Fringe Festival

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

Flamingo Bandit: “Right in the Beak” (DASF Productions) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review

Derek Forgie has been on my radar for a number of years, as I used to enjoy his former comedy duo Press, Release, Repeat. His partner in that became busy with his acting career and Derek formed Flamingo Bandit with his new partner, Tessie Burton, who is also his wife.

That sort of thing can make me wary. A relationship is already work, if you further complicate that by working together, can you really be critical enough to hone your act? But there is precedent for this being successful – think of George and Gracie – and Forgie and Burton seem to have both the comedy chops and the rapport to make it work.  Continue reading Flamingo Bandit: “Right in the Beak” (DASF Productions) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review →

Don Quixote (make.art.theatre.) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review

I was really looking forward to seeing this play based on the adventures Don Quixote, but sadly it left me unimpressed. If there’s one word I can use to describe this production, it would have to be “loud”.

I felt like the acting for the most part was overexaggerated and the voices – I know that this is usually a good thing in theatre – were deafening.  Continue reading Don Quixote (make.art.theatre.) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review →

P-DALE (Unit 102 Collective) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review

If Quentin Tarantino decided to write and direct an episode of Entourage and then turn it into a play, that play would be P-Dale.  I thoroughly enjoyed my hour spent with this cast today at the Theatre Passe Murraille.  I chose the play on a whim.  I liked how their Fringe program blurb stated “DO NOT BRING YOUR KIDS.  SERIOUSLY.”  That was enough to bring me in and it is this same irreverent humour that fills the play to the brim. Continue reading P-DALE (Unit 102 Collective) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review →

Cinderella Afterparty (Poetry in Motion) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review

Once upon a time, that girl Cinderella married the Prince, shacked up with him in his big castle while owning a series of other houses out in the country, employed a massive staff that included dress-makers, hairstylists, makeup artists, masseuses, plastic surgeons, cooks, and drivers – and left her two stepsisters and stepmother in the dust. And then what happened?

Ivana Matuzovic explores what lies in Happily Ever After for both Cinderella and her stepfamily in Cinderella Afterparty, an innovative spoken word and movement performance directed by Andreja Kovac.

Continue reading Cinderella Afterparty (Poetry in Motion) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review →