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.

Hansel and Gretal – Toronto Fringe 2015 Press Release

“Hansel & Gretel must let go of their smartphones and tablets and learn to work together if they’re going to reach the Enchanted Gingerbread House and win the Amazing Hunger Race!”

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Excerpt from press release:

In Cow Over Moon’s modern twist on the classic fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel must let go of their smartphones and tablets and learn to work together if they’re going to reach the Enchanted Gingerbread House and win the Amazing Hunger Race. They might need a little help from the audience too!
For almost twenty years, Cow Over Moon has been creating modern updates on classic fairy tales through a collective creation process involving improvisation, music, and lots of laughs. Hansel & Gretel was directed by Toronto Fringe General Manager Lucy Eveleigh, who was also formerly the Artistic Producer of Cow Over Moon.
Hansel & Gretel features an all-star cast including award-winning comedians Faisal Butt (winner of Sirius XM’s Top Comic in Canada who recently opened for Russell Peters), and Gene Abella (Canadian Comedy Award winning member of sketch troupe Asiansploitation). Playing the role of Gretel is up-and-coming singer/songwriter Michelle Thibodeau. Michelle recently sang for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, as a finalist on the Toronto TV Show Over The
Rainbow, a search contest for Dorothy in Mirvish’s production of The Wizard of Oz.

 

Showtimes:

Friday, July 3: 10:00am – 11:00am
Saturday, July 4: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Monday, July 6: 12:45pm – 1:45pm
Tuesday, July 7: 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Thursday, July 9: 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Friday, July 10: 4:45pm – 5:45pm
Sunday, July 12: 2:30pm – 3:30pm

Venue: 
George Ignatieff Theatre, 15 Devonshire Place

Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. FringeKids shows offer $5 tickets for kids. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (481 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.

The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.

Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo provided by Cow Over Moon.

Yeats: A Ceremony of… Innocence? – Toronto 2015 Fringe Press Release

“Poetry and proposals meet politics!”

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Excerpt from press release:

Boy writes poetry. Boy meets girl. Boy tries to win girl. Boy founds a theatre, and helps shape a country. Poetry and proposals meet politics.

If you missed seeing it in Sligo or Donegal, Ireland, Daniel Giverin brings his tour de force performance as William ButlerYeats to the 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival.

Tormented by unrequited love, W.B. Yeats, poet and co-founder of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, sought understanding through spirituality and magic. A CEREMONY OF…INNOCENCE? explores his career and art through his infatuation with Maud Gonne, English-born revolutionary, actress and proto-feminist.

Daniel Giverin (DEGRASSI, THE MUMMY III) portrays Yeats as a man in love, desperately trying to keep his illusions alive in the face of all reality. His failure results in some of the most beautiful, and honest, love poetry ever written.

Bring a boyfriend; bring a girlfriend. Heck, bring both!

 

Showtimes: 

Thurs. July 2nd – 6pm
Sun. July 5th – 5pm
Mon. July 6th – 10:30pm
Tues. July 7th – 6:45pm
Thurs. July 9th – 1:45pm
Fri. July 10th – 12:30pm
Sun. July 12th – 4:30pm

Venue: 
Robert Gill Theatre, 214 College St.

Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (481 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.

The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.

Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo by David Patterson.

Deepest and Darkest – Toronto Fringe 2015 Press Release

“Based on real teenaged feelings […] a story about growing up and figuring out how to be important!”

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Excerpt from press release:

Toronto ON – Vancouver-based company Theatre Plexus proudly presents the Toronto Premiere of DEEPEST DARKEST by Caitlin McCarthy, running July 3-12, 2015 at the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace with the Toronto Fringe Festival. Tickets to this production are available from $12 at www.fringetoronto.com.

Directed by Katrina Darychuk (This is War – Rumble Theatre) with production design by Rae Takei(Mr/MissCobalt 2015), Deepest Darkest is a fun, violently sexy coming-of-age tale. Featuring Studio 58 and University of Toronto Graduate Caitlin McCarthy (House of Yes, What You’re Missing),Deepest Darkest is a story about growing up and figuring out how to be important. And SECRETS! Audience members are invited to confess something anonymously on a piece of paper before the show and these secrets – big or small, deep or trivial, are incorporated into the story. Confessions are optional but very, very encouraged.

 Deepest Darkest premiered under the title Saudade at the 2014 Victoria and Vancouver Fringe Festivals, where it was critically well-received. Performer and playwright Caitlin McCarthy was called a“firecracker” (Marble Theatre Review, Victoria) and “brilliant” (Plank Magazine, Vancouver). Janis La Couvée, in Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe, shared that Deepest Darkest “..resonate[s] on a deep level”. Theatre Plexus was founded in 2013 in Vancouver with a mandate to produce intimate stories in small spaces that feature strong female voices. Other productions include the sold-out run of the play 8 Girls Without Boyfriends and currently, rehearsals are underway for a June 2015 production of Scratch by Toronto playwright Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman. Upcoming, Theatre Plexus will produce a collective creation with the working title I Hope You Get Laid, Bitch, which will deal issues of complicity and consent.

DEEPEST DARKEST performs July 2-13 at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson Avenue Toronto. Tickets are priced from $12 and are available at www.fringetoronto.com. For more information on the production or the company, visit www.theatreplexus.com.

 Showtimes: 

July 03 at 07:30 PM  buy tickets
July 04 at 11:30 PM  buy tickets
July 07 at 08:00 PM  buy tickets
July 08 at 06:00 PM  buy tickets
July 09 at 02:15 PM  buy tickets
July 11 at 09:15 PM  buy tickets
July 12 at 01:00 PM  buy tickets

Venue: 
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace

Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (481 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.

The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.

Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo by Rae Taki.

Twelfe Night, Or what you will – Toronto 2015 Fringe Press Release

“ALE HOUSE BRINGS ITS ORIGINAL PRACTICES TWELFE NIGHT TO TORONTO FRINGE!”

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Excerpt from press release:

 Following its recent hit production of Othello, Toronto’s Ale House Theatre Co. resurrects a 90 minute cut of its crowd-pleasing Twelfe Night, Or what you will. In the land of Illyria, wild abandon rules and everything that is, isn’t. Separated at sea from her twin brother, Viola dresses as a man to serve Orsino, with whom she falls in love. Orsino wishes to have the lady Olivia who falls for Viola when she is tasked with wooing her on his behalf. All the while misrule triumphs as Sir Toby Belch and company torment the house steward, Malvolio, in the name of revenge and excellent sport.

 

“Twelfe Night is the sort of play that shatters ridiculous but endured assumptions of Shakespeare and his characters,” says director Joshua Stodart. Over the course of four Shakespeare productions, Ale House has used Original Practices as a launch pad for some of the most surprisingly fresh productions in Toronto Theatre. “Behind 400 years of plaque we find a world where people were as vibrant, complex, and familiar as people today and where ale was safer to drink than water.” AleHouse believes Original Practices to be one of many invigorating ways to bring life back to Shakespeare’s characters.

“It turns out that, despite what recent Stratford seasons have taught us, original practices actually can showcase Shakespeare at its best… [OP productions] often shy away from word pairings like “interesting interpretation” but insightful director Joshua Stodart places no such restrictions on his production, regardless of its traditional aesthetic. Each character here feels newly considered and thoughtfully developed…”

Kelly Bedard, Othello, My Entertainment World, 2015 Twelfe Night, Or what you will. was first performed in 2013. This 90 minute cut aims to defy expectations and renew excitement for Shakespeare in Toronto. Don’t miss it!

Showtimes:

July 1, 10:30pm
July 3, 1:15pm
July 5, 3:30pm
July 6, 8:15pm
July 7, 4:30pm
July 9, 7:00pm
July 12, 4:30pm

 

Venue: 
St. Vladimir Theatre, 620 Spadina Ave.

Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (481 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.

The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.

Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo provided by company.

Regicide – Toronto 2015 Press Release

“[S]ketch comedy revue delves head first into the insecurities and frustrations of humanity!”

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Excerpt from press release:

 TORONTO – Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Hide your Kings and Queens. Regicide is coming to Toronto Fringe, as six Toronto comedians join forces to write and perform this unique, quick-witted show.Under the direction of current Second City Mainstage Director, Kerry Griffin, this sketch comedy revue delves head first into the insecurities and frustrations of humanity. Expect song, scenes, dance and even a few spins on the catwalk. Regicide pokes fun at the status quo and puts a satirical twist on current affairs.

Fresh off San Diego’s Finest City Improv Festival and Toronto Sketchfest, these performers are ready to rule The Toronto Fringe Festival.

“Regicide is a charismatic team. They were one of the hits of the San Diego Improv Festival, receiving several ‘Best of Fest’ votes.” – Kevin Dolan, Programming Committee, Finest City Improv Festival, San Diego.

No royalty will be harmed in the making of this production.

Showtimes:

July 01 at 08:15 PM

July 04 at 07:30 PM

July 06 at 05:00 PM

July 07 at 03:00 PM

July 09 at 12:15 PM

July 10 at 09:15 PM

July 11 at 03:30 PM

Venue: 
Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse

Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (481 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.

The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.

Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo provided by company.