2010 Victoria Fringe Program Delights and Offends: Yay for Alternative Theatre!

SCRIMP: $11 ADULT TICKET TO MOST FRINGE SHOWS «OR» SPLURGE: $20 FOR LIVE PROFESSIONAL BODYPAINTING

Have you downloaded a copy of the Victoria Fringe Festival program yet? (Get one here.) Besides being your essential guide to more than 60 theatre events running during Fringe week (August 26 to Sept. 5, 2010), the program itself is a showcase of creative ingenuity.

Start with the titles of shows. Theatrical artists are marketing hard for your fringe dollars with such catchy titles as “Gonads & Gametes,” “The Genghis Khan Guide to Etiquette,” and— surely the prize winner for most-imaginatively-offensive-fringe-title-of-the-year—”Fucking Stephen Harper: How I Sexually Assaulted the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada and Saved Democracy.” Hey, it makes me want to see it!

I love trolling through the annual program to read the précis of each show and create my initial “Must See List.” I adapt that list, of course, based on reviews published throughout the festival. Be sure to bookmark The Craig website in your Internet browser. Victoria theatre-goers use this free forum to post critiques of local Fringe shows they loved and hated. It’s a great place to find out which shows are emerging as hits of the festival.

Until those early reviews come out, here are the shows that first caught my attention:

• LUCKY 9

Fringe writer, director, and performer T.J. Dawe is such a sure bet at the Fringe, the mere mention of his name virtually guarantees sell-out performances. (Proof? Opportunistic promoters of the “The Money Fast” claim in their program write-up that their 75-minute comedy  is “created from an idea Wes Borg and T.J. Dawe talked about.”) Dawe’s autobiographical monologues are equally comical and insightful, and unfailingly entertaining. This one promises “stories about his family, psychology, and HBO’s The Wire“—a television series Honey and I followed like religious worshippers.

• RANT DEMON

Montrealler Kier Cutler premiered his 55-minute comedy at the Montreal Fringe Festival to rave reviews. The Toronto Sun calls Cutler “A marvel to watch.” This looks like a promising piece of stand-up, and with T.J. Dawe’s hand in the direction, it’s a probable hit.

• CANADIAN BODYPAINTING CHAMPIONSHIPS. One night only, Saturday, Sept. 4: www.bodypaintcanada.com

While admission to this partial Fringe fundraiser ($20) is nearly twice the price of most theatre shows—and it is decidedly more spectacle than theatre—it’s certainly edgy alternative entertainment and something we don’t see often in our capital city. I’m sad that I’ll be out of town for this one.

• THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI

If we go to the Fringe Festival to see surprising, strange, truly offbeat theatre, then this one really fills the bill. Presented as “German Expressionist Horror” with adult themes and violence, this 60-minute show about a mad doctor terrorizing a small town seems unlikely to induce yawns. “The 1920s classic is brought to life in phantasmagoric stage pictures entwined in shadow play and visceral theatrics.”

• WANDERLUST

This 70-minute theatrical monologue by New Yorker Martin Dockery draws on the writer/actor’s search for meaning on a solo trip to Africa. A comic true story. Named “best of the fest” in Orlando, Fresno, Toronto, and New York.

• A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MISS HICCUP

Japanese clowning. Need I say more? Where else but at the Fringe can you see a Tokyo comedian perform “brilliant physical theatre, dance, absurd music and song.” More at Infinity Live Productions.

• ROUTE 66: A MUSICAL QUEST FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM

Victoria’s Colin Godbout presents a “Musical Travelogue” that “winds from sweet home Chicago beyond Pat Metheny’s Missouri sky to Bruce Springsteens’ ode to migrant Okies, Ottmar Lieberts New Mexican nuevo flamenco, and a California surfari.” The Winnipeg Free Press calls Godbout “a guitar virtuso.”

• THE HUMAN BODY PROJECT

Mother/artist/educator Tasha Diamant of Lethbridge, Alberta, appears naked and unscripted in this 90-minute “Experiential Open Forum.” Audience participation required for this exploration of “vulnerability, physicality, fragility, mortality.” More at humanbodyproject.com

• FUCKING STEPHEN HARPER . . .

As noted above. This one is comically advertised as “Not suitable for members of the Conservative Party of Canada.” Writer/performer Rob Salerno is being compared to my Canadian comic hero Rick Mercer for his performance. “Brilliant and hilarious” according to The Globe and Mail and National Post. More at  www.10footpole.ca.

While I prefer the eco-friendly and keyword-searchable PDF version of the Victoria Fringe Festival program, hard copies are available, while supplies last, at Intrepid Theatre and sponsor venues around town.

• Intrepid Theatre / Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival (Fringe Hotline: 250-590-6291; www.victoriafringe.com, www.intrepidtheatre.com), #2 – 1609 Blanshard (at Fisgard), Victoria, BC. Open Monday to Friday, 10-5.

Related Post: Best Bargains of the 2010 Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival

Related Post: How to Choose the Very Best Shows of the Victoria Fringe Festival. Sources for helpful online reviews.