Presented by Toronto Fringe at the 2021 Virtual Fringe Festival, Empty is playing as part of the live Primetime series. The script by Natalie Axon was the winner of the 2021 Digital 24 Hour Playwriting Contest and was performed live on Zoom. The contest specified that the play contains four elements: a missed phone call, a forgotten cup of coffee, a hidden garden, and a missed delivery. Continue reading Empty (Fringe Toronto) 2021 Toronto Fringe Review
Fast cars and even faster women. Evil Hot Rod by Cat Crew Inc, playing virtually at the 2021 Toronto Fringe Festival, is like if the T-Birds in Grease went evil. In this musical radio play set in 1950s New York, Tony Raggione is proud of his new hot rod purchase, despite what all his buddies say. This ride, Carmilla, may look like a hunk of metal that likely won’t make it off the lot, but Tony is determined to make her a lightning roadster… even if she happens to be evil.
Continue reading Evil Hot Rod (Cat Crew Inc) 2021 Toronto Fringe Review
Presented by Nimikho Productions at the 2021 Virtual Toronto Fringe Festival, kiskisiwin nimihko (remembering my blood) chronicles the resilience, pain, and defiant joy of a Métis/Nehiyaw woman and her family in the face of colonialist brutality.
Writer PJ Prudat’s 30-minute monologue is a cry from the heart. It’s family lore and cultural ode, storytelling and memory as rebellion, and, most importantly, a way to “no longer be invisible.” It is relevant, required viewing.
(Content warning: this show, and therefore this review, mentions violence against Indigenous culture and bodies by settlers and colonizers.)
Mangoes From the Valley, created by Aryana Mohammed and produced by Junebug Productions, is a heartbreaking portrait of Maria (Renee King), a Venezuelan woman in Trinidad, forced into sex work by circumstance.
Please note that this review discusses content (sexual assault, violence) that may be triggering to some readers.
Continue reading Mangoes From the Valley (Junebug Productions) 2021 Toronto Fringe Review
North of Smokey, created by David Doucette and produced by DaVid Studios, follows Frank Curtis, a one-armed man from Ingonish, Nova Scotia as he traverses the country. The production winds back and forth from Frank’s present, shown in live-action, to his past, illustrated with sketches and narration (animated by Julie Mongeluzi). Continue reading North of Smokey (DaVid Studios) 2021 Toronto Fringe Review