WWW.THEMAINMTL.COM: FRINGE FESTIVAL PREVIEW AND PICKS PART 1: TAKING SOME OF THE CRAP OUT OF THE CRAPSHOOT

If you were hanging around Prince-Arthur between Coloniale and de Bullion on Monday at around 6ish, you may have sensed something was afoot. Something costumed, for sure, something a little odd, something that knows how to draw a crowd, something …on the fringe.

The Fringe Festival kicked off June 4th (unofficially kicking off Montreal’s illustrious festival season) with the local edition of the Fringe-For-All, its wildly successful annual preview night. The idea: each act (93 local ones on the bill – a version for out-of-town acts takes place on June 14th) gets two minutes to convince you to see their show. Andconvincing people to see a Fringe show is no small feat. Let us explain.

The Fringe is about accessibility- all artists are chosen by a lottery anyone can apply to (and ticket prices are kept to a maximum of $10, which is pretty frackin’ accessible, if you ask us). The Fringe is also about discovery, a word festival organizers use rather euphemistically to warn you that you never know what you’re gonna get with a Fringe show, both in content and in quality. Festival porte-parole Benoît Drouin-Germain put it more bluntly: “C’est le festival du meilleur et du pire,” (It’s the festival of the worst and the best). And that’s how we like our Fringe!

So- it’s a crapshoot, but The Main is here to take some of the crap out of that shoot. Or at least steer you towards le meilleur, so you can avoid le pire.

Disclaimer – These picks are based on 2-minute snapshots, and we’ve all taken a bad picture, right? Also, something that seemed compelling for 120 seconds may lose steam, focus, funniness, ME over an hour, while some companies may have chosen the wrong material to sell their shows. So throw caution to the wind, and support local (and not-so-local) independent theatre. And make sure you throw that caution dramatically.

LE MEILLEUR

The Title: Chuis heureuse (French)
The Company: J’arrive en morceaux
The Gist: There was a girl…in a great dress…with a paper bag on her head…repeatedly banging a drum…and then she panted like a dog on ecstasy for what seemed, to us, like minutes (to her, probably hours). That’s all well and good, but the weird part is, we liked it. A story about “maman, je et chien,” all sharing one body, one vessel. Okay, so maybe that’s the weird part. She was also incredibly charming, handing out handmade paper bag masks, with adorable quips about “du bonheur fait à la main” (handmade happiness) and having a good reason to go masked on Montreal streets.
The Info: Click here

The Title: Eeny Meeny Miny… (English)
The Company: Correspon(dance)
The Gist: Not so sure what this actually is, but they sure entertained with their two minutes of allotted stage time. To quote the company, Eeny Meeny Miney… is “a life-sized card game of dancing, divulging and drinks.” Sure sure – that clears things up. What we do know is that it’s about storytelling (and we love stories here at The Main), and the order of the show is randomly determined, therefore veryvery likely to change every night. So go more than once! Or don’t. That’s really between you, your wallet and your enjoyment.
The Info: Click here

The Title: Out of the Fog (English)
The Company: MOTET
The Gist: A dour-seeming and matronly woman with incredibly compelling stage presence told us (ish) how she came to teach the 5th grade.  She was engaging, other-worldly, sinister and funny all at once. This meditation on education (looks goooooood, promisepromise) features two seasoned actors playing educators at odds with each other, until they have to work together to save a child. Clearly, thankfully, someone is finally thinking of the children.
The Info: Click here

The Title: MTL_APK (MonTréaL ApoKlypse) (French)
The Company: Théâtre Misceo
The Gist: No idea. The roughly 10 members (of 30) representing Théâtre Misceo at the Fringe-For-All used their two minutes to slowly file onto the stage, slowly turn to face the audience, slowly raise their hands like somewhat threatening robots, and then slowly twist their faces into horror-stricken grimaces. And then they emit blood-curdling screams in unison. Thank you, good night. As an audience, we seemed to enjoy it. Having said that, the real deal is a 90-minute long apocalyptic epic that is directed live each night by a conductor, um, conducting the ensemble. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
The Info: Click here

The Title: No Fixed Abode (English)
The Company: Complicity & Critique
The Gist: It’s a mothercussing tragicomic XXX anarchist rap musical. And the “eccentric with a penchant for eclectic dialect an’ dialectic” leading us in this spiritual spectacle is named Vandal St. Hodgepodge. Need we say more?
The Info: Click here

The Title: The Harvester (English)
The Company: Rabbit in a Hat
The Gist: It’s the not-so-distant future, and time is a commodity. Literally: it’s bottled and sold. Waitaminute. Isn’t that a Justin Timberlake movie? Well, yes. BUT, more importantly, and seemingly more successfully, it’s also the latest offering from local company Rabbit in a Hat. People in the audience were buzzing.

The Info: Click here

LE BEST OF LE RESTE: Pitching KNIFE FIGHT, The GASSBAM Prize, Nothing Ever Happens in Norway, Phentex de Lucien Face, If Looks Can Kill…They Will, A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Evil, Smut Slam.

For all your FRINGE needs: Click here