| Fringe
frenzy
>> Creepy cops, a poisoned-beer murder mystery and more than 60 live shows add to the insanity of this year’s fest
The Mirror has been able to learn very little about these tight-lipped peacekeepers. When I tried very tentatively and politely to question one of them, she (I think it was a female) merely gazed blankly ahead and tapped her club rather more quickly against her palm. Noting that none of them wore nametags, your intrepid reviewer abruptly ended the interview. The Patrouille Anti-Trouille also goes by the name Troupe de théâtre de la taxe récréative incluse. They are one of four “off” Fringe events, taking place on the street rather than in an indoor venue. You have been warned. Who killed Art? Fringe organizers Jeremy Hechtman and Patrick Goddard are flexing their own creative muscles this year by staging a murder mystery—but not in one of the seven Fringe venues. At the Fringe-for-all, Hechtman announced that he would be leaving as Fringe Producer after this year, and that his replacement would be introduced to us later in the evening. At the very end of the Fringe-for-all, which consisted of three-minute previews of 30-odd Fringe shows, Hechtman introduced Arthur (Art) Duchamp. A tall, dark stranger walked up to the microphone, drink in hand. Before he could get a word out, he began to choke, sputter and writhe, finally collapsing on the stage, apparently from poisoned beer. According to the first issue of The Daily Movement, several Fringe staffers are being questioned and may indeed be suspects. We can all help solve the mystery of Who Killed Art! Keep your eyes and ears open, especially in the vicinity of the Beer Tent (Parc des Amériques, corner Rachel and St-Laurent) and stay informed by picking up The Daily Movement. (Normally the Mirror wouldn’t endorse a rival paper, but this is a new world reality, dammit!) Welcome back! The 60-plus shows in the 2002 Fringe will, as usual, cover a lot of bases: music, dance, comedy, nudity, profanity and even a little legitimate theatre. Among the returning companies is the sketch comedy troupe The Imponderables, four guys from Hamilton, Ont., who were a big hit last year. Just in a Bowl Productions was the team behind last year’s adorable Unsinkable (about a pair of spunky synchronized swimmers who didn’t actually have access to a pool). Writer-actors Michelle Winters and Lori Delorme return this year with The Hungarian Suicide Duel, something about a faded actress and two women duelling on a bridge at midnight.
Sarah Quick and Ruth Dennison made a lot of friends in previous years with Thanks for the Mammaries and The Men Commandments. The Manchester-based duo known as Quick Change Theatre is back with Sex and Sensibility, which the Toronto Sun described as “a little bit of Jane Austen, a little bit of Absolutely Fabulous… and a whole lot of naughty fun.” Also going for the hat trick is Keir Cutler, the author/performer of Teaching Shakespeare and Teaching Detroit. This year’s monologue by Dr. Keir is titled Is Shakespeare Dead? and it promises to put to rest forever the myth that William Shakespeare wrote the plays of Shakespeare. All’s right with any Fringe that has T.J. Dawe. After winning the Best Comedy award last year with Slip-Knot, Dawe is back with something a little different. Unlike most of his previous work, Tracks is not autobiographical; instead, it’s based on The Road, by Jack London, a non-fiction work describing the author’s experiences as a freight-train-hopping tramp in the 1890s.
One-person
shows are one of the signatures of a Fringe festival, and this year’s
line-up has a diverse selection, beyond the two just mentioned. Montrealer Jérôme Savoie, has based his one-man show on his experiences hitchhiking across Canada, guitar in tow. Histoires naïves de pouce et de sexe promises to tell, in comedy and song, all about cultural clashes and personal encounters. New Yorker Mina Hartong presents Crazy Make Her, a show about being bipolar, bilingual and bisexual, all at the same time. Although this is Hartong’s first appearance in Montreal, she has performed all over the States and Europe, including at Gay Pride in Reykjavik, Iceland. How cool is that? In the best Fringe attention-getter since Isabelle Gaumont appeared unclothed on the cover of the Mirror, Maria Glanz’s one-woman show is titled, simply, See Me Naked. The Seattle-native’s show won Best of Fest at the Edmonton Fringe and was the artistic pick of the Seattle Fringe, both last year.
