SQUEEGEE/SUPERHERO ROMANCE: The Procrastin8r
Thunderspank!
One of four Fringe shows featuring the local Uncalled For Improv troupe, this clever sketch-comedy spectacle is very accessible without being overly broad or riddled with clichés the way so much stand-up (and SNL) is. It’s unclear how much actual improv comes into play in this show, or how much it varies from performance to performance, but there’s certainly a fair amount of scripted material, including occasional, brief video projections. Uncalled For’s fine cast makes it all come together, easily eliciting a roomful of laughter. (Venue 9, Mile-End Cultural Centre, 5390 St-Laurent)
Lorraine Carpenter
Clean, Freak
Not to sound like an anal perfectionist fetishist (and not the literal kind either), but Clean, Freak’s fastidious object of desire is in reality wearing a stewardess outfit, and not the classic French maid outfit, as suggested in the alluring press photo. The actors portraying the rigidly organized cleaning lady who likes dirty sex and the slovenly bachelor who yearns for structure play the odd couple fairly well, but the screenplay lacks the satirical bite or the realistic relationship issues one would expect from such dichotomous circumstances. Surprisingly reserved for a play exploring a potentially lurid romance. (Venue 6, MainLine Theatre, 3997 St-Laurent)
Erik Leijon
American Squatter
Autobiography triumphs with Barry Smith’s new show (premiering here in Montreal!). American Squatter uses home video clips, snapshots, audio fragments and Smith’s spare, laconic delivery to hilarious effect, as he takes the audience on a tour through his life as the son of a clean-freak father. Rebellion takes the form of the SoCal skate-punk lifestyle, LSD and, finally, a seriously crusty interlude in a London squat.
While Smith finds a theme in obsessive self-referentiality, which he calls “self-absorption critical mass,” he never lets it interfere with the joys of a one-man trip through the American ’80s underground zeitgeist. (Venue 3, Geordie Space, 4001 Berri)
Vincent Tinguely
The Procrastin8r
Screw you and your Crash, Jewison! Drugs, violence, racial tension, the disintegration of communities and the disappearance of heroes are the joint issues driving this play, written by Mirror freelancer Lateef Martin. Set in a semi-fictional town (did someone mention Tam-Tams?), The Procrastin8r feels remarkably real, especially its portrayal of a nerdy amateur superhero and a squeegee Tank Girl who bond over Depeche Mode and Fishbone. It’s resoundingly gritty and urban (and not simply because there are black people on stage), with sharp comic relief to boot. My only complaint is that I left the hour-long piece wanting more. (Venue 3, Geordie Space, 4001 Berri)
Lorraine
Carpenter
George Bush, Live
in Press Conference
When Derek Lengwenus saunters onto the stage of the Théâtre Ste-Catherine impersonating the idiot boy-king of the United States, one might be tempted to run up and sock him in the jaw. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be in the spirit of the event, so the audience is asked instead to pose questions that Lengwenus answers as W.’s doppelganger. He’s obviously spent a lot of time watching him: the impression is spot on—the forearm on the podium, the patronizing chuckle, the evasive non-answers, the vacant, chimp-like countenance—and Lengwenus is certainly up to date on current affairs. One hour of highly entertaining mockery doesn’t make up for six awful years, but it’s a start. (Off Venue A, Théâtre Ste-Catherine, 264 Ste-Catherine E.)
Patrick Lejtenyi
Bye Bye Bombay
The one-woman, coming-of-age show is a hard road to travel, and I’ve been burned by such Fringe offerings before. But Bollywood is hard to resist. It’s in India’s movie industry that much of playwright/actress Cara Yeates’s piece is set, providing some much-needed colour and culture shock to a pedestrian story about a teen who flees her B.C. home to avoid French camp (and, presumably, to “find herself”). Occasional puppet interludes provide allegorical poignancy to the main story, a slightly clumsy device, albeit ably-handled and even funny. More than the Bollywood context, Yeates’s charm, humour and natural acting make this piece work. (Venue 3, Geordie Space, 4001 Berri)
Lorraine Carpenter
Jem Rolls
Jem Rolls’s show is about stripped-down intensity. What you get is performance poetry—one man, one voice, one hour. It’s a tribute to the man’s talent that he makes that hour zip by, with a show that delves deep into homespun philosophizing, peppered with humorous impressions of everything from sound poetry to the evolutionary lament of the birds. The key phrase of this show is “I got woken and spurred by the spoken word.” Rolls brings an evangelical zeal to the performance of his poems—poems that exist neither on page nor CD, they live only in the moment of performance. (Venue 2, Ukrainian National Federation, 405 Fairmount W.)
