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Fringe
frolics
by
AMY BARRATT
The
opening weekend of Fringe 2002 was the coldest and wettest since…
well since two years ago, when Mother Nature pulled the exact same crap.
The Drag Races scheduled for last Sunday on St-Laurent had to be postponed;
Mado Lamotte and friends will perform instead this Saturday, June 22
at 4 p.m., but since the street sale is over, they will be confined
to the Beer Tent.
But
Fringers are obviously not frail stock. Of the eight shows I attended
between last Friday and Sunday, no house was less than half full and
a couple were sold out. Some reviews ...
Crazy
Make Her
Solo performer Mina Hartong switches easily from one character to the
next as she tries to make sense of a privileged but fucked-up Connecticut
upbringing. The title is a play on “crazy-maker,” Hartong’s
label for practically everyone in her life, from depressed/anorexic/addict
ex-girlfriends to her bipolar brother and borderline mom. The writing
is funny and smart, but at 35 minutes, there’s simply not enough
of it. Just as Hartong seems about to step out of the shadow of the
flamboyant mother character, she ends the show. Venue 4, the old fire
station on St-Dominique.
See
Me Naked
In contrast to Hartong, Maria Glanz is almost excruciatingly vulnerable
in her solo show (plus a drummer). It begins with an hilarious attempt
at striptease, then turns into a presentation—complete with cue-cards—on
nudity through the ages. Glanz is so disarming that you soon get into
it. In fact, if you sit near the front, you might get more into it than
you’d bargained for. The title is not just a teaser. We do. And
she’s lovely. Venue 7, the Portuguese Association on St-Urbain.
Job:
The HipHop Musical
I have seen the future of the musical/and yo, this aint no Cabaret or
Carousel.
That
I would attempt even that much of a rap lyric indicates how excited
I am about Job: The HipHop Musical. The story of Job has inspired many
a playwright, but as far as I know, no one has ever set it to music
before. Eli Batalion and Jerome Saibil’s collaboration revives
not only the musical but also the moribund tradition of verse drama,
transforming it in the process. This show is not out of place in the
dance space, since every second is choreographed. Batalion and Saibil
have created a new theatrical form, and it’s ready for Off-Broadway.
Venue 1, the MAI.
The
Hungarian Suicide Duel
All About Eve meets The Lottery meets a barrel full of monkeys. Written
and performed by Lori Delorme and Michelle Winters (Just in a Bowl Productions),
this is even funnier and sillier than last year’s Unsinkable.
Venue 3, Geordie Space.
Fucking
Anaïs
I imagined that Fucking Anaïs, a one-woman play set in Mile-End,
would be funny and even sort of hot. I’ve never been able to stand
the writings of Anaïs Nin, so maybe that’s the problem, but
it’s not like that “writer” of “erotica”
is quoted in this play, only discussed by a young bi woman trying to
follow her sex-positive example. Even the funny bits are sort of painful,
and despite a drawer full of sex toys, this play isn’t remotely
steamy. Linor David’s text is stronger than Rachel Matlow’s
acting. Venue 3, Geordie.
Mauvais
Match
Defying the received wisdom that girl-on-girl sex is hotter than boy-on-boy,
Mauvais Match is a bigger turn-on than Fucking Anaïs. That doesn’t
mean it’s a better play. The premise is the best thing this Davyn
Ryall/David E. Bonk collaboration has going for it: Sol is a boxer whose
love-life is portrayed as a series of boxing matches. As a metaphor,
it’s cute, but the text suggests that Sol has in fact put a string
of men in hospital. As a result, it’s hard to warm up to this
protagonist or care if he ever finds Mr. Right. Venue 2, Theatre La
Chapelle.
Tracks
Fringe veteran T. J. Dawe’s Tracks, adapted from Jack London’s
writings about his hobo days hopping freight trains across North America,
has all the T.J. trademarks: rapid-fire delivery, spare staging and
a fascination with language, particularly occupation-specific vocabularies.
T.J. needs to re-think some of the stories he has chosen to include,
and the overall shape of the piece, and slowing down his delivery would
really help the audience follow him into this unfamiliar territory.
But Tracks is still very good. Venue 5, 3997 St-Laurent. Beware: if
the weather turns warm, this space will be an oven.
The
Canada Show
The search for the Northwest Passage performed by Mr. Dressup, Casey
and Finnegan; the settlement of Acadia as a soap opera; the fur trade
told from the beaver’s perspective. You get all of this and much
more in The Canada Show, which covers the entire history of our great
and ridiculous land in one hour. A hilarious crash course. Venue 3,
Geordie. :
Word Travellers
When U.K. performance poet Jem Rolls took his Big Word cabaret from
London to Edinburgh, where the Fringe theatre festival phenomenon began,
he was quickly bitten by the bug. “Bravery and stupidity are two
sides of the same coin,” Rolls says of his initial Fringe experiences,
with just a trace of irony. “You’ve got to get out there
and hustle or nobody will come.” Rolls became a solo performer
last year when a fellow poet failed to show up in Toronto. “He
got famous in Denmark,” Rolls explains. No great loss; Rolls’
current one-man show is a dazzling compendium of pieces chock-full of
barbed wit and sharp social insight.
In
his solo show, Are Ya Working?, San Francisco’s Steve Karwoski
applies poetry, stories and the fine art of the rant to his wide range
of job experiences. He’s waitered, driven trucks, farmed and handled
a special ed class in Los Angeles, which he describes as, “A box
of kittens fuelled by adrenaline, family dysfunction and hormones.”
Probably the strangest job he’s had was working for the creators
of South Park on an ill-fated live action comedy pilot. “In one
scene where they had dog poo,” says Karwoski, “I had to
glisten the dog poo.”
Both
shows at the Mirror stage, 4247 St-Dominique. See Fringe insert (print
edition) for dates and times. :
-Vincent
Tinguely
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