Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Five Part of the pleasure of fringing is the ability to see so many different styles in a very short period of time. My day five included the phenomenal character work of Charles Adrian appearing as Ms Samantha Mann in Stories About Love, Death & A Rabbit, followed by Kevin P Gilday’s nihilistic and dark spoken word/multi-media meta-theatre Gigantic Lying Mouth, and finishing with improvised … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Four
August 28, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Four For the fourth day of the Fringe I went to see one of the most provocative artists I know, Tasha Diamant, in Naked Ugly Dancing, and then spent the rest of the day camped out at Venue 1, the Victoria Event Centre for Holly Brinkman’s A Woman’s Guide to Peeing Outside & Other Adventures, Enigmatic Events in Jukebox Drive and Sean Proudlove in The Taxi Driver is Always Listening. I'll have … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Three
August 27, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Three I’m one of twenty three Fringe Heroes who collectively since 2015 have sponsored a Fringe venue, Langham Court. As a group, we attend one show together—this year, O’ Come All Ye Faithful by Nicholas Guerreiro. For the remainder of Day Three, I made my destination the Downtown Community Centre (Venue 2, 755 Pandora Avenue) for Vasily Djokavich by Morgan Cranny, Monica vs the Internet by … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day Two
August 26, 2017 By 1 Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe Day Two The venue of choice for Day Two was the Metro Studio Theatre (Venue 3) where I watched a puppet eco-drama Beaver Dreams from Lost & Found Puppet Co, the Gift by two-spirit, mixed (settler and First Nations) performing artist John Aitken and Gail Noonan and LEER, a steam-punk themed, Hell-based, gender-bent adaptation from Shakespeare by David Elendune of Outpost 31. (My review of LEER will be … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day One
August 25, 2017 By 1 Comment
Dispatches from the Victoria Fringe 2017 Day One Thanks to Bema Productions, I was able to attend a dress rehearsal of Horowitz and Mrs Washington. On Day One, applying the scheduling theory of my long-time fringing buddy Arlene, I chose a venue—Fairfield Hall—and attended all the performances there. The evening included three world premieres—Inauguration Vacation by Annette Roman, timely and topical storytelling from the life of a political … [Read more...]
Victoria Fringe Festival 2017. My away picks.
August 21, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Victoria Fringe Festival 2017. My away picks. In 2006 I celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Victoria Fringe Festival and got truly bitten by the Fringe bug. I saw many more shows than originally planned, and had so much fun I decided to volunteer the following year (and did so until 2014 when I switched to reviewing). Over the years I’ve met many Fringe artists and followed their careers—both in Victoria and further afield. Even … [Read more...]
Victoria Fringe Festival 2017. My local picks.
August 21, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Victoria Fringe Festival 2017. My local picks. I’ve been fringing now seriously since 2006 (which really isn’t very long when you consider the Victoria Fringe Festival celebrates 31 years in 2017). In any given year I’ll attend 35-40 shows at the Fringe and 90-100 during the year. My recommendations are based on seeing previous iterations (in development at Intrepid Theatre’s YOU Show, UNO Festival, the Belfry Theatre SPARK Festival, UVic … [Read more...]
Ferdinand the Magnificent. Victoria Fringe 2017. An interview with Nick Trotter.
August 20, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Ferdinand the Magnificent. Victoria Fringe 2017. An interview with Nick Trotter. A kid-friendly show that will appeal to people who appreciate absurdity and weirdness. Nick Trotter brings Ferdinand the Magnificent to Victoria. How long have you been producing work on the Fringe circuit? As an artist/company? Ferdinand played at the Boulder Fringe last year; Victoria is his first foray into Canada. Is this your first visit to … [Read more...]
Six Magicians by Andrew Brimstone. Victoria Fringe 2017. An interview.
August 20, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Six Magicians by Andrew Brimstone. Victoria Fringe 2017. An interview. Andrew Brimmell, aka Andrew Brimstone, is a regular improviser with Paper Street Theatre Company (which is where I have mainly seen him perform over the last few years). He’s also a magician—which led to the creation of his new solo show. NB: the first four shows of Six Magicians run the first four days of the Fringe; the last two—the last two days. Mind the … [Read more...]
#FringeFemmes. Victoria Fringe 2017.
August 18, 2017 By 3 Comments
#FringeFemmes Victoria Fringe 2017 #FringeFemmes 2015. Photo: Leif Norman This year, Victoria Fringe audiences are fortunate to have 21 shows to choose from that are written and created by women, feature an all-women cast, or, are directed by women (even if the cast comprises men and women). I thought the last two categories might stretch the intent of the original #FringeFemmes hashtag and had the chance to ask none other than one of its … [Read more...]
