All posts by Winston Soon

A Gentleman’s Club Fringe Show (The Gentleman’s Club) 2011 Fringe Review

A Gentleman’s Club Fringe Show offers some fun and “genteel” improv to a sweaty Factory Studio Theatre audience. The show begins with a song – which cutely mocks the temperature in the room – and from the song, suggestions are created. There were two suggestions last night that came from the song – the first was hard to hear but I am pretty sure it was the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup. The second was author Ayn Rand.

Other than a mention to a Fountainhead pen, I didn’t really see the connection to suggestions here. Usually this would bug me, but it didn’t. Perhaps because it was the amount of fun the four performers were having on stage. Continue reading A Gentleman’s Club Fringe Show (The Gentleman’s Club) 2011 Fringe Review

The Soaps – The Live Improvised Soap Opera (National Theatre of the World) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review

What can be said about National Theatre of the World’s Toronto Fringe Fundraising show The Soaps that hasn’t already been said? Great characters + hilariously relatable premise + 8 of the wittiest people working in theatre, film and TV = either Pi or The Soaps. Either way the talent is infinite. This round is set in the theatre town of “Shawford” (sound familiar?) behind the scenes of the latest show which, of course, is fraught with drama, conflict and intrigue. The audience laughed from the first sentence until the lights went down at the Bathurst St Theatre.

Continue reading The Soaps – The Live Improvised Soap Opera (National Theatre of the World) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review

ShLong Form Improv (Probationary Theatre Co.) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review

I walked into the Robert Gill yesterday with high hopes for ShLong Form Improv – these are English teachers from Korea who are currently touring the country and the world as improvisors.

Living in a city that is packed with improv teams and companies, I was excited to see a team with something fresh.  I was also truly enthused to see a group from Korea – a country where I have spent considerable amount of time.  My hopes were that they would use their Korean stories to infuse the scenes or as a launching pad for suggestions. Continue reading ShLong Form Improv (Probationary Theatre Co.) 2011 Toronto Fringe Review

SAVED (EOS Theatre) 2011 Fringe Review

My first Fringe show at the Factory Theatre this year was Edward Bond’s SAVED. The program indicates that three different theatre companies came together to make this happen: Bound to Create Theatre, Theatre Bassaris, and EOS Theatre. I am a fan of director Jack Grinhaus’s work and the work of Bound to Create. I wasn’t disappointed. This is not a happy show. But it is a fantastic one. Continue reading SAVED (EOS Theatre) 2011 Fringe Review

Halcyon Youth (Variation Theatre) 2011 Fringe Review

Yesterday I headed down to Givens/Shaw Junior Public School to see Halcyon Youth, a new project by Variation Theatre.  I had quickly read the blurb in the program and knew this was an interactive piece that involved children.  That it is!  The interactive part?  I played a pick up game of ball hockey with fourth graders.

Once I grabbed my ticket I was asked which way I shoot. I was handed a hockey stick and was told I was playing on Michael’s team. I remarked on my lack of appropriate clothing and asked a review of the rules.  “Hit it in that net” I was told by Michael (who I later realized was Michael Orlando, creator of the show).   “And if we loose we riot, right?”

Continue reading Halcyon Youth (Variation Theatre) 2011 Fringe Review