Vincent Tinguely
If Tap Shoes Could Talk
Billed as a dance-theatre piece, If Tap Shoes Could Talk is written and performed by real-life tap-dancing couple Annie Mayer and Michael Walsh. Set in New York City, the action takes place, for the most part, on a subway platform and in an apartment building. Mayer and Walsh play characters that include a bespectacled prof, a music-obsessed assistant, an aspiring tap dancer and a fidgety agoraphobic whose lives intersect and intertwine through random encounters. Although the hour-long piece is loosely tied around tap, don’t go in there expecting Gene Kelly. (Venue 7, Portuguese Association of Canada, 4170 St-Urbain)
Marites Carino
Gargantua: Fear of a Fat Planet
With such a promising premise, it’s sad to report that this production from Boston doesn’t quite carry its weight. The all-female “fatty” power play isn’t short on talent, but it is overly long, with too many musical numbers and spoken word segments crammed into a fairly flimsy Star Trek narrative. Granted, the clash between the Dietrons and the Gargantuans is a clever poke at the “war on terror,” as well as a defence of fattitude; at least one of these ladies has a future in showbiz (you know who you are); and some tightening (sorry) and tweaking could work wonders for this show. (Venue 10, Théâtre La Chapelle, 3700 St-Dominique)
Lorraine Carpenter
Confort à Retardement
If you’ve never seen France Geoffroy in performance, here’s your chance. Geoffroy, the founder of Corpuscule Danse, Quebec’s first integrated dance company, performs in a pas de trois with her wheelchair and dancer Tom Casey. In this voyage, which involves themes of water and flight, choreographer John Ottman constructs some clever moves with the chair, conveying a sense of suspension and balance. It would be interesting to see the piece further developed since the work clocks in at a snappy 24 minutes. (Venue 1, MAI, 3680 Jeanne-Mance)
Marites Carino
SUSPENSION AND BALANCE: Confort à Retardement
Hubris, A Conversation With Radha
For anyone who isn’t Christopher Plummer, Hubris reveals the original emo kid Hamlet for who he really is: a murderer. Solitary performer Alex Dela Cruz struggles with the famous Shakespeare play, its protagonist and the timeless “To be or not to be” soliloquy. In 30 minutes, he recites the speech about three or four times, each with a vastly different connotation. At one point, Alex theorizes that Shakespeare would probably have been a big fan of kung fu films, a neat idea that begged for further elaboration, especially with his kendo sticks sitting idly in the corner of the room. (Venue 1, MAI, 3680 Jeanne-Mance)
Erik Leijon
Found & Lost: Goals for 2002
Winner of last year’s Spirit of the Fringe Award, inFluxdance returns with a playful romp of theatre and dance in their Found & Lost: Goals for 2002. Our narrator, a “giggle bug,” guides us through the piece, which is strung together by lost and found objects, such as to-do lists and long wedding gloves. In one scene, a dancer frantically frisks herself for her misplaced keys, and next thing you know, the keys come sliding and flying towards her. Mostly set to an upbeat soundtrack, the seven dancers perform in solos, duos, trios and ensemble work. InFluxdance continues their exploration of American Sign Language and movement and I found it worked better in this piece than in their last. (Venue 1, MAI, 3680 Jeanne-Mance)
Marites Carino
Housekeeping & Homewrecking
What do you get when you cross a well workshopped new script with a talented ensemble of local actors? You get a quality repast with something to chew on. Though I have loved the gung-ho energy of every Fringe, I admit I’m losing my steam for twentysomething angst/antics. Alexandria Haber and Alain Goulem’s show is everything that comes after that. On a cynical, Sunday afternoon, I was moved to tears, laughed out loud and left with thoughts that stayed bubbling around inside. Seeing a professional cast, mature directing and fun with a bare set is like going out for a proper meal in high heels and a dress—satisfying, fun and unfortunately all too rare. (Venue 5, Ecohosting Stage, 4119 St-Laurent)
Janis Kirshner
Action/Inversion
