One of the greatest things about Fringe Festivals is that over the last 35 years they have been the source of thousands of brand new Canadian plays. As you may know, brand new Canadian plays are my favourite. The plays always come to their audience in various stages of development, which was consistent with my experience on Day 3 of Halifax Fringe.
Harbourtown by Mark Foster. The Waiting Room (6040 Almon).
Taboo Theatre presents Mark Foster’s new play Harbourtown. Set near to the Apocalypse, in the face of a Climate Change nightmare, we are introduced to five people all connected to a woman named Lorena, who has been dead for ten years. Her death, however, even in the midst of a crumbling civilization, has a powerful influence on the others that persists even a decade later.
Harbourtown is very well written. I was immediately drawn into the story, I was curious about how the characters were interconnected and I cared about their fate, and the fate of the city. The chaotic Fascism that the doomed city has descended into is created vividly, both in Foster’s writing and in the constant sense of unease and urgency that Lara Lewis creates with her direction. The actors bring their characters to life with nuance. Stand out performances include Amanda Mullally as Tom, someone who has been brokenhearted and left to do whatever it takes to survive in a city of despair, and Joel Diamond, who plays a bureaucrat careening towards a terrible reckoning.
I assumed the harbour town alluded to in the play’s title was Halifax, and wondered, if that was the case, if the play might be served by adding specific references to landmarks we know, which may further connect the audience with the immediacy of the story. I was also curious about the choice of props and costumes, some of which seemed to be closer to belonging in the past than the future, which made me curious whether the play was in fact set in the future, or whether these choices were alluding to another layer of the crumbling infrastructure.
In all, Harbourtown is a very strong Fringe offering from Taboo Theatre. It leaves the audience with lots to think about; it’s intelligent, entertaining, and just a little bit frightening.
Harbourtown plays at The Waiting Room (6040 Almon Street) at the following times:
Sunday September 2nd 2pm
Saturday September 8th 7:30pm & 11:30pm
Sunday September 9th 8pm.
Tickets. Follow Taboo Theatre on Social Media. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram: (@TabooTheatre).
Brandon Voyeur: A Summoning. By Brandon Lorimer. The Old Company Theatre (2202 Gottingen Street)
brandon lorimer
Obviously I wasn’t in the room when Daniel MacIvor was creating his very first solo performances, so I don’t know exactly what that would have been like, but Brandon Lorimer’s Brandon Voyeur: A Summoning conjured imaginings for me of a twenty-four year old MacIvor, if MacIvor were really into David Bowie.
The theme of Lorimer’s solo show is the question of where the line is drawn between a person and a persona, a creator and a creation, and does either matter if the art is not being consumed by the masses? Lorimer is an incredibly eloquent and poetic writer, his concepts are cerebral, intelligent and very creative, and his word choices are often succulent. As an actor, he brings 110% of himself, throwing himself into “the strange, the dark and the dreary.”
Brandon Voyeur: A Summoning is a strange offering, it’s less linear than MacIvor; not everyone will “get it,” for some it won’t be the type of theatre they enjoy, but I think those who get it will love it. It’s the type of show that a second viewing likely continues to illuminate the concept for an audience.
The play has a sharp and dramatic soundscape, it mixes robotic voice overs with music, and Lorimer sings original songs, which he characterizes as “music nobody listens to.” The theme of being an artist whose work doesn’t sell is a recurring theme. At time the balance between the programmed sound and Lorimer’s singing is a bit off and it’s hard to hear his lyrics.
Brandon Voyeur is a deeply unique piece of theatre from a young theatre artist who is continually finding new ways to tell stories, and using language in fun and creative ways.
Brandon Voyeur: A Summoning plays at the Old Company Theatre (the Old Company House, 2202 Gottingen Street) at the following times:
Monday September 3rd 7:45pm
Tuesday September 4th 10pm
Thursday September 6th 11:30pm
Saturday September 8th 3:30pm & 10:45pm
Sunday September 9th 2:45pm
Ah, hell! The Words of Dorothy Parker. Adapted by Dan Roy and Colleen MacIsaac.
heather beresford, schoel strang, christine daniels
I’m embarrassed to admit that I was not at all familiar with Dorothy Parker’s work before today, so I owe Dan Roy and Colleen MacIsaac a giant debt of gratitude because since seeing their hilarious play Ah, hell! The Words of Dorothy Parker, I’m now on the hunt for all of Parker’s books.
Roy and MacIsaac adapted this short play from a series of Parker’s poems, sharp quips, and three short stories, The Telephone Call, The Waltz, and The Garter, turning them into three monologues for three actors to portray Parker at a different stage of her life. Instead of having the monologues performed consecutively, each one is broken up into sharp, brisk scenes, so all three stories unfold together. This is done beautifully.
Christine Daniels plays Dorothy in The Garter, a woman resigned to the end of her life because of a broken garter. Heather Beresford plays Dot in The Telephone Call, a woman at her wit’s end waiting for the phone to ring, and Schoel Strang plays Dottie, a woman who hates her inability to express her true feelings to a certain man’s face. All three are magnificent, although Strang is particularly hilarious in the depth of her rage.
The play is directed by Ali House, which has the ladies sitting next to one another, yet obviously inhabiting her own unique place and time. Movement is limited, but the play doesn’t grow stagnant, and the props and costumes root us beautifully in a vibrant ambiance of the first half of the 20th Century in New York City.
