Lucky 13
The Montreal Fringe Festival: ready for the next level
It is back, and getting bigger every year: though The Montreal Fringe Festival programming credo boasts "no artistic direction, no minimum standards, and no limits" in its selections, it's not quite the free-for-all of even five years ago. You can still the spot true "fringe" acts this year (exhibit A: "Ninjas Get All The Chicks"), but the Fringe here, as elsewhere, has become a serious venue for established actors and directors, where seasoned performers return year after year.
Extra venues have been added, including Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui and the former Bain St-Michel swimming pool, redubbed Infinit Bath, and the Scène ICI at Salle Jean-Claude Germain. Add to that the growing presence and coverage of French-speaking productions - the tenth anniversary Montreal fringe in 2000 was the watershed - and it's starting to become an accurate picture of what this city offers and can attract.
Edmonton Fringe organizers have been given $6 million this year to renovate a new performance space. Though nowhere near that economic level, the Montreal Fringe is heading steadily in that direction (with the new Hamilton Fringe having just replaced Montreal as first in a long season of Canadian Fringes) - whether it can hang on to its sense of anarchic fun as it grows remains to be seen.
The exotic/erotic dance stylings of Shakti have been a critical and audience favorite at the Fringe for the last three years. So much so that
she's returning with friends this year as part of The Garage International - a loose collection of dancers and actors from Japan and elsewhere, all setting up shop in the Théâtre Lachapelle, 3900 St-Dominique. They'll feature Noh theatre, Japanese dance, a Gay Samurai revue (it's about damn time), plays by TJ Dawe, Dave Chapman, and Mary Fulham, the very bloody Tokyo Triangle - and also will showcase Shakti's own new work The Pillow Book - a journey into sexual oblivion, where her naked bod-ay gets painted while she performs. That's right.
Bands (usually either awful or great) will be playing daily on the outdoor stage at Parc des Amériques, and Montreal group The Snitches (great) kick it off June 12 at 8 p.m.
A cabaret featuring Susan Jeremy (She did the wonderful P.S. 69 at the 2000 Fringe - sorry for you if you missed it) takes place June 21, 8 pm at Cabaret Mado, 1115 Ste-Catherine East.
With tickets going for nine bucks or less, the Fringe still offers fans of theatre, dance, music, and the visual arts an unbelievable deal for the right picks. A few acts to consider:
Theatre
The Rodgers and Hammerstein of white boy hip-hop, Jerome Saibil & Eli Batalion return with Job II: The Demon of the Eternal Recurrence. The show last year mixed wickedly clever lyrics and improbable rhymes with fine melodies: an utterly original take on the trials of Job. They now pick up where they left off - got to give it up for the Jews in tha 'hood, yo...
TJ Dawe returns with A Canadian Bartender at Butlin's. There isn't much to say about Dawe, except that he's ridiculously talented, his stories are always worth seeing, the show will sell out fast, and you will hate yourself if you miss him. Also have a look at the show Dawe co-wrote with Chris Gibbs, The Power of Ignorance, and Charlie Ross's One Man Star Wars Trilogy, which Dawe directs.
Fresh from directing some actor-guy named William Hurt in Richard III, Guy Sprung gets a career boost at the Infinit Bath venue, where he'll direct Jason Maghanoy's The Contract: "Two guys, one girl, and a gun. A simple job." Smile when you say that, bub.
The Lit Moon Theatre Company bare-bones staging of Hamlet at Venue 1 (the M.A.I. space on Jeanne Mance) features four actors and a musician, reworking the story of the Daffy Dane as an "expressionistic memory play", focussing on key scenes and stressing the physical element in their interpretation.
Atelier d'éxperimentation scénique will mount an adaptation of Bizet's most-popular work in Carmen - la liberté ou la mort, with four musicians and one actor creating an amalgam of theatre and opera.
Also - Mary Fulham, Devotion; Théâtre Groupe BuildinG, La Leçon; Raphaël Fréchette and Scott Jordison, Circus Cowboys.
Dance
Small World - Sue Lee & Kosta Andrea Theatre Company. Their Fringe-for-all excerpt was odd and disturbing in an interesting way. Lee was able to quickly establish a particular atmosphere of stillness, "a silent world where the very small becomes larger than life itself."
Solid State Breakdance collective were among the two or three absolutely must-see shows last year - this group of fly-girls are great examples of how cool the breakdance revival has become. They return with Etchasketch. It's a massively overused term in this context, but the word "fresh" comes to mind. Look around the room during their act to see jaw-dropped guys getting smacked in the head by their girlfriends.
Also - Mari Osanai, Dawn II; Jolene Bailie, Cuppa Jo; Kim Olson, Sweet Edge
The Fringe Festival runs from June 12 to 22. Activities center around the outdoor site at Parc des Amériques (Blvd. St-Laurent at Rachel Street), including the main Info Booth, feedback on the shows (Fringe Buzz), and the Beer Tent.
Tickets range from $5 to $9 - with some dates (marked "2/1" in the schedule) offered as two for one.
Get tickets over the phone at 514-849-FEST, or at the central box office in Parc des Amériques starting at noon, June 12 (a $3 service charge applies for each ticket sold over the phone, $2 is added per per ticket at the box office).
6- and 10-show passes are available for $40/$60, plus the inevitable service charge (though you get a free beer after they're used up).
25% of tickets for each show are reserved for sale at the venue ONE HOUR before the show starts - so if the performance you want to see is sold out, get there early for these last-minute (and no service charge) tickets.
Warmth on a cold night
first fest of the new year
Far from common
Love and war
A doubtful diva