Previews - Montreal Fringe 2008

Now that the big Indyish Monthly Mess is over, and all we’ve left to do is return the congas and bongos, I’ve started to think about the Fringe shows I want to see. I’ve been Fringe theatre going since I was about 12, spending summers in Toronto and in Montreal circling shows in the programs, packing as much as I can into a day, and developing my own Fringe tastes and aversions. Here are the shows I put a star beside today, these are the English shows from the first half of the program that are top of my list to try and catch, based solely on my own biases, potentially illfounded rationalizations and curiosities, their little Fringe blurby, the artists involved, reviews, and general street cred.

Argument with a Dolphin

There’s new blood in this group apparently, alongside some really funny core members, and they’re trying out an interesting kind of long form improv that I think could be really odd, fractured narrative and post-moderny maybe. Sean Michaels has a poetics to his humour that I love, so I’m looking forward to seeing him and the rest of these funny improvisers.

Balls!

I’m interested in humour about tragedy and masculinity, and this write up says a friend’s testicular cancer makes the protagonist realize “sometimes being a man feels like getting kicked in the balls.”

Barry Smith’s Baby Book

Good Fringe cred coming from this creator of Jesus in Montana, and I’m interested in self-documentation and where that becomes obsession in a pretty obsessively documenting world (this from a blogger).

Between Takeoff and Landing

The story of those passengers in tiny towns in Newfoundland was one of those that caught and hurt the heart and warmed the imagination to remember human kindness during the September 11 aftermath, and a reviewer from the Toronto Star also called it hilarious, which will help with the sad.

Blastback Babyzap

When people who’ve had their naturally bizarre and agile minds stretched by years of cutting edge forms of improv get together to create and develop narrative they make a show like last years Thunderspank! which caused normally hard to impress professional artists I know to say hyperbolic things like “the best show I have ever seen in my entire life.”

Boom

The reason I want to see this is mostly the sets of images in the tiny Fringe blurb: “sentimental bomb-maker” “tangled relations” “calculating denizens” and “desperate hometown”. And I like one man shows when they’re done well, it’s like the most boiled down perfect light weight Fringe show, incredibly hard too pull off but a million kudos when you do. Add to this the beautiful photo and good review and I’ll check it out, just in case it’s a gem, you know?

Busty Rhymes with MC Hot Pink

Penny Ashton’s poetry is funny, sexy, and kind of bold and bitchy as well. She’s incredibly sharp but also was very kind to us and all the artists in our Monthly Mess show which she hosted at the Fringe yesterday, and my mom dug her, so we’ll try and go together I think. Yay for bonding. Here’s a chat I had with MC Hot Pink the other day.

Carlito Nothing to Lose

Mostly curious. A rap show in the Fringe with a performance style described as “calm”. Will this be as bad as it could it or a surprise. I can’t resist a question like that at least once a Fringe.

Crude Love

I suspect this play will be fucking brilliant, that’s all.

Dishpig

Greg Landucci did a killer job of his 2 minutes at the Fringe for All, and it’s because he and director TJ Dawe, (further reading: our archive of posts on TJ Dawe’s participation in The Assembly, our collaboration project last year at the Montreal Fringe) know how to work the Fringe rules - he powered through with beautiful messy wordplay descriptions of dishwashing without breathing until they turned the lights out on him. Perfect.

Greed

Good reviews, cool graphics and photos, inspired young things doing politically edged comedy theatre plus animation and film, this is the kind of vibe so good it’s intimidating, kind of reminds me of Legoland from last year in Toronto, but more Australian I guess.

Hondomania - Nile Seguin

Writer for some pretty funny Canadian TV shows - This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Hour - and writes a blurb for the program that reminds me of what I like about those shows, the bitterness and sly self derecating odd Canadian form of ego, or ego charicarturized. Could be good I think, and it’s interesting to see a TV writer on a small live stage.

Identity Crisis - Influx Dance

We love these girls and last year Sylvain Verstricht our dance reviewer loved their show, and it’s hard to impress Sylvain.

Ok, that’s halfway through the program and I gotta go return the bongos. Check out Montrealfringe.ca for tickets and times! And tell - what are the must sees so far for you guys?