A collection of everything to do with the Toronto Fringe Festival, including reviews, features, press releases etc.
Lest avid readers of Mooney on Theatre begin to feel a concern that I don’t like anything, let me be clear: I unreservedly adored Virginia Aldrige, BSc, produced by quoi quoi quoi – a name you may remember from last year’s Fringe smash Raven For A Lark. It’s charming, well-told story of a young woman who follows her dream – sort of – and takes off for Africa.
Continue reading Virginia Aldrige, BSc (quoi quoi quoi) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review
The Tiki Bikini Beach Paradise Party A-Go-Go!, directed by Allison Beula and playing at the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, is a homage to the beach party films of the 1960s. I mean, what better way to celebrate the final weeks of summer vacation but throwing a beach party? It won’t happen if The Big Tuna has his way! And how else do you solve a problem but with a surf-off?
This afternoon, I watched The LOVE Octagon at the Theatre Passe Muraille, featuring Chris Craddock and Ron Pederson. I came into the show not knowing what it would be about – just that it would be a comedic show about love and relationships.
The two actors first asked audience members to share their one-night-stand and break-up stories. A group of college students attending giddily volunteered a story involving themselves: girl dates guy, girl’s female friend dates the same guy, and then female friend gets a crush on the other girl. Complicated, right? Other audience tales were also incorporated into the play.
Continue reading The LOVE Octagon (Beefy Geek Productions) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review
Greeted by the most exceptional set I have ever seen at a Fringe show, I settled into a seat in a scant house at George Ignatieff Theatre for the performance of In The Trenches and marvelled. The trench runs across the stage cutting it into “our side,” “their side” – also known as the audience – and No-Man’s Land.
As you enter the theatre, the trench telegraphs that this is serious theatre; that time, effort and money has been put into its development. In the eponymous trench are nine soldiers, including Peter Sawyer, who also wrote and directed the play. It’s fitting he directed it – he plays Captain, and throughout the play tells the others what to do. To be precise, he plays the first, second and third Captain, since this character continually meets his problematic end.
Continue reading In The Trenches (Sawshack Productions ) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review
From press release
Keep Tightly Closed in a Cool Dry Place
by Megan Terry
Part of the Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival
Serio-comic fantasies soar as three men in prison fight their lustful attractions. They grapple with guilt over a murder they committed; they bully and betray one another, exposing at every twist the violent snakes that snap and bite them in ways both painful and immeasurably full of pleasure. They are Gods and Devils, living in a jail cell.
Continue reading Keep Tightly Closed in a Cool Dry Place – Toronto Fringe 2011 Press Release