I arrived to AWKWARD HUG at Theatre Passe Muraille, looking forward to my first Fringe show of the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival season, and curious, curious, curious. I have seen a long list of “my weird relative, let me tell you about them!” shows, and generally I find them aggravating and one dimensional. Every once in a while, though, someone comes to the work with a thoughtfulness that redeems the concept for a minute. AWKWARD HUG was (mostly) one of those shows.
It’s quite possible these days for teens and young adults to not know a time in their lives without the Internet. Our lives can be tracked online; this is the driving force behind Featherweight, written and directed by Tom McGee, playing at the Paddock Tavern as part of the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival. A cross between American Gods and Twelve Angry Men where a man is judged by his browser history upon death.
Tales of Foreign Lands and People produced by Jazz Haz Productions playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival is a delightful introduction to creator and performer Anthony Audain’s work. Audain’s opening resonated with me as I am very interested in my ancestors and their stories, both “real and imagined”, as Audain would say.
Slaves of Starbucks, produced by MV Entertainment and playing at the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival, opens with an announcement from a pilot, readying for a flight from New York to Amsterdam. At first, it’s the standard rules and protocol (life jackets under your seat, please turn off your phones) but quickly takes a turn to the bizarre with recommendations for in-flight drug binges and orgies. The shocking lines and references are flung so fast, and with such an unassuming delivery, that it’s impossible to catch them all.
It’s quite possible these days for teens and young adults to not know a time in their lives without the Internet. Our lives can be tracked online; this is the driving force behind 
