Fringe aftershock

>> All the glitz and glamour of this year's Frankie awards

by AMY BARRATT

The last song sung, the last tale spun, the last award won, another Fringe passes, leaving a trail of empty beer cups and broken hearts.

At last Sunday's Frankie awards, it was great to see the goodies spread around to many different companies, as opposed to last year when the two biggest awards went to the same (albeit deserving) show. T.J. Dawe's The Slip Knot walked off with a spot in the Just for Laughs festival, leaving the Centaur showcase award for Laughing Day Productions from Vancouver and their show Menace.

The winner of the Chapters Best Text award, La Voix du sang, was one of only a handful of French-language original texts in the festival. Although there were more French entries than ever in this year's Fringe, many of them were dance companies, and not eligible for a text award. Add to that the fact that the Just for Laughs and Centaur juries only consider English shows, and it's obvious there's an award gap on the French side. (See full list of winners below.)

A new event this year, the "Drag Race," which featured some of Montreal's best-loved drag queens as well as several (male) Fringe volunteers all dolled up for the day, was a huge hit. The ladies competed to mix drinks, apply makeup to spectators and run an obstacle course in high heels, after which each showed off her lip-synching skills. This event must return next year, preferably in a bigger space than the beer tent, which was overflowing with people. The drag races were hosted by the inimitable Mado Lamotte and the winner was Sheena Hershey (va-va-voooom).

A show I was sorry to see overlooked at the Awards night was This I Know, by Concordia Theatre graduate John Mounsteven. In it, three people who have been scarred to varying degrees by their childhood experiences of religion, swap stories at a meeting organized by Father Joe, who has created his own religion. The play is about a lot of the terrible things that have been done in the name of organized religion, but it also recognizes the basic yearning for truth and beauty that leads people to become followers, or even founders of religions.

Primarily a singer-songwriter, Mounsteven did barbershop arrangements of church songs for This I Know. He's a very bright young man whose ideas come spilling out of him--on paper or on the phone--in a torrent of words. I'd go to see anything that he's connected with.

2001 Frankie awards

Chapters Bookstore Award for Best Text: La Voix du Sang by Marc St-Pierre (Theatre Impropulsion, Montreal); runner-up: Mingus, Mingus, Mingus: I am Three by Karen Kaderavek.

MAC Cosmetics "Look du Fringe": male: Nicola Zanasi (So Cruel, Teenage Wasteland); female: Mary Ann Lacey (Les Éclats de Saphir/ Berlin Expedition).

Centaur Theatre Showcase Award: Menace (Laughing Day Productions, Vancouver); first runner-up: The Slip Knot; second runner-up: Unsinkable.

Just for Laughs Award for Best Comedy: The Slip Knot (Big Sandwich Productions, Toronto).

Spirit of the Fringe Award: The Men Commandments (Quick Change Theatre, Manchester, England).

Volunteer of the Year Award: Sheryl Hoo, Pieter Boone, Steph Herman.