Fringe MESS is Today! + Some early Fringe Picks

First of all please raise your hands in the air and join with me in a hopeful and optimistic chant, repeating the refrain: “It Will Not Rain, It Will Not Rain!” because today is our show – Fringe Mess! Check out the front page if you haven’t yet! – yes, we’ll be rocking outside on the lovely large stone stage smack dab in the throbbing horny happy passionate heart of the Montreal Fringe Festival!

Our line up is delicious if I don’t say so myself and I was much gratified in talking with Fringe coordinators last night at the kick off party to hear they’re really excited for the acts we’re bringing as well – Hexes and Ohs are making Canada dance these days with their music videos in rotation on both MTV and Musique Plus, and Courtney Wing is well know for the hovery-loverly-large flights of fancy the man can create with his symphonic band arrangements and Liederwolfe Opera back up singers / collaborators.

In addition to these, there is more! I wrote lovingly of all the bands and special strummers booked in this blog post on how our Fringe Mess will be super spectacular, so check that out. What I didn’t mention is that our host is Faisal Butts! I spoke with this edgy indie sweety of a comedien yesterday going over last details and based on our chat I believe his hosting over the course of the eve will range from darling to scandalous… one can only hope.

Also causing a stir, apparantly, is our invite to Fringe shows to share 1 minute monologues or scenes between bands to promote their love labours flourishing in all the rooms and stages around town. We’ve got quite a little list of shows preparing to showcase themselves to you, so come on down! (And if possible, we’ll be webcasting!)

NOW.

It’s a little early for buzz on what shows are worth laying down your entry fee + service charges for, but I am starting to put together a little list for myself of things that pop out and yell Love Me or at least Hey I Could be sub-Deputy of Almost Ok!

Our friends, and frequent Indyish Mess collaborators (and mess makers in their own right) from Uncalled For are involved in the Fest in all kinds of ways again this year, but it’s their new show, and their involvement in a dance show choreographed by the hilarious Robin Henderson, that’s tickled my fancy (ooh! fancy!)

Check it out:

After months of slaving away in the kitchen, the newest, freshest and sweetest sketch comedy experience from Uncalled For is set to have its official premiere at the Montreal Fringe Festival. Uncalled For presents: Today Is All Your Birthdays is an interconnected, intelligent celebration of birth, death, space, the theory of evolution, mimes, sandwiches and time travel. Feast your eyes on the playful, mind-expanding world that Uncalled For has created just for you!

Uncalled For presents: TODAY IS ALL YOUR BIRTHDAYS
at the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival
Venue #5 – Just For Laughs Studio – 2109 St-Laurent, below Sherbrooke

Saturday June 13th – 11:00 PM
Sunday June 14th – 2:00 PM
Wednesday June 17th – 7:15 PM
Thursday June 18th – 9:15 PM
Saturday June 20th – 2:00 PM
Sunday June 21st – 7:30 PM

Call 514-849-FEST for reservations. Tickets $9 + $2 service fee.
60 minutes. All performances start on time. Latecomers admitted.

• • • • • • • • • •

MORE ALSO, Uncalled For members Dan Jeannotte and Anders Yates will be performing as part of the world’s first ever comedy/dance tribe in Dance Animal presents: Dance Animal, bursting on to the scene at the Montreal Fringe. Come see this star-studded hour of pure entertainment, directed and choreographed by Robin Henderson (choreographer for Uncalled For’s Blastback Babyzap).

Dance Animal presents: DANCE ANIMAL
at the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival
Venue #5 – Just For Laughs Studio – 2109 St-Laurent, below Sherbrooke

Friday June 12th – 11:00 PM
Saturday June 13th – 2:15 PM
Wednesday June 17th – 9:00 PM
Thursday June 18th – 11:00 PM
Friday June 19th – 7:30 PM
Sunday June 21st – 12:30 PM

Call 514-849-FEST for reservations. Tickets $9 + $2 service fee.

60 minutes. All performances start on time. Latecomers welcome throughout.

• • • • • • • • • •

I’ve also got my feelers pointed toward AfterLife – because a one person show can be the most powerful kind of Fringe show. You strip everything away and then it’s just about the story and the actor – it’s the bones and soul of theatre right in front of you, and if the actor can withstand the tremendous pressure it’s heroic to watch. AfterLife is a one woman show that’s received rave reviews across Canada and in the US, notably for Candy Simmons apparently fluid and mesmerizing transitions between characters. Sounds hot:

What do an Appalachian midwife, a 1950’s homemaker and a slowly unraveling film producer have in common? Nothing…and everything. Trace the evolution of women by following one soul’s search for happiness. Do you know where your Karma’s been?

• • • • • • • • • •

One more show that caught my eye and brainwaves is SCREW by Flirt Productions – an ironic, naughty, educational send off of our generally crummy sexual education. Kids want and need more wisdom on the subject, and right now our schools mostly aren’t giving them quite what they require as funding for luxuries like love and health get the axe, but maybe the surreal sass of Lindsay Milner can save us:

The government of Canada has mandated that due to the terrible sex ed curricula of our nation’s past, all citizens must attend a S.C.R.E.W. session at this year’s St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival. Bondage, biology and a brainy blond brandishing bananas make for the best mandatory fun you’ve had since you hit puberty.

-Together, we can DO IT!

• • • • • • • • • •

There’s tons of incredible (also also tons of crappy, probably) dance in the Fringe – I’m looking forward to the new showing from the wild hearted ladies of InFluxDance meself, for a dose of wise but unserious, accessible and inspirational modern dream dance:

The brain is a hostile place for dreams…Get it down in a letter. Paint a painting. Write your novel. But these things take time–too much time. Let us help you. We’ll catch your dreams and freeze them, they will last a lifetime.

inFluxdance strives to make dance theatre that is accessible, enjoyable, and a little bit quirky. Founding Artistic Director, Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, is inspired to make movement accessible via her training in Laban Movement Analysis. She believes that dance is truly a communicative art form. Her artistic process is anchored in exploring the creative art-making process as a communication process. The results of this exploration are powerful and prove that there are no limits in dance/movement as an art form. Her mission is to inspire and empower people to move their truth and create movement-based art.

• • • • • • • • • •

Anything else you recommend we check out? See you around the beer tent!