The Fringe and beyond
When it comes to summer, them there theatre waters are murky. After being spoiled this past week by transcendent works like the Hungarian import W – Workers’ Circus, and bidding adieu to the structure of the subscriber season, the average theatregoer is thrust into the no-holds-barred, all-bets-off carnival that is summer in the city. This year, even the Fringe has a fringe, and whatever your tastes, you’re likely to get them served with a musical number or two.
The Fringe‘s biggest selling point is that you never really know what you’re going to get, and despite the built-in odds that there’ll be some stinkers, the marathon fest (June 10-20) is addictive in its promise that the next magical experience may be waiting just down the street. Give yourself a head start and check out the Fringe preview Monday night (June 6) at Café Campus, where performers will provide a bite-size sample of what’s coming up.
While Fringe started in Edinburgh as a response to a more stringently regulated theatre festival, in North America the circuit has sprung fully formed from the thigh of its European cousin. It takes all the unabashed anti-establishment enthusiasm from the original, but it’s not really on the edge of anything else. That, in the eyes of Travesty Theatre and Optative Theatre Laboratories, makes it the establishment. Speaking out against what they see as the corporatization of Fringe, the Infringement Festival (also June 10-20, natch) promises even less rules and a more activist approach.
If you must whet your appetite for hit-or-miss before then, try Karma Productions’ Taming of the Shrew, but be warned: Their recent Macbeth was the most agonizing stretch of theatre I endured this year (June 3, 4,10,11, 12; info: 933-1974).
Like a street dog on a sticky Toronto day in July, the onslaught of summer musicals has its price, but smells so damn good sometimes you can’t resist. The meatier offering is up first, with the Saidye Bronfman’s Fiddler on the Roof, in Yiddish with English and French surtitles (June 8-27). If that’s not quite enough for you the Just For Laughs festival will also be presenting, get this, Evil Dead 1 & 2, a hoofing and singing version of the cult horror flicks. Scary, in more ways than one.
Then, like a busload of blue-haired ladies from Pennsylvania, prepare for the onslaught of Neil Simon-Noel Coward-Norm Foster-lite shows, a collection of plays designed to keep you from remembering which playwright is which, and from having to think too hard. Check out the lineup at the Piggery in North Hatley, where Township Stage offers a summer season, and at Theatre Lac Brome and Hudson Village Theatre West. Can’t keep track? The Quebec Drama Federation will do it for you – their calendar is available at www.quebecdrama.org.
If you’re missing the Festival vibe by August, fear not. Local heroes Gravy Bath return to the Saidye ‘B’ Off Centre with their New Classical Theatre Festival, this year offering an original epic, Kali Yuga, alongside SaBooge Theatre’s Fathom. Both shows fold history back into the present and promise sumptuous visuals and twisted imaginations.
5 comments
The Fringe has always been one of my favorite festivals in Montreal. I became familiar with the Fringe Fest while a student at Montreal, I liked the format, and I have volunteered at this festival a couple of times (and will be this year as well). I enjoy that there are many shows to choose from, and that the subject matter for shows at the Fringe is very diverse. The theatre companies tend to be rather small, and I get to see theatre that would be difficult to see otherwise. Theatre companies come from all over Canada, the U.S., and there have even been some international theatre companies every once and a while. Since Fringe shows tend to be an hour or less, it is easy to take in more than one show in a day. I have just enjoyed the experience of the Fringe as a whole, and I would recommend it to theatre lovers who haven’t tried it yet. It definitely has a festival atmosphere, especially since its run tends to coincide with the St. Laurent street sale. A lot of fun, and probably some of the cheapest, quality theatre around.
The only thing is that I am pretty sure that the Fringe preview was last Monday (the 31st), so the date of June 6th may be an error…..
I’m definitely also intrigued by the Infringement Festival, a novel idea. In my opinion, a lot of the Fringe shows are rather experimental and untraditional, so I am definitely intrigued to see what kind of shows play at “the fringe of the Fringe.” I’m always in for activist theatre, so I’ll definitely check it out.
I used to be a huge fan of the Fringe, and I Fringed across McGill, seeing upwards of 10 shows a summer. But I’ve felt a downhill swing recent years – t happened around the time they relocated east…
I’ll look at the schedule, and I may take a peek at two or three shows, but I miss the days of Danespotting, Tintin: The Untold Story, Garden of Edie, Wise Up! Sucker, Rick’s Simpsons shows, and the Freefall Iguanas…
I have three movies that I want to see this summer. There are: Garfield the movie because it seems very funny and I like to see movie with animals; the other movie is Spiderman 2 because I saw the first one and I liked it very much and also I like Toby Maguire; and the last one is with Jackie Chan because he is one of my best actors and he is very funny and also I am a fan of Jackie Chan and at the end of every movie, we can see the bloopers.
I look forward to Summer Theatres. Every year I try to go to as many as possible. I love the Just for Laughs Festival, we get to see a variety of shows and meet interesting people. I really don’t appreciate scary plays like Evil Dead, but some people like those kinds of plays. I’m looking forward to the New Classical Theatre Festival sounds like a lot of fun! I find Montreal is a great city to live in, there is so much culture and cultivated people to meet and exchange with.
“Speaking out against what they see as the corporatization of Fringe, the Infringement Festival (also June 10-20, natch) promises even less rules and a more activist approach”–Jodi Essery
Uh huh.
Yeah.
Whatever.
Did anybody even hear about this?
Did anyone even care?
Yeah, that’s what I thought…next!
***
You can pretty much ignore the rest of the article as it’s mostly the usual arts filler but what you most definitely do not want to ignore or forget is the mention of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL, which ironically is in town right now.
That’s not a hint, by the way. I’m telling you…go see it!
There, I’ve done my duty…on to the next victim.