by AMY BARRATT

Here's the deal: Any dope can consult the Fringe Festival program and identify the best bets. You take note of shows that have won rave reviews and awards elsewhere, and of any returning artists who scored big in previous Montreal Fringes. Following that formula, this year's top picks include: Fringe Show: A Love Story (by Monster Theatre, creators of past hits The Canada Show and The Big Rock Show), The Curse of the Trickster (T.J. Dawe), Jem Rolls, Screwed and Clued's Pinocchio, The Erotic Memoirs of St. Gilles (Erik De Waal), and in dance, Tampaxx and Shakti of Green Gables.

But best bets may also be the safest bets. This year, I'm on the prowl for something unsafe, for that quintessential Fringe experience, that out-there gem that may not sound like much on paper but attracts a following through word of mouth. The following picks come with absolutely no guarantees. They may not be polished, they may well be horrible but, with luck, they will embody something of that ineffable Fringe spirit.

The Amazing Fox Sisters

Coming to us from Toronto, this "dark vaudevillian comedy with music and movement" tells the true story of a couple of Victorian girls who claimed they could communicate with the dead. They became quite the phenomenon, even performing with P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth. They sowed the seeds for the turn-of-the-century spiritualism craze that saw people attending seances in droves. (Venue 5, 3900 St-Denis)

The Assignment

New on the Montreal scene, Karma Productions has done two productions in the last month and here they are again. You've got to admire that kind of energy, and the premise of The Assignment sounds fun: two creative writing students, a guy and a girl, have to collaborate on a story. As the actors playing the students pass the paper back and forth on stage, others act out the story behind them. (Venue 6, 3997 St-Laurent)

Cold Toast

I chose this piece because its writer-director-star Angela Potvin is a "perennial Fringe Volunteer." I like the idea of somebody hanging around the Fringe year after year and finally getting up the courage and the application fee to do a show herself. Cold Toast is a bring-your-own-venue show. Set in a diner, it will be performed at Korova bar (Off Space B, 3908 St-Laurent)

Heracles: The Mythologically Accurate Adventures

Never mind the Hercules of Roman mythology or Saturday morning cartoons. Calgary's Scorpio Productions goes back to the Greek source material and knocks the hero down off his column. Written by Dan Gibbins, this PG comedy features Miguel Eichelberger as Heracles, with Jason Goethals and Anna Lopez as sundry "gods, maidens, monsters, warriors, centaurs, Amazons and more." (Venue 4, 4247 St-Dominique)

The Indelibles

First, I like the Rosie-the-Riveter-type artwork. I like the blurb describing the piece as "inspired by Chairman Mao and cigarettes," with tantalizing references to I Love Lucy and blacklists. I like that, even though this is a home-grown show, I don't know anything about Cake or Death Productions, or playwright Yigal Judah. (Venue 2, Théâtre St-Denis, 3900 St-Denis)

Mummenpansz

Another Calgary entry in the Fringe sweepstakes, this is kind of a dance piece with humour - the only kind of dance for me. Written and performed by Anita Miotti with musical accompaniment, it's a story of heartbreak and new love and what really goes on inside a young woman's pants. (Venue 1, MAI, 3680 Jeanne-Mance)

Sarah with an h: The Musical

A period piece about lesbians. With songs. Need I say more? Another local company, WongTong Productions, made up of Dome Theatre graduates, presents this "sentimental musical" set in the 1800s about a young woman who wins a piano competition disguised as a man and along the way falls in love with another girl. (Venue 2, Théâtre St-Denis, 3900 St-Denis)

Shift de nuit

The two-minute Fringe-for-all promo for this show had three belly dancers, but in reality this seems to be a one-woman show. A French translation of Night Flying, by Vancouver's Patricia Ludwick, it's about a young woman who works the night shift in a gas station. (Venue 8, Bain St-Michel, 5300 St-Dominique)

Wanting

Dramas traditionally have a hard time catching on at the Fringe, which is more associated with comedies. Wanting is the right kind of drama for the Fringe, the sexually explicit kind. Seriously, this tale of a welfare mum who tries to find love with a married couple has good credentials, beginning with playwright Marie-Leofeli R. Barlizo and director Emma Tibaldo. (Venue 6, 3997 St-Laurent)

You've Got to be Kidding

As one of the founders of Divers/Cité and former producer of Queer Comics (at Just for Laughs), Puelo Deir is a household word in the Montreal gay and lesbian community. He left us a while back in the interest of making a proper salary in Toronto, but this indomitable force returns with his one-man show. Well known for getting things done behind the scenes, this will be Deir's first time on stage and it remains to be seen whether he can act. Like Cold Toast's Angela Potvin, Puelo is jumping in with both feet, and that, to me, is what the Fringe is all about. (Venue 8, Bain St-Michel, 5300 St-Dominique)

Happy Fringing and, if you see something you like, why not drop me a line and tell me about it at amybarratt@yahoo.ca?

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