Ah, hell! The Words of Dorothy Parker is the most perfect show I’ve seen so far this year at Halifax Fringe. I recommend it to everyone and now I’m eager to get my hands on the complete works of Dorothy Parker.
Ah, hell! The Words of Dorothy Parker plays at the Old Company Theatre (The Old Company House) at 2202 Gottingen Street at the following times:
Sunday September 2nd 1pm
Tuesday September 4th 9pm
Thursday September 6th 10:30pm
Tickets. Follow Lion’s Den Theatre on Facebook or Instagram (@LionsDenTheatre).
I Want to Come Home by Mariel Kathryn Hunter. Old Pool Hall (6050-70 Almon Street).
Mariel Kathryn Hunter
Mariel Kathryn Hunter writes a play for the Fundy Fringe Festival about leaving Saint John to go to Acting School in Vancouver, struggling to book any gigs there, and then returning to debut a new show at the Fundy Fringe Festival. Obviously, this play within a play structure can work well (just look at title of show), and Hunter has an endearing concept about going away to “make it big,” and then having to face the reality of coming home, and realizing that just because a city is small, doesn’t inherently make working there a failure.
I Want to Come Home would benefit a lot from some specificity. Hunter relies almost exclusively on tired cliches about acting, theatre school, and being an artist, when I think audiences would find the reality of what those things are really like far more interesting. Hunter spends much of the show taking us through a year of “Acting School,” but never tells us which acting school she attends. In my experience, a day in Dalhousie’s Theatre Department could not be more different than a day at Sheridan College, and I’m sure Hunter’s school, whether real or fictionalized, would be completely different, yet again— and it’s in those differences, in what makes that school, those students, those professors, those classes unique- where the interesting elements of the story emerge. Similarly, Hunter presents herself as small-town girl in a larger city, but again relies heavily on stereotypes, rather than grounding us in a real story about real, specific characters who are growing and changing and learning. There is one truly authentic moment in the play, where Mariel realizes something tragic about her mother and I wanted the whole play to be more of that.
Hunter has strong stage presence, and there is certainly a beating heart in the centre of this play. I’d like to see it continue to be developed and workshopped because I think the story Hunter is telling warrants a more three dimensional world.
I Want to Come Home by Mariel Kathryn Hunter. Old Pool Hall (6050-70 Almon Street) at the following times:
Sunday September 2nd 8pm
Tuesday September 4th 7:30pm
Thursday September 6th 8:30pm
Saturday September 8th 1:30pm
Sunday September 9th 3:30pm
Bubble Trans Pride and Holding Hands With the Awkward. Hanlon McGregor & Syrus Marcus Ware and Hanlon McGregor and Mihaly Szabados.
Bubble Trans Pride gets a workshopped production at Halifax Fringe. I love the story of this play so much. It is an important story, it has a timely and complex message, and it launches off a lot of conversations that have been happening since Black Lives Matter held their protest during Toronto Pride in 2017. The play hinges on a new relationship between Bob and Tyler. Their relationship quickly goes South when Tyler realizes that Bob has been using his position at Smash Bar (a space traditionally designated for gay men only) to violently keep his friend Jill (a trans woman) out. As Bob and Tyler fight about trans rights, Tyler (who is black) realizes that Bob also has some racist concepts about how the world works, how Pride should function, and what it means to be a gay Canadian. The story here is clear, the politics, and the message the play wants to send is also very clear.
The challenge with the current version of Bubble Trans Pride is twofold. Firstly, the characters are largely the mouthpieces for their politics, with little else about them firmly established. I’d like to see, for example, what made Bob and Tyler really fall in love with one another. What is their relationship like before they begin to have in-depth conversations about ideology? At the moment Bob is extremely overt in being a transphobic, racist, arrogant, moronic, aggressive asshole. While these people do exist, of course, it doesn’t seem plausible that Tyler would have ever had any reason to answer this guy, let alone fall in love with him. Also, it’s difficult for audience members to connect or relate to Bob because his behaviour is so extreme. Transphobia and Racism are both extremely prevalent in our society in more nuanced ways, in ways that partners and friends often overlook and explain away, and I think it’s in dramatizing these mico-aggressions that people are able to recognize behaviour that they themselves and others they know are guilty of.
There are also a lot of very interesting and important aspects of the plot that are alluded to or periphery to the main focus of the play, which I think deserve to have a more central role in the action. There’s a horrifying moment in the play when Tyler’s daughter calls him concerned about something she saw on television- I want to see that scene with the police officers play out onstage. Jill is the most interesting character, and we only ever see her on video chat, I want Jill in the room with me. I think McGregor would benefit from writing more of the scenes with the action unfolding, rather than simply having the characters explain to someone else what happened. We’re far more invested when we see it, and the subject matter of this play deserves to have us as invested as possible. Similarly, in Holding Hands With the Awkward, McGregor’s short film, there are so many moments that Dan describes that I would much rather see dramatized.
I hope the creative team continue to workshop this piece. It has so much potential and it is a story that is needed in the Canadian theatre. I look forward to seeing it again in a future incarnation.
Bubble Trans Pride and Holding Hands With the Awkward. Hanlon McGregor & Syrus Marcus Ware and Hanlon McGregor and Mihaly Szabados at The Old Company Theatre, 2202 Gottingen St at the following times:
Sunday September 2nd 11:45am
Monday September 3rd 4:45pm
Tuesