BLOODY UNDERRATED: MONTREAL FRINGE: TOUGH!, HE LOVED THE SOFT PORN OF THE CITY, OUT OF THE FOG, LET’S START A COUNTRY!
Whew! Typing out all those show titles just about did me in. It’s been a long day for sure, but an entertaining one, and I don’t think I could have seen a more various group of shows.
I’d heard a lot of great things about the preview of this one-woman show and definitely wasn’t disappointed with the updated version. Kirsten Rasmussen takes a base story centering on an alcoholic lounge singer and an amateur boxer and populates it with a variety of colourful characters, all of them likeable and hilarious. This is all set to live music, with a jazz trio providing the accompaniment.
I’d say that the only real weak point of the show are the songs: while they have some good bones to them, they’re repetitive and underwritten, and break up the lightning-quick pace of Rasmussen’s storytelling. It’s also worth mentioning that the story is about as tragic as it is comic, and there are some heavy moments that might put off somebody who likes their comedy lighthearted. That said, it’s all carried through to a conclusion that’s as satisfying as it is heartening.
Tough! is duking it out at the Cabaret du Mile End; tickets are $12.
He Loved the Soft Porn of the City
It almost doesn’t feel fair to review this show just yet – its multimedia element was missing for the evening, as was the show’s dancer. This left the Moderno Trio to deliver a show consisting largely of music interweaved with elliptical spoken word pieces.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the scope and variety of the music. The press release describes it as “a blend of 80s New Wave, Fusion Jazz, and World Beat”, and I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I can say that it was energetic and psychedelic and memorable and almost made up for the fact that there was so little to look at. Kudos to the Moderno Trio for going on in face of adversity, and putting on a good show with what they had.
He Loved the Soft Porn of the City is playing at the Cabaret du Mile End; tickets are $12.
Georgia is a vastly intimidating old battleaxe of a teacher, determined on bringing her grade five and six students “out of the fog” of childhood and into the “screaming light” of reality through strict treatment and hard questions. The play is made up of her meetings with her school’s guidance counselor, who’s convinced that Georgia’s approach is doing nothing but harm. It’s only when tragedy strikes that they find some common ground, uniting their approaches as they attempt to right a wrong.
Wonderfully written and performed (I was especially impressed with the show’s child actor, Alexander Fitchev, who I understand will be tag teaming with another actor for the length of the run), this forty-five minute play could easily be built up into something longer without stretching the audience’s attention span. Definitely one of the “hidden gems” of this year’s festival, I would recommend it to anyone interested in the education system, or who remembers a particularly bright star of a teacher from grade school.
You can catch Out of the Fog poolside at Bain St-Michel; tickets are $10.
Comedians Asaf Gerchak and Gerard Harris have, in a striking display of autonomy, decided to start a new country with every perforance. Declaring themselves the founding fathers and appointing their audience to parliament, the whole room must work together to define the nation’s political approach, outline the country’s policies, and, of course, design their flag.
This is probably one of the most dynamic and downright silly shows I have ever been to, and definitely the most dependent on audience involvement and enthusiasm. But there was certainly no lack of enthusiasm in Friday’s audience, and there were as many laughs as momentous decisions to make. I also enjoyed the historical factoids sprinkled throughout the play, explaining the reasoning behind some famous micro-nations throughout history.
Your new country awaits somewhere in the deep end of Bain St-Michel; tickets are $10.