I was surprised at how much joy and sparkling there is in The Real Housewives of Murder, a sketch-flavoured Fringe Festival pastiche of the genre. After a shocking and brutal accident leaves a houseboy dead, two shallow besties try desperately to cover it up and keep it together before the guests arrive for their tiki gala. It’s a tasty little show, complete with tossed drinks, stilted catch-phrases, and — for the grand finale — a teeth-and-claws catfight which sends furniture flying.

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In Swordplay: A Play of Swords, former knights Barnabas and Salvatore are on a quest to rescue the kidnapped Princess Pimpernel from the evil Baron Thorne. With their trusty foam swords at their sides, confident in the knowledge that dragons have definitely been extinct for thousands of years, these two comrades-in-arms embark on an epic quest that you can only find playing at the Al Green Theatre for the Toronto Fringe Festival.
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Grade 8 is a solo show by award-winning  spoken word artist, Dwayne Morgan, presented as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. I must confess: I’ve seen ‘Grade 8’ once before. It left quite an impression on me when I caught its premiere run at Hamilton Fringe in 2008. It was the show that truly cemented my love of Fringe. Seven years later, Dwayne Morgan is ready to retire ‘Grade 8,’ but not before giving it a hometown swan song.

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In the closing monologue of Everyday Oppressions, a work of dance-theatre by The Cheshire Unicorn on stage at the Toronto Fringe Festival, audience members are invited to acknowledge their privilege. Let me do that now: I’m a straight white man in my early thirties. I am not routinely subjected to the type of everyday oppressions that are the subject of this performance.

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