The choreography in Action/Inversion explores the combination of two different styles of dance, as the breakdancer Raúl Guevara (from bboy4everfresh) and the contemporary dancer Geneviève Gagné collide, entangle and learn. The enthusiasm and complicity between the two delivers a powerful yet hip dance exchange that challenges the traditional understanding of what is artistic body language. The eclectic soundtrack is well chosen and fits perfectly with the work’s sense of humour, although it’s a rather short routine and, at times, could use a little more work to fully carry out its potential. The piece is performed with passion and leaves you wanting more. (Venue 1, MAI, 3680 Jeane-Mance)
Chloe Roubert
More Fringe reviews
>> Clowns, Mounties, kings and perogies
SCREWBALL SOVEREIGNS: The King of Fifteen Island
by AMY BARRATT
The King of Fifteen Island
Shortly before the Fringe began, Jeremy Taylor found out that, on the strength of his play, The King of Fifteen Island, he had been accepted into the playwriting program at the National Theatre School. Watching said play, which Taylor has directed himself for the Fringe, one can understand why. The King of Fifteen Island is a promising piece: an absurdist comedy with dark undertones, both interpersonal and geopolitical. It concerns a bizarre family that has taken up residence on an “island” in the English Channel, and the British civil servant who arrives one day to throw a wrench into their peacefully deranged existence. Taylor’s plotting sometimes tries too hard, but his dialogue is clever, and the casting is terrific. (Venue 8, Bain St-Michel, 5300 St-Dominique)
Scaramouche Jones
Scaramouche Jones is a monologue delivered by a clown on his 100th birthday. Written by British playwright Justin Butcher, the play premiered in Dublin with Pete Postlethwaite. The production at the Fringe comes from Nelson B.C.’s Livingroom Theatre, and it stars, and is directed by, Michael Graham. Doing double-duty doesn’t work here; this dense, beautifully written show needs a director. Graham launches into Scaramouche’s life story without giving us a strong enough sense of why. In the performance I saw (his first of the Fringe) he stumbled over his lines and overall the thing lacked energy. (Venue 7, Portuguese Association of Canada, 4170 St-Urbain)
Dickens of the Mounted
Dickens of the Mounted is similar to Scaramouche in that it presents one character essentially telling his life story. The play, based on the book of the same name by Eric Nicol, is a sort of historical fantasy. It seems that Frank Dickens, ne’er-do-well son of the famous author, signed up with the North West Mounted Police in the 1870s. Trying valiantly to overcome a drinking habit, a stutter and a daddy complex, he makes his way from east to west across the country, battling cold and mosquitoes and attempting to negotiate with Indians along the way.
Actor Kristian Bruun tells the story using a few costume pieces pulled from trunks and a couple of wooden boards used to represent everything from a drinking surface to a Christmas tree. Dickens presents his story in the form of humorous letters home to his friend Ezra, a barkeep. Director Brad Lepp keeps things moving along nicely, giving us an enjoyable ride. The ending, however, is too abrupt and not very effective. (Venue 7, Portuguese Association of Canada, 4170 St-Urbain)
Deep Fried Curried Perogies
Probably the most fully realized show I’ve seen so far is Deep Fried Curried  Perogies. Less tightly written than either Scaramouche or Dickens, it is presented with great joy and flair by Edmonton’s Michelle Todd. The premise is that Ms. Todd finds out she and her boyfriend are expecting a baby, and this triggers some soul-searching about cultural identity. You see, Todd is of Jamaican and Filipino extraction, while her partner has British and Ukrainian roots. The title is her speculating about what food their child might bring to “ethnic day” at kindergarten. Unlike some other one-person shows, this one is not just a word bombardment. Todd puts to use an amazing ear for accents; there are bits of physical comedy, and all those childhood dance classes are used brilliantly in a couple of dance montages. Thoroughly enjoyable. (Venue 7, Portuguese Association of Canada, 4170 St-Urbain)
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