Christina VarvisEdmonton International Fringe Festival
All tickets can be bought at the TransAlta Arts Barns
Cynics call it the city’s celebration of mediocrity, but this isn’t entirely true. There’s always something different at the Fringe festival, at every venue, and if you go to the right ones, in the same show. While the law of averages dictates that there will inevitably be a whole lot of mediocrity (the average star rating on the Vue Weekly website is nearly right at 2.5) there’s also surprising, astounding shows fit for every adjective in the rainbow. The Gateway Opinion Editor Josh Greschner is regularly a petty, hate-filled reviewer prone to harsh judgement for its own sake while enjoying each other’s misery. But the Fringe melts his heart a little. Here are a number of shows that seem interesting to him, and will probably interest you.
Sugar Foot Dance Club
8116 105 Street
Edmonton, AB
August 17 through 23, 2015
Off Book the Musical
$15
Rapid Fire Theatre is that best improv company in the city, and the bring their A-game when they improvise entire hour length musicals. Five performers belt, croon and rap their way through absurd plot lines, pausing when they catch zinger lines. Fun times and hilarity ensue like your in kindergarten again.
Breaking Bange
$13
Christopher Bange is a magician clown and he’s coming to the Sugar Foot Ballroom to astound and entertain Edmonton! Along with performing a number of impressive feats, he’s honest and forthright about a dark time in his life when he resorted to the drink. A heartfelt message implores audiences to make the most of their lives, he’ll have you saying ‘Gadzooks’! all the way to the bank as you withdraw more money to see his show over and over again.
rooms//apart
$13
A paranoid schizophrenic named Trigger newly arrives at a mental institution and assumes a room beside another patient named Switch who has severe anti-social behaviour. The story focuses on Trigger as his paranoia intensifies while his medication increases. Two young actors portray not only a delirious world of mental illness, but also pose fundamental questions about the nature of reality.
DV8
8130 Gateway Blvd NW
Edmonton, AB
T6E 3X8
Some Birds Walk For the Hell of It
$13
With a bunch of random film clips of Malcolm X, a coked-out Bob Dylan and Sinead O’Connor, East Vancouver poet C.R. Avery is dropping lyrical bombs in DV8 until the dive bar looks like Hiroshima. It doesn’t have that far to go. Illuminating Avery’s words and bringing plenty of simulated sex are two licentious strippers well-known on the Canadian burlesque scene. Avery’s screwball show will have you questioning your existence.
