All posts by Lin Young

Lin Young is a PhD candidate in the English Department at Queen’s University by day, an insatiable theatre-goer by night. She truly loves seeing innovative indie theatre, the strange sort of hole-in-the-wall shows that big companies would never take a risk on. She’s seen plays in basements, gardens, bars, and in old dilapidated houses, to name a few. She’s always on the lookout for the next theatrical experiment in the city, and loves seeing shows that have some quality of fantasy, historicity, or strangeness to them – especially if they involve puppets! She tweets about theatre, comics and the 19th century at @linkeepsitreal.

Silence S’il Vous Plaît (Illusion, Coffee and Poetry) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review

July 6, 2017 Lin Young 1 Comment

photo of Melaine Petriw

Silence S’il Vous Plaît (Illusion, Coffee and Poetry‘s offering for the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival) tells the story of two street mimes who fall in love over the course of one magical, romantic evening in Paris. Imagine a kind of silent-film version of Roman Holiday, but with queer mimes.

Of all the shows playing at Fringe this year, I was not expecting to be so utterly destroyed by mime girls in love. Especially when it started out with finger-guns. Continue reading Silence S’il Vous Plaît (Illusion, Coffee and Poetry) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review →

Rough Magic (Theatre Arcturus) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review

July 6, 2017 Lin Young

photo of actor Lindsay Bellaire On a distant island awash in magic, an airy sprite and a tortured mortal meet and form a strange friendship. Together, the two negotiate the meaning of freedom while a distant threat looms over the island: Prospero, the infamous magician from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Theatre Arcturus‘s Rough Magic takes Shakespeare’s The Tempest and gives it the Wicked treatment for the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival, imagining a potential friendship between The Tempest‘s supporting characters Ariel and Caliban.

Oh, and aerial acrobatics. That part’s important.

Continue reading Rough Magic (Theatre Arcturus) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review →

The Resurrectionists (House of Rebels Theatre) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review

July 6, 2017 Lin Young

picture of and old barn

When James and Oliver get themselves kicked out of medical school, they decide to start robbing graves in a madcap scheme to buy their way back in. Just your classic 19^th Century buddy comedy. Really. Complete with a gun-toting maniac, unrequited love, and a cadaver that can’t manage to stay dead. That’s the basic setup of The Resurrectionists (House of Rebels Theatre), playing at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. Continue reading The Resurrectionists (House of Rebels Theatre) 2017 Toronto Fringe Review →

Fables From Far Away Lands – Toronto Fringe 2017 Press Release

July 2, 2017 Lin Young

Fables Excerpt from press release:

TORONTO, ON – Merlene’s Impact Project promises morals, music, and mayhem with its Toronto Fringe Festival KidsFest debut Fables From Far Away Lands at the George Ignatieff Theatre July 2017.

A whimsical new musical, Fables centres around 11 year-old bullied bookworm Aviv. After a lonely playground classmate destroys her beloved book, Aviv gets swept into the magical Land of Fables. Once there, Aviv is starstruck when she meets the literary characters from her stories. She embarks on a journey to piece together the endings, and morals, to these classic Aesop Fables and learns life lessons that help her understand her peers and herself.

Using traditional fables, original songs and silly characters, Fables focuses on bullying, anxiety, female empowerment and working together. Starring 11 year old Aviv Cohen (American Gothic, Working Moms), audiences young and old will relate to her journey of self-discovery.

Aviv’s comical tour guide is the wisecracking bookworm, Boris. He takes our heroine to the fantastical land and acquaints her with the characters we know and love: Tortoise, Mouse, Hare, Lion, and Ant. Featuring catchy new songs and spectacular choreography, this story will spark a discussion about how we interact with our peers.

Details

Fables From Far Away Lands plays at the George Ignatieff Theatre. (15 Devonshire Pl.)
Tickets for Kidsfest shows are $5 for kids (age 12 and younger); adults pay $12.
Tickets can be purchased online, by telephone (416-966-1062), from the Fringe Club at Scadding Court, and — if any remain — from the venue’s box office starting one hour before curtain.
The George Ignatieff Theatre is wheelchair-accessible, and has wide aisles for easy mid-show exits.
Don’t miss the Kidsfest club located on the lawn adjacent to the venue! Free activities for children (3-12) and caregivers run every day of the festival: see website for details.
Be aware that Fringe performances always start exactly on time, and that latecomers are never admitted.

Performances

Thursday July 6th, 04:15 pm
Saturday July 8th, 12:15 pm
Sunday July 9th, 10:00 am
Tuesday July 11th, 03:15 pm
Wednesday July 12th, 01:30 pm
Friday July 14th, 11:30 am
Sunday July 16th, 03:00 pm

Poster by Emily Richardson.

Special Constables – Toronto Fringe 2017 Press Release

July 2, 2017 Lin Young

photo of cast from Special Constables From press release:

After a string of award-winning hits and a successful remount of its’ psychological cop thriller, Slip, at the Tarragon Workspace, Circlesnake Productions is excited to partner with Greenline Theatre to bring a fan favourite out of their archives. Special Constables brings summer blockbuster action to life on the Factory Mainstage at the 2017 Toronto Fringe.

Special Constables is a comedy thrill-ride that chronicles the return of Toronto’s most elite police force: the TTC Transit Police. Set in the turbulent pre-apocalyptic fears of the year 2012, Jameson, a former constable, is responsible for the crumbling of the Special Constables. But when a Metropass counterfeiting ring threatens to take over the TTC, Jameson has one shot to redeem both his former unit and himself. Starring independent theatre darling Danny Pagett as Former Special Constable Jameson and, Second City Mainstage alum, Nigel Downer as the monologuing mastermind Three Tone. The supporting cast draws from all over Toronto’s independent theatre scene: Nelu Handa (Bad Dog Theatre, Yas Kween), Connor Bradbury(Sex T-Rex, Bad Dog Theatre), Chloe Sullivan (Unit 102), and Mikaela Dyke (A Vagrant) play the rest of the ensemble in this goof-filled caper.