Fringe Reviews: Murder, Reincarnation + Puppetry

I must admit I was a bit wary to set out on my journey of seeing three fringe plays in a row. I had never been to more than one theatrical performance in a day and I fretted about how my body would react. Never one for being able to sit still for long periods of time, there was a serious risk of complete and total back failure. Questions abounded. Could I possibly concentrate for such intense short bursts of time, all in a row? Would I begin to daydream, letting all the demons of my previous week grab my consciousness by the scruff of its collar, causing me to weep or guffaw in the theatre at wildly inappropriate moments? Was I one of those people? I waded cautiously into Geordie Space for the first show, not sure if I was going to make it out of the tail end of this evening intact. I’ll let you be the judge.

first up:

Afterlife
Afterlife on Montreal Fringe

Afterlife is a very polished one-woman play about one female’s soul’s journey through three very different eras in 20th and 21st century America. The first act (which I thought was the best) tells the story of one woman’s misadventures in attempting to conceive in the rural south, in 1918. The writing, by Chris Van Strander and Candy Simmons was spot on, and Candy Simmons’ performance was coolly professional. She had the unique talent of hooking the audience completely from her first word on. The price of admission is worth it for this first characters darkly hilarious manner of disposing of a series of less than fertile husbands.

Equally impressive was Simmons’ ability to completely shift into other characters–a 1960’s Wisconsin housewife and a present day New York power businesswoman. Each character was distinctly nuanced and totally human, and Simmons tour-de-force performance accomplished what I consider to be one of the principle objectives of good theatre: putting the audience at ease. There was nothing but comfort in sitting back and letter her characters’ wild monologues take us wherever they wanted to (despite my unfortunate choice to wear my tightest pair of Friday night slacks, thereby making me uncomfortable in ways even I hadn’t imagined).

Afterlife is a smart, entertaining, funny and thought-provoking play. It is the most polished thing I’ve seen at this year’s fringe. It manages to say a lot about women’s evolving relationship to the equally evolving world around them throughout the last 100 years. Highly recommended.

Playing at:
Scene 3-Espace 4001 Berri Space

06/20/2009 – 16:45
06/21/2009 – 16:30

With ten minutes to get down to the Cabaret Juste Pour Rire, I hopped on my velo and jetted down to Sherbrooke ant St-Laurent, my cell phone beeping missed message the whole way. No one ever calls me when my phone is on. Sigh.

up next:

Teen Sleuth & the Freed Cyborg Choir: a coming of age story that will make you want to stand up and cheer!
Teen Sleuth & the Freed Cyborg Choir On Montreal Fringe
TeenSleuthFreedCyborgChoir.com

This is one of those rare fringe shows that come pre-equipped with buzzy hype, having graced the cover of the hour a couple weeks back. Naturally then, the Cabaret was pretty packed for this Friday night performance. One play into my night already, I ordered a cup of water from the bar and settled in for the continuation of my adventure, which prompty turned very very weird.

Teen Sleuth is a completely over the top rock opera ballet, complete with band, wireless microphone headsets, abstract projects, and best of all, sick, sick costumes. Think high school play meets Talking Heads meets psychedelic nightmare. The costumes were outta-fucking-site and really elevated this wallop of a musical into something special. That and the delicious vocal harmonies that set the backdrop for pretty much the entire show. Man, am I a sucker for harmonies. What the show is about, I could not for the life of me explain. From what I can gather there was something about a forest and a baby and perhaps a murder, horses, dudes with small heads– who the hell knows. The plot, really, remains decidedly beside the point. This show was all about the seamless explosion of music, dance, costume, visual images and all-our raw energy. Good and very fun. I didn’t stand up and cheer, but some other people did. Perhaps you will too.

02 – Just for Laughs Cabaret

06/20/2009 – 17:00

After a thirty minute reprieve with some beer and some friends and some fresh air, I was ready to complete my triptich.

Dans le salon avec la clef anglais
Dans Le Salon
Dans Le Salon Blog

I was quite smugly proud of myself to opening up my wingspan to include a francophone performance. This is culture, in action! The Fringe Festival remains a distinctly anglo gathering in most respects, and it’s easy to forget that there’s plenty of French action going on. I was excited to be dipping my toes in the other side of linguistic pool. But then again, it doesn’t take all that much to get me excited.

Dans le salon is a murder mystery show with a strong quebecois flavour. The audience is presented with eight (ten? twelve? it was a long night) suspects who must alternately confess about all the horrible things they’ve done in their lives and try and flimsily convince the audience of their innocence. The best part of the show was the opening few minutes when the characters flash back and forth talking about their many (mostly sexual) petty transgressions. There are some truly hilarious things that people can do to their friends if they set their minds to it. As the evening progresses, we get more and more information about each suspects character, and it’s quite remarkable how much we can find out about each one in just 45 short minutes. The play is wickedly funny at times, at others it’s a little disturbing and somewhat frightening, as any good horror movie should be. I must admit that my perfect understanding of quebecois français is not quite as perfect as I thought it was. Shit. Fucking theatre, leaves no stone unturned. At the end of the show, the audience is left to pick the murderer, Clue-styles. It is an excellent way to ensure audience participation, and to make one little anglo in the audience feel uncomfortable in yet another unexpected way. Language is the too-tight pants of my consciousness.

Dans le salon is an excellently written, well-acted and interestingly choreographed affair. Their use of lighting and darkness was extremely effective and creating a scary vibe. I liked it.

06 – MainLine Theatre

06/21/2009 – 24:15 (apres minuit/after midnight)
06/21/2009 – 14:00

My adventure continues today, where I will attempt to beat my own world record for plays seen in a day. I’m one day wiser, so there promises to be more astute reviews, more languages, more good stuff, more bad stuff, more drinking and more looser pants. Here’s to survival!