Charlie’s Having a Baby! is currently onstage at Annex Theatre as part of Toronto Fringe Festival. A building connected to a former church is the perfect venue for this play.

Charlie’s Having a Baby! is the story of two struggling roommates. Charlie (Patricia McPherson) is hard working. Toula (Ruth Goodwin) dreams of fame and fortune but has questionable work ethics.

When word is received from Nana (Deon Denton) that she has cancer, Charlie and Toula enter a world of deceit and theft. They scheme to convince Nana that Charlie is married and pregnant.

Continue reading Charlie’s Having a Baby! (Promise Productions) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →

Lukey, at the Toronto Fringe Festival is a “micro-play” and an “alleyplay.” It was clear from the Fringe materials that the latter meant that it was located in the Fringe Club Alley, behind Honest Ed’s, but I was unsure what a “micro-play”, listed as being performed at 8:30/10:30 pm with a running time of 120 minutes could be. I was led to believe that it would be a short play running continuously between the two times listed, but it is not. It is one play, around 45 minutes, and the actor/writer Robert LaRonde said he was only going to do it once, at 9 pm, when I asked.

It’s in a small shed with a seating capacity of 7. It is very close quarters, with the actor performing at touching distance from the audience. In such a setting it would be ludicrous to have any sort of a fourth wall, so the audience is incorporated into the story, a violent tale of strife between two young brothers. Continue reading Lukey (Swimming Lessons For Shut-Ins Theatre) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →

Who knew potlucks could be so sinister? Written and directed by Grayson Moore, Ways to Kill Ethyl is set at a potluck dinner where brother and sister Patrick (Jeff Ulrich) and Eudora (Krista Hovsepian) are plotting to murder their grandmother, Ethyl (Susan Q. Wilson). Getting in their way is their half brother Victor (Tyler Champagne), as well as Ethyl’s disinterest in any of the poisoned beverages they place before her. Continue reading Ways to Kill Ethyl (Pigs Can Fly Productions) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →

Nerd Alert!

Dylan Gott is full of beans. He’ll tell you so himself. But his story involves nudity, a basement apartment, and a hungry cat.

Dylan Gott: Medicine Woman is a 50-minute stand-up set at the Tarragon Solo Space at Toronto Fringe Festival. Dylan covers a range of topics including Bible Camp, his predilection for video games and UFC, anger management class, and losing his virginity at 23. Continue reading Dylan Gott: Medicine Woman (Doctor Thugenstein) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →