If you think the Fringe Festival press conference is the kind of place where you’d see two nerds playing with the iPad they just bought the day before, after lining up for 12 hours, you’d be right.
Every year, a day or so before the madness begins, friends, fans, audience members and media gather for the “Fringe For All” where every show involved in the festival has two minutes to strut their stuff—and that’s exactly where I witnessed the iPad interlude.
Techno-geeks aside, there were some real peaches in the previews (I mean literally, one group had a nectarine as a prop), so read on for highlights (and check the Fringe program for times and dates):
Mon amie la névrose : Conférence chantée is a one woman show performed by Pâquerette Ouellette, spokesperson for Nervosa Week, who dresses in turquoise taffeta and sings country and western songs about nervous disorders. A colourful and hilarious caricature of your best friend’s aunt from backwoods Lac-St-Jean. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a show on Radio Canada when sweeps roll around in November.
The Fringe Fest wouldn’t be the Fringe Fest without a little T & A, so to get your jollies, head out to Blue Light Burlesque’s Cabaret-érotico-rétro-chic! for a one-night only performance of old-timey burlesque complete with garter belts, feathers and pasties. At the preview show, the dancer popped her bra off hands-free, so you know these babes have skills.
Brooklyn-based indie band, Grub Animal (also appearing on the Fringe Pop stage this year), who recently earned the attention of Spin Magazine, has penned a rock opera entitled, The Duck Wife, based on an Inuit folktale. Not only does it look wacky and wonderful, but they’re distributing rubber duckies as promo. Hell yes!
The most impressive preview I saw, hands-down, was excerpts from Fiasco Danse’s show. A group of co-ed muscular hotties whipped their sweatpants down to their ankles and did a two minute choreography to Wolf Parade’s You Are a Runner I am My Father’s Son, in undies. Incorporating the ankled sweatpants into the throbbing rhythm sections of the routine was a stroke of genius.
METEOR is a full-length improv show from three of the most talented players in Montreal’s ad-libbed theatre scene. For this brand-new show, the boys are kicking it up a notch by using physical comedy to complement the hilarity spewing from their mouths. Expect thrills, chills and maybe colourful streamers.
For their first production in English, Belzébrute brings us a swashbuckling tale of pirates and puppets, set to live accordion. Shavirez, Gypsy of the Sea stands to be a hilarious collage of cultural and folkloric malapropisms, whose humour owes as much to the skill of its performers as it does to what’s lost in translation as they navigate the high seas of pirate English.
For the theatre-savvy, Dramaturkey! brought to you by Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal (PWM) consists of staged readings of absolute crap from PWM’s vaults. The city’s most well-regarded playwrights are getting out their shame faces, because that embarrassing play they wrote for Dawson’s Dome Theatre is going to have its day in the sun. Conveniently presented at the beer tent at Parc des Amériques, audience members are encouraged to boo instead of cheer and a panel of celebrity judges (including Jamie O’Meara, Jeremy Hechtman and Bill Brownstein) will crown one (un)lucky play the crappiest of all.
And finally, here’s one for the nerds of my generation: Uncalled For and Anisa’s Movie Mondays are teaming up with the Centre St-Ambroise to bring you a night of food, drink, trivia, improv and The Goonies! On June 6th, hop on your bike and head down to the brewery on the Lachine Canal, where you’ll be treated to a free BBQ, an all-star improv show, a trivia battle and an outdoor screening of the 80’s classic, The Goonies. I think they’re bringing Babe Ruths for dessert.
by Anna Phelan / photos by Rod Moraga and the Fringe
