10 shows to keep an eye on at Montreal Fringe fest
We’re placing bets on these 10 shows for the frantic festival’s 26th edition
As the 26th edition of the Montreal Fringe Festival begins next week, we’ve plunged into the maelstrom and come up with 10 highlights. Had we stayed down there a bit longer, we might have got around to mentioning such veteran performers as Al Lafrance, Jon Bennett, Gerard Harris and Cameryn Moore. We might have then gone on to talk about the supplementary events, such as slow-dance parties, air-guitar contests and drag races.
As it is, you’ll just have to grab a copy of the Fringe brochure or consult montrealfringe.ca. Or better still, get yourself along to the free Fringe-for-All festival launch Monday from 7 to 11 p.m. at Café Campus, 57 Prince Arthur St. E., where just about every company will be performing a two-minute teaser.
JUMPER’S WONDERFUL MUSEUM
My top Fringe show of last year was James McGee’s Look at This Guy, a dazzling display of character-driven comedy with a dash of Dostoyevskian darkness. The Fringe’s lottery process of giving all comers an equal chance of participating scuppered McGee’s plans this year — “I made it onto the waiting list, but I was so far down that I knew, well, this is not going to happen,” the performer and professional wrestler told me in a phone conversation. McGee had planned to put on his Bonhomme Caramel show, a terrifically funny and touching spoof of children’s television that he performed at the Solos fest earlier this year. Thankfully, there was a Plan B, and McGee is joining another accomplished Fringer, Mark Jumper, whose Analysis of Failure won the Spirit of the Fringe award last year. The pair are being joined by Montreal Improv director Marc Rowland to tell the story of Jumper’s kooky attempts to join the circus. Says McGee: “The thing that stands in his way is his own selfcriticism and self-loathing. I play the dark side of him that tells him it’s a bad idea.” (Studio Jean Valcourt du Conservatoire, 4750 Henri-Julien Ave.)
CAPTAIN AURORA II: A SUPERHERO MUSICAL SEQUEL
Anticipation is heating up like a chunk of kryptonite for the sequel to Kaleidoscope Theatre’s epic, all-singing, all-dancing ensemble piece, which first wowed at last year’s Fringe, then went on to an even slicker, more spectacular showing at Centaur’s Wildside. Will kick-ass heroine Captain Aurora save the Earth from evil ETs? Her superhero buddies assemble for what promises to be an irresistible reunion, given the combined talents of director/creator Trevor Barrette, musical arranger David Terriault and a 15-strong cast that includes Nadia Verrucci, Vlad Alexis and clowning expert Kendall Savage, whose Shirley Bassey-esque superpowers truly shivered the spine last time around. (Théâtre la Chapelle, 3700 St-Dominique St.)
HOWIE LE ROOKIE
Mark O’Rowe’s blistering brace of monologues set on the mean streets of Dublin gets the francophone treatment from local company T3. If you caught O’Rowe’s poetic, raw and darkly humorous Terminus at Centaur last year, you’ll know what to expect. (Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, 3900 St-Denis St.)
ATOMIC CITY
Jeff Gandell, the storyteller behind the Fringe hit The Balding, joins improv performer Mariana Vial for this wartime noir pastiche about forbidden romance and the race for nuclear supremacy. (Freestanding Room, 4324 St-Laurent Blvd., Suite 300)
GET LOST
U.K.-born but continent-hopping Jem Rolls is a living legend not just of the Montreal Fringe but of Fringe festivals everywhere, having clocked up more appearances on the circuit than anybody. Last year he won the first Montreal Fringe Lifetime Spirit of the Fringe award. His motormouthed, often curmudgeonly style swirls poetically and comically around personal hang-ups and bemused observations. This latest show chronicles his globetrotting “from dumps to paradise and back again,” which leaves him (spoiler alert) “the heroic survivor of his own stupidity.” (MAI, 3680 Jeanne-Mance St.)
LOVE AND PASTIES, MISS S.
Holly Gauthier-Frankel finally fulfils the promise of her legendary 2010 Fringe hit Miss Sugarpuss Must Die. In this fond farewell to her adorably daffy burlesque alter ego, die she does. Or at least that’s what the publicity tells us. But as Miss Sugarpuss is queen of the tease, maybe we’re being played for suckers here. Whatever happens as our heroine hides out in a Parisian bohemia, this should be a deliciously decadent entertainment from Gauthier-Frankel, who recently appeared in Centaur’s Last Night at the Gayety to wonderfully comic effect. (Théâtre Sainte-Catherine, 264 Ste-Catherine St. E.)
SEXPECTATIONS
Hopefully Maxine Segalowitz won’t take it amiss if I point out that she has one of the most remarkable faces in the business — spectacularly expressive, she can go from outrageously zany to otherworldly to deadly serious in a heartbeat. This range should serve her well in her first solo Fringe show, which promises to keep the audience guessing throughout. Is it an intimate evening in a gentleman’s club? Is it a piece of avant-garde dance? Is it a crazy cabaret? Is it pretentious tosh? Given her participation in last year’s terrifically knowing Is This Pretentious?, I think we can safely strike that last speculation. (Petit Campus, 57 Prince-Arthur St. E.)
CAISSE 606/CHECKOUT 606
Jon Lachlan Stewart directed three Fringe shows last year, two of which (The Colour of Life and Miss Katelyn’s Grade Threes Prepare for the Inevitable) won Frankie Awards. You might also have caught his sublimely funny James Joyce incarnation in Travesties at the Segal. This year he directs and choreographs this family-friendly physical comedy, which alternates in French and English performances, about two bored grocery cashiers escaping into a surreal world of dreams. A creation of new street performance company La Fille du Laitier, it’s being performed in their theatre truck parked at the corner of St-Laurent Blvd. and Rachel St.
THE NO BULL$#!% HISTORY OF INVENTION
Now pay attention, those at the back, and no snickering as educator Kyle Allatt adds to the sum of your knowledge about human ingenuity down the ages. Actually, snickering, tittering and sometimes guffawing will be mandatory, as Allatt and his trusty puppet companion, Tupper, won’t be stinting on the absurdities, nor passing up too many opportunities for rude jokes. Last year Allatt served up an enjoyable, visually nifty overview of Canadian history, sans bull$#!%, and this mock lecture on brilliant, sometimes mad inventors should also provide fertile ground. (Théâtre Sainte-Catherine, 264 Ste-Catherine St. E.)
WASTELAND
One of the most exhilarating shows last year was Sex T-Rex’s Sword-Play, a genuinely funny spoof on Game of Thrones, The Princess Bride and the era of classic Hollywood swashbucklers. It was like a crazy mishmash of Monty Python, SpongeBob and ’80s video games, and yet it sometimes managed to convince you that its cheap-as-chips staging was on a truly epic scale. This year they’re fast-forwarding to the post-apocalyptic age, so expect Mad Max references, makeshift weaponry and the height of hazmat fashion. (Théâtre Sainte-Catherine, 264 Ste-Catherine St. E.)