THEATRE:
Boards a-burning

Stages will sizzle when Shakespeare meets Molière, Bertolt takes on Britney and Jewish girls go bad

by AMY BARRATT

Hope you’ve been taking your vitamins, because we are, as you probably know, heading into the wildest 10 days in the theatre calendar. This weekend kicks off both the Fringe (see story on p. 74) and infringement festivals. Even July and August, generally sleepy months as far as theatre in the city is concerned, are sure to have a few surprises up their sleeves.

The infringement festival features an eclectic mix of events for all tastes, at bargain-basement prices. One intriguing offering is Buffalo N.Y.-based The Subversive Theatre Collective’s Mother DIS-Courage. There may be those who can resist a tag line like this: “A political comedy that pits Bertolt Brecht against Britney Spears fighting over the soul of a U.S. soldier…” but I am not one of them. Tickets are $5, but dates and venue were not yet known at press time. The full infringement schedule can be found online at www.infringementfestival.com, and should be checked regularly for updates and changes.

I will also be trying mightily to see S. Bear Bergman’s You’ll Never Piss in this Town Again, a return engagement from last year. It is said to be an intense and hilarious 15-minute tour of “the life of a gender freak,” and plays June 17–18 at the Centre Multi-ethnique (3555 St-Urbain).

Smack in the middle of the festival madness, but not associated with any of them, comes a New York-based, new-millennium vaudeville show called Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad. The Montreal connection is singer-songwriter Athena Reich, who went to Concordia. Other acts include comedian Rachel Feinstein, the klezmer rock band Golem and the burlesque Schlep Sisters. Hosted by comedian/chanteuse Goddess Perlman, the show is at le Swimming one night only, June 16 at 9 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.), $10–$12, 282-7665.

Stratford may have the Barenaked Ladies, but Repercussion Theatre has the Beatles—well, their songs anyway. If we were suspicious types, we might suspect the Stratford Festival of stealing the idea for their summer-of-love As You Like It from Repercussion Theatre’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, which debuted last summer and returns to city parks in mid-July. Director Kevin Orr set Shakespeare’s magical comedy in New France, but peppered it liberally with tunes and lyrics of the 1960s.

For the first time this year, Repercussion is also teaming up with Théâtre du Nouveau Monde to present a French-language classic in the park, Molière’s L’Amour Médecin. Formerly Repercussion’s Shakespeare in the Park, the new partnership with the TNM will be known as Theatre in the Parks, www.repercussiontheatre.com.

Townships Stage presents a slate of three comedies at the Piggery in North Hatley this summer. Artistic director Sunil Mahtani directs the musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change June 22–July 10 (the production will then move to Hudson’s Village Theatre, see below).

Norm Foster’s The Love List, starring Michel Perron, Bill Rowat and Jane Wheeler, runs July 27–Aug. 14. (This is a different production of the same play that’s currently wrapping up its run at Village Theatre.) Finally, there’s a new play by national treasure Lorne Elliott. Tourist Trap runs Aug. 24–Sept. 4. Box office: (819) 565-4957 or toll-free 1-866-565-4957.

Hudson’s Village Theatre presents a summer season of four shows. Sexy Laundry, by Michele Riml, gets things going on June 23. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change moves in July 14–31. Aug. 4–7, they have a play called Brigit’s Reel and, finally, a classic Norm Foster, The Affections of May, runs Aug. 11–28, (450) 458-5361, www.villagetheatre.ca.