Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl (B+) Rebecca Perry’s semi-musical solo show about an overqualified twentysomething slinging coffee to make ends meet is incredibly charming. Advertised as an anthropological study of coffeeshop culture, it’s really more of a modern fairytale, complete with a handsome patron serving as both prince charming and fairy godmother. The storytelling […]
Lost and Found (A) What a better way to start my fringe binge than Marilla Wex’s Lost and Found. From the first moments of her honest and integral solo show, Wex performs with energy, consistent humour and a smile. I think I wrote down “absolutely charming” twice. It’s everything you want in a solo show: […]
The Centre of the Universe (B) The Centre of The Universe, staged between the taps and front windows of everybody’s favourite dive bar, “The Lab” is a gripping telling of the post-internet apocalypse. It builds steadily to its genuinely frightening and shocking climax on the shoulders of a couple of strong performances. Lea Russel and […]
My second day at the Toronto Fringe was a one-play affair (don’t judge, I had things to do). But here’s the FULL LIST of our festival reviews if one isn’t enough for you. Love’s Labour’s Lost (A-) I was nervous about this one. My love of Shakespeare Bash’d and their clear, thoughtful approach to […]
Check out our Full List of Fringe reviews HERE and see below for my report from my first day of shows at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Tachycardia (C-) The first show on my Fringe schedule fell victim to that very Fringe-y problem of artistically indulgent accidental silliness. Nadine Bhabha and Joel Edmiston begin the play […]
The Toronto Fringe Festival had 150 shows this year. We never had any hope of covering them all with our small but spirited staff of 4 but we were determined to come as close as we could. So, over the course of ten days, Kelly, Justis and Thea (with a 2-show assist from Marty and […]
You walk into the theatre. Plastic covers the walls on the stage. At first you don’t notice, but after a while you start see something projected there. A ribcage? “This isn’t your regular programing,” actor Cliff Cardinal tells us, as he walks on stage with a plastic bag duct taped over his head. “It takes […]
“What a strange thing it is, that whereas other gods have poems and hymns made in their honour, the great and glorious god, Love, has no such encomiast among all the poets who are so many… we who are assembled cannot do better than honour the god Love” These are the words of Phaedrus, in […]