There are almost as many different kinds of chick shows in this fest as there are different kinds of chicks. Montreal’s own Théâtre qui monstre énormément presents Muriel de Zangroniz in Conne Carne. It’s about a 30-year-old woman who suddenly decides she can’t take it anymore (husband, kids, job…) and decides to kill herself by consuming 120 kilos of spaghetti in 12 hours. For sheer grrrl
energy there’s another Montreal company, Solid State, whose Showdown:
No We Won’t Slow Down showcases 10 young female breakdancers.
For queer girls
over 18 there’s Fucking Anaïs, a reference to the diarist
Meanwhile, Edmonton’s Ribbit Productions has its eyes on the guys with its show Be a Man. It’s about “beer, sex, sports” and “the trials and tribulations of being a twentysomething male in the new millennium.” Queer boys should check out Mauvais Match. In recounting the adventures of a young gay man, it uses the boxing ring as a metaphor for dating. Q Art Productions presents The Party, by Slawomir Mrozek, about three guys looking for a party. It stars three funny guys associated with Gravy Bath Productions: Tony Palermo, Nicolas Wright and Mike Hughes. And don’t forget the sketch comedy troupes, which for some reason are virtually all male. Apart from the aforementioned Imponderables, this Fringe features such acts as The Habit (Seattle), The Cowards (Toronto), and Sabotage III (Albuquerque).
A few shows, for some ineffable reason, just seem to define Fringe:
Also, back by popular demand, Fringe 2002 features its own particular brand of Drag Races. The incomparable Mado Lamotte hosts as local drag queens and guys in drag (not the same thing) run an obstacle course requiring them to apply makeup, mix drinks etc. Last year this popular event was crammed into the Parc des Amériques and sight-lines were abysmal. This year, Jeremy and Patrick promise it will be on St-Laurent (which will be closed for the street sale). Check next week’s Mirror for lots of Fringe reviews. : The Fringe opening
party is tonight, June 13, with indoor shows beginning Friday, June
14, 6pm. It wraps up Sunday, June 23, with the Frankie Award ceremony.
Info: 849-FEST or www.montrealfringe.ca |
Friends, the new North American culture of hyper-security has reached
our humble Fringe Festival. The beer tent and environs of the 12th annual
Montreal Fringe, which begins tonight (June 13), will be patrolled by
La Patrouille Anti-Trouille, a band of masked, billyclub-bearing avengers.
The message being sent by Fringe brass is clear: terrorists, bad guys
and suspicious looking characters beware! From now on, it’s no
more Mr. Nice Festival.
The
unpredictable duo of Jerome Saibil and Eli Batalion, otherwise known
as Foqué dans la tête productions, follow up audience favourites
Everything You Wanted to Know About Yourself but Were Afraid to Ask
Freud and Carl Rosensweig, How Was Your Vasectomy? with possibly their
most audacious work to date. JOB: The HipHop Musical, is the Biblical
story set in the present and told through rap and urban dance. Can these
two Montreal white guys pull it off? Judging from the three minutes
I saw, I’m thinking they can.
Dramas
are harder to sell at the Fringe than comedies, but GetAway, a Blushing
Virgin production, looks to have good writing and performances. The
play is about two sisters coming to terms with a gruesome event.
and
erotic fiction writer, Anaïs Nin. In an apartment in Mile-End,
a woman struggles with the pressures of radical feminism on one hand
and sex-positive politics on the other. It might sound academic, but
the press material also promises “the all-Canadian Sarah Polley/Shannon
Bell ejaculation scene, the horny bear at tree-planting fantasy and,
especially, the Hebrew song masturbation medley.” Okaaay!