FRINGE 2019: Melanie Gall soars in Golden Age Hollywood Musical
Ingenue: Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland and the Golden Age Of Hollywood Stage 7 (Chianti Yardbird Suite) There is a Hollywood legend that the mighty Louis B. Meyer, head of MGM, once demanded his minion to fire “the fat one.” So the flunky jettisoned Deanna Durbin (Winnipeg’s Sweetheart), she of the crystalline legit soprano voice and […]
FRINGE 2019: Four of Colin MacLean’s Favourite Musicals
Coat of Many Colours Stage 41 (CKUA Performance Space) Andrea House is one of our best singers. She gives each song she sings a specific life of its own. Like Streisand and Lady Gaga you feel that the song has been wrung out of every subtlety, lyric intelligence and musical significance it can possibly offer. […]
FRINGE 2019: Saga of World War I nurses comes off like a work in progress
Bluebirds Stage 40 (The Al & Trish Huehn Theatre, Concordia College) A large troop ship is caught in a mighty gale while carrying Canadian troops and a contingent of 19 Bluebirds to Europe at the beginning of World War I. “Bluebirds” is the affectionate name Canadian nurses earned first in the 1899 South African campaign […]
MASTER OF FRINGE 2019: Underneath the Lintel a triumphant tale
Underneath the Lintel Stage 14 (Holy Trinity Anglican Church) A rumpled man shuffles through a dusty Dutch library. His job is to track down those “miscreants” who are late returning borrowed books. One night, a tattered tome falls through the overnight slot. The book is 113 years overdue. The librarian is thunderstruck, then intrigued, and […]
FRINGE 2019 OPERA: Gianni Schicchi è un’opera deliziosa!
Gianni Schicchi Stage 16 (Holy Trinity Sanctuary Stage) Those agile artists known as “Pop Goes The Opera” are back at it. After captivating and ingeniously staged Fringe productions, including Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana, this time they are floating Puccini’s last opera, Gianni Schicchi. The pocket comic opera with its madcap characters and humorous plot were […]
FRINGE 2019: Go to bed or BABA YAGA will get you!
Baba Yaga Stage 6 (Strathcona Community League) Baba Yaga is a fearsome creature used for centuries to frighten Slavic children just before bed. She is described as a witch but has assumed many shapes and forms. and is probably best known for living in the forest in a house on chicken’s legs. The Alberta Opera, […]
MASTERS OF THE FRINGE NO. 2: A Momentary Lapse a witty Lemoine
A Momentary Lapse Stage 12 (Varscona Theatre) The “Law” has collared two miscreants: Louise (Jocelyn Ahlf) is a flute playing yoga practicing Amnesty International member, wife and mother. Then there’s Arthur (Luc Tellier) a twitchy 16-year-old Grade 12 student and sometime pyromaniac. The pair created a ruckus on a flight and have been summarily dumped […]
2 MASTERS OF FRINGE 2019: British lust and off-the-wall wit abound!
The Bald Soprano Stage 12 (Varscona Theatre) Back in the ’50s, it’s no wonder that audiences left Eugene Ionesco’s short play The Bald Soprano scratching their heads. “What was that all about…?” Well, it’s about 90 minutes of disconnected abstract satire that doesn’t make much logical sense. What they were attending was the birth of […]
FRINGE 2019: T.J. Dawe God of the Fringe
The Slipknot Stage 16 (Holy Trinity Sanctuary Stage) The title “Fringe God” was probably coined for T.J. Dawe. In the early 2000’s the Vancouver playwright and performer edefined the solo stand up. A gangly young man with an earnest chipmunk manner and a lively sense of humour, he was everyman. All he needed was a […]
FRINGE 2019: Gordon’s Cream of Improv
Gordon’s Big Bald Head: Usurpermen! Stage 12 (Varscona Theatre) For this year’s episode of the long-running Fringe hit Gordon’s Big Bald Head, a trio of master improvisers stride on stage. “Greetings, people of Earth!” they intone. Apparent they are “strange visitors from another planet.” Anyone who has witnessed the supernatural abilities of the three to […]
MASTERS OF FRINGE 2019: No mean girls allowed at inspired drag show
Flora & Fawna Have Beaver Fever (And So Does Fleurette) Stage 12 (Varscona Theatre) We are privileged to be allowed to attend the annual meeting of the NaturElles. When we first met the two founders Flora (Darrin Hagen) and Fawna (Trevor Schmidt) and their largely silent companion Fleurette (Brian Dooley), they were but eight years […]
MASTER OF FRINGE 2019: TWO an impressive acting duel, in a pub
TWO Stage 12 (Varscona Theatre) Jim Cartwright is a British screenwriter – penning such hits as Road and Little Voice. A couple of years back, he wrote a play called Two, a nostalgic tribute to that venerable British institution, the neighbourhood pub. The play is described by the author as, “No scenery, no props, no […]
