Well it Is the most wonderful time of the year again, well almost. The weather is unusually nice for the 1st weekend of the Fringe, clear skies and warm to very warm temperatures that are normally reserved for the 2nd weekend of the ten day marathon of 'take your chance theatre'.
The warmer air is in part due to a later than usual start date for the festival, and the warm temperatures are more or less equally balanced by what I've heard and seen on stage so far this weekend, nothing too HOT and nothing too COLD, but with some cooler than others. And there is the definite lack of Grand Prix in the air this season too.
PENUMBRA: Play by Katherine Dempsey; Directed by Paul Van Dyke. With: Catherine Bérubé, Michelle Boback, Howard Rosenstein, and Christopher Moore. Not perfect (yet) but most definitely a must see on your Fringe to do list, -not to be missed. Michelle Bobeck delivers a stellar performance, equaled by that given by Catherine Bérubé. This is not a typical play for a Fringe stage, 'it is a serious piece of theatre' with an equally 'serious ensemble'. It's well placed at the MAI and this helps this 'professional production' with the needed space and necessary lighting required to pull it off on such a scale. It wouldn't have worked as well in one the Fringe found spaces. My biggest complaint would be the smoking, unnecessary these days, really! And some of the lighting was lacking on the faces at times...either actors missing their mark or just a question of too dark a design. It was sold out the 1st night it opened so get your tickets ahead. I predict this production will be on a Montreal stage sooner if not later in case you do miss it in this first run. 4 cents GO C IT!
COBRA III: At the JFL studio. My 3rd experience with this regular Fringe saga. It is a guilty pleasure and impossible not to enjoy the enthousiastic ensemble cast of +/- twenty two talented members. Even the most senior members of the audience were toe tapping and laughing along. It starts with a punch and sags a bit midway, but then picks up just in time to deliver a punchy finalé. Although it doesn't rise to the level of last year's production at the JFL Cabaret, for the camp, the eye candy, choreography, elaborate costumes and set, I have to give it some extra coin. 4 cents. GO SEE IT!
FUCKING STEPHEN HARPER: One man solo performance by Rob Salerno from Toronto. Playing at MainLine, it is worth spending the 50 minutes to learn more about how our current Canadian Government in power thinks and treats the LGBTA minorities in our great land... Although this is more the style of a Queer Current Events seminar at a Junior College than a play, it does have enough of the charm of a stand up piece and is presented in a "FOR ALL", style that is interesting enough for everyone, not only 'our own kind'. 3 cents. GO C IT!
3 WAYS TO HANDLE A TELEMARKETER: Playing at the Portugesse Association. Delightful perfromances are given by most of the cast with a lot of heart. Stand outs were Calli Armstrong Jamie Del Aguila and Chris Nachaj. Although we are not accustomed to a lot of set decoration at a typical Fringe show, this production suffers from way too much; And a poor use of it as well. Less would have been much more here: simply a clip board with chairs on wheels and the hand set of the phones attached would have worked much better. The restaurant counter was way overboard too. With such a large cast it is no surprise that it was sold out the first show, so plan ahead, however once the word gets out about the text, the crowds might stop forming. The play itself, although it has a great premise, misses far too many opportunities and just isn't funny. I counted only one moderate chuckle from a few audience members on one line. Not enough to merit the punch line that we can see coming half way through the text. 2 cents.
My spys tell me that 'Un jour j'ira à Compstelle' is worth seeing, playing in French at the MAI.
Next week I'll be seeing The Importance of Being Earnest and Perverts among others.
See you on the Main... Reminder St-Laurent Blvd closed next weekend: Thursday to Sunday.
The warmer air is in part due to a later than usual start date for the festival, and the warm temperatures are more or less equally balanced by what I've heard and seen on stage so far this weekend, nothing too HOT and nothing too COLD, but with some cooler than others. And there is the definite lack of Grand Prix in the air this season too.
PENUMBRA: Play by Katherine Dempsey; Directed by Paul Van Dyke. With: Catherine Bérubé, Michelle Boback, Howard Rosenstein, and Christopher Moore. Not perfect (yet) but most definitely a must see on your Fringe to do list, -not to be missed. Michelle Bobeck delivers a stellar performance, equaled by that given by Catherine Bérubé. This is not a typical play for a Fringe stage, 'it is a serious piece of theatre' with an equally 'serious ensemble'. It's well placed at the MAI and this helps this 'professional production' with the needed space and necessary lighting required to pull it off on such a scale. It wouldn't have worked as well in one the Fringe found spaces. My biggest complaint would be the smoking, unnecessary these days, really! And some of the lighting was lacking on the faces at times...either actors missing their mark or just a question of too dark a design. It was sold out the 1st night it opened so get your tickets ahead. I predict this production will be on a Montreal stage sooner if not later in case you do miss it in this first run. 4 cents GO C IT!
COBRA III: At the JFL studio. My 3rd experience with this regular Fringe saga. It is a guilty pleasure and impossible not to enjoy the enthousiastic ensemble cast of +/- twenty two talented members. Even the most senior members of the audience were toe tapping and laughing along. It starts with a punch and sags a bit midway, but then picks up just in time to deliver a punchy finalé. Although it doesn't rise to the level of last year's production at the JFL Cabaret, for the camp, the eye candy, choreography, elaborate costumes and set, I have to give it some extra coin. 4 cents. GO SEE IT!
FUCKING STEPHEN HARPER: One man solo performance by Rob Salerno from Toronto. Playing at MainLine, it is worth spending the 50 minutes to learn more about how our current Canadian Government in power thinks and treats the LGBTA minorities in our great land... Although this is more the style of a Queer Current Events seminar at a Junior College than a play, it does have enough of the charm of a stand up piece and is presented in a "FOR ALL", style that is interesting enough for everyone, not only 'our own kind'. 3 cents. GO C IT!
3 WAYS TO HANDLE A TELEMARKETER: Playing at the Portugesse Association. Delightful perfromances are given by most of the cast with a lot of heart. Stand outs were Calli Armstrong Jamie Del Aguila and Chris Nachaj. Although we are not accustomed to a lot of set decoration at a typical Fringe show, this production suffers from way too much; And a poor use of it as well. Less would have been much more here: simply a clip board with chairs on wheels and the hand set of the phones attached would have worked much better. The restaurant counter was way overboard too. With such a large cast it is no surprise that it was sold out the first show, so plan ahead, however once the word gets out about the text, the crowds might stop forming. The play itself, although it has a great premise, misses far too many opportunities and just isn't funny. I counted only one moderate chuckle from a few audience members on one line. Not enough to merit the punch line that we can see coming half way through the text. 2 cents.
My spys tell me that 'Un jour j'ira à Compstelle' is worth seeing, playing in French at the MAI.
Next week I'll be seeing The Importance of Being Earnest and Perverts among others.
See you on the Main... Reminder St-Laurent Blvd closed next weekend: Thursday to Sunday.
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