JIMMY HOGG: MASHED (VANCOUVER FRINGE)
Want to know how to tell a story? Watch Jimmy Hogg. In Jimmy Hogg: Mashed his story is about how he hitchhiked from Plymouth to the West Midlands to meet his girlfriend’s wealthy parents. It’s also about how desperate he was to be cool when he was 19 and how, through...
THE IVORY TOWER POWER HOUR (VANCOUVER FRINGE)
The Ivory Tower Power Hour is a talent-free zone. In this mostly one-woman show (a couple of back-up dancers join her at one point), creator/performer Dr. Heather McLean, who is a real-life academic, tries to send up “higher education in late capitalism.” She presents...
LAS MUJERONAS
Ay, me! The flamenco performance Las Mujeronas had me hollering “Olé!”, laughing, and crying all sorts of tears — from pain, from joy, and from the sheer, extravagant beauty of it. The program that Jhoely Triana Flamenco is presenting at the Vancouver Fringe combines...
DADDY BEAR & MAN P*SSY
Watching Daddy Bear & Man P*ssy, I went through a portal. In this performance, husband-and-husband team Steve Wright and Jeff Narayan tell the story of their relationship — mostly untheatrically. They stand side by side and take turns delivering information. Both...
LET’S NOT TURN ON EACH OTHER! (VANCOUVER FRINGE)
Do you know what’s worse than realizing you’re wasting your time at a show? Having that realization when you’re outside, you’re already freezing, and there’s a whole lot of show left. In Let’s Not Turn on Each Other!, writer/performers Michael Watt and Jacqueline...
SOLOVELA, AN IMPROVISED SOLO TELENOVELA (VANCOUVER FRINGE)
Of the nine shows I’ve seen at the Fringe so far, Diane Jorge’s Solovela, an Improvised Solo Telenovela succeeds most thoroughly on its own terms. As the title lets us know, Jorge performs the body of the show by herself. But first she interviews an audience volunteer...
CANDY (VANCOUVER FRINGE)
There’s so much to like in Travis Abels’s solo show, Candy. But the centre doesn’t hold. Abels sets up the narrative frame: he’s going on a journey to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, where, legend has it, if you stand on the edge at sunset, you can see your future....
THE GUYS I F*CKED (VANCOUVER FRINGE)
I know the word fuck is in the title, but that’s not going to stop me from nerding out. Narrative tension, which provokes interest, comes from not knowing how things will work out, what insight the protagonist might gain. Watching The Guys I F*cked, I was so far ahead...
CULTS (VANCOUVER FRINGE)
Blair Moro’s script is a staged lecture about cults, the tactics of their leaders and the abuses visited upon their members. Mostly what I got from it is some horrific imagery that I can’t do anything with and that will stay lodged in me for a long time. Moro notes...
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