I had to see Gay Nerds (Misnomer Theatre) at the Toronto Fringe Festival this year because I am a gay nerd. (Well, if we want to get into identity politics here, I’d say I’m more of a queer geek.) Now that I have seen it, I highly recommend it to any other gay nerds, queer geeks, and people in general who like dirty jokes that refer to fantasy, sci-fi, and theatre itself. Like, if you know a lot about Tennessee Williams plays as well as Tolkien, Star Wars, and video games, and you’re irreverent enough to enjoy anal sex jokes about them, then this play’s for you. Continue reading Gay Nerds (Misnomer Theatre) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →

I am going to start by stating my most obvious bias: I am a dancer. This means that when watching (with)out, presented by Lastname Firstname Productions at the Factory Theatre Mainspace as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, I was coming at it from a variety of perspectives.

Since (with)out is part of the Fringe Dance Initiative my first  angle of review comes from a dance perspective. Fringe is first and foremost a theatre festival though so I feel it important to approach this review with the theatre audience in mind.

Continue reading (with)out (LastName FirstName Productions) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →

During the opening scene of The Dinner, a production by Upstage Productions as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, as the guests arrived two by two, I kept thinking: the tension’s so thick a bomb’s going to go off.

And then the first bomb was dropped. And then the second. And while that famous Chekov quote has it that if there’s a loaded gun on stage it’ll go off, there was no gun here.

This was a dinner, right. And no one said it would be a party. And nobody holds dinner parties anymore: they’re too loaded. Continue reading The Dinner (Upstage Productions) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →

Plutos’ Revenge (Ten Toes Theatre), playing as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival 2012, is the story of a tiny little planet that just wants to fit in. Staged at the George Ignatieff Theatre, it is more dance than narrative but through movement manages to convey much.

Pluto (Emma Letki) is the runt of the litter, the one who may or may not be a planet anymore, who is always a step behind in dance choreography, and a little more uncoordinated than her co-planets. Continue reading Pluto’s Revenge (Ten Toes) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →

How do you kill?  That is the central question of Release the Stars: The Ballad of Randy and Evi Quaid, playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival this year as a site specific show at the SIX20SEVEN Gallery.  It’s the question I walked away thinking about.  In the show, Daniel Krolik and Amanda Barker use the real life story of Randy and Evi Quaid to illustrate human wonder and human folly in all its glory.  They take you on the wild ride that starts with Evi’s childhood, continues to her meeting Randy, and ends with their refugee status in Canada and eventual disappearance from public life.

Continue reading Release The Stars: The Ballad of Randy and Evi Quaid (God is in the Dairy) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review →