a hilarious and reflective look at growing up adopted. Raised by a strict Irish Catholic mother, Dan Bingham recounts his troubled youth as he recalls the painful abuse of his mother’s boyfriend and his reunion with his rowdy biological Scottish family.

Continue reading Adopt This! (2 Tickets to Bingtown) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →