Not Enough, a one-person show starring Megan Phillips currently running in the Toronto Fringe Festival at the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, is a powerful show. Phillips’ compelling performance as a person trying to save herself through a ten-day meditation retreat, built on a heartbreakingly frank script and supported by inventive sound design, is a must-see.
Continue reading Not Enough (Megatron Productions) 2017 Fringe Review
This evening I visited the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace to see 13 Ways The World Ends, a sketch comedy show by Good Morning Apocalypse company currently running in the Toronto Fringe Festival. I was curious about what I would find, since 2017 has been a stressful year for a lot of people, including me, between frightening political trends and reports of war from around the world and the fear of some kind of imminent environmental catastrophe. Could these sorts of fears, these insecurities about the very future of life, really be the raw material for humour? It can: 13 Ways The World Ends demonstrates this quite well.
Continue reading 13 Ways The World Ends (Flash Dazzle Productions) 2017 Fringe Review
The history of The Ward — a downtown Toronto neighbourhood that, though gone, is now starting to be remembered as a critical location in the emerging city — underlies Post No Bills. This show put on by the Post No Bills Collective, currently running in the Toronto Fringe Festival at the Factory Theatre Mainspace, is an ambitious effort at representing the lives of the sorts of people who would have lived in the Ward. This show goes a long way towards illustrating elements of the past that early 21st Century Torontonians may have forgotten, or may simply have never had a chance to learn.
Continue reading Post No Bills (Then Speak) 2017 Fringe Review
Evolution / Mr. Truth is a dance-theatre double bill, currently playing at the Randolph Theatre as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. The first half-hour’s show, the dance show Evolution, choreographed by Angela Blumberg, is a fluid exploration of change through dance. The second half-hour show, the Lester Trips group’s Mr. Truth, makes use of dark comedy to explore the ugly and uncomfortable elements in modern sexuality.
Continue reading Evolution / Mr. Truth (Angela Blumberg and Lester Trips) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review
Kneel! Diamond Dogs, a solo show by Michael Posthumus of mikeylikesit productions currently running in the Toronto Fringe Festival at the Tarragon Theatre Extraspace, is fantastic. Posthumus’ show, based on a recognition of the power of pop music and the way being a fan can help people in their search for a place to belong, more than delivers on its dramatic–and musical–potential. Kneel! Diamond Dogs is a show with the potential to be a classic.
Continue reading Kneel! Diamond Dogs (mikeylikesit productions) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review