Giant Invisible Robot, The Unseen honoured as Edmonton Fringe breaks attendance records
It’s not called North America’s biggest Fringe festival for nothing. Fringeopolis, this year’s edition of the annual theatre fest in Old Strathcona (and more far-flung locales), has set a new record, hitting somewhere around 102,000 tickets sold on Saturday. If that sounds low, keep in mind that’s just show attendance; the festival as a whole [...]
GIGGLE CITY: The Birdmann thinks outside the nest
To atone for banging on Australian street performers who ruin every summer festival in Edmonton (No. 4 on list of Eight Dumb Things About the Fringe), our special guest today is … an Australian street performer! The Birdmann (Trent Baumann) is actually working “inside” at this year’s Edmonton International Fringe Festival, even though his act [...]
THIS WEEK: Top-drawing Fringe plays advance to Bonus Round – the Holdovers!
The people have spoken. Eleven of the top-grossing and most critically acclaimed plays (for the most part) at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival are going onto the BONUS ROUND! Otherwise known as the famous “Fringe Holdovers,” these following productions will enjoy extended runs at three area theatres: The Westbury in the Arts Barns, the Holy [...]
META-FRINGE – Grim & Fischer laugh in the face of Death
What follows are mixed cocktails of published recent reviews of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival – conflating the critical writing of the brave theatre reviewers from the Edmonton Sun, Edmonton Journal and Vue Weekly magazine. (Brackets) – mark a change from one voice to another. Three out of three reviewers agree the following Fringe plays [...]
Eight dumb things about the Fringe
The Edmonton International Fringe Festival is the best festival in Edmonton. There. It had to be said. Seriously, you won’t find a higher concentration and variety of artistry in one spot at one time anywhere else in town any other time of the year, the folk fest being a distant second. The Fringe draws around [...]
META-FRINGE: Rocket Sugar Factory, Bye Bye Bombay, Pornstar USA and The Hysteric
At this point in the International Fringe Theatre Festival, continuing at almost 50 different venues through Sunday, canny fans know what’s good and what’s not-so-good – thanks to a dedicated legion of theatre critics, most of which come out of the woodwork at roughly the same time every summer. What a coincidence that there’s a [...]
META-FRINGE: Giant Invisible Robot battles with four enormous thumbs up!
When you see FOUR THUMBS UP, you know you’re in for a really good play at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival. Good luck getting tickets to Giant Invisible Robot! Now please welcome the CBC’s Paul Matwychuk to our multi-thumbed hydra of hyper-criticism, a meta-media monster that already includes the body parts of several different theatre [...]
META-FRINGE – Three thumbs up for new David Belke play Forsooth, My Lovely
Now we have Vue Weekly magazine to add to our critical conflations of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival – creating a Frankensteinian meta-critic with three thumbs. Enjoy the best of the best, and if you’re into that sort of thing, the worst of the worst. THREE THUMBS UP FORSOOTH MY LOVELY, BYOV 29 (mixture of [...]
META-FRINGE: Elephant and Scarlet woman feel the love
Catch Day Three Meta-reviews here: In Gig City’s daily meta-fringe, we’re only interested in meta-mutilating the published reviews of Fringe plays that are either really, really great … or blow it right out of the ass. The vast middle ground of differing critical opinions on so many different types of live theatre at this event [...]
META-FRINGE: Raves for Baby Redboots’ Revenge and A Different Woman
Catch Reviews from Day one and Two here We are only interested in meta-mutilating the published reviews of Fringe plays that are either really, really great … or blow it right out of the ass. The vast middle ground of differing critical opinions on so many different types of live theatre at this event proves [...]
META-FRINGE: Two thumbs up for the best of the fest
* Catch More Reviews from Day One here. Welcome to Day Two of GigCity’s Meta-Critical Coverage of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival. Edmonton’s theatre critics, while limited in both number and influence for most of the rest of the year, really come into their own during the Fringe. Their numerous reviews in two dailies and [...]
META-REVIEW: Two thumbs up at the Fringe, more thumbs to come
Edmonton’s two top theatre critics – the Edmonton Journal’s Liz Nicholls and the Edmonton Sun’s Colin Maclean – have already reviewed a wad of plays they saw at the Saskatoon Fringe, which are soon to play in Edmonton, so close enough. Here is a meta-critical, Frankensteinian summation of what they’ve both seen so far (see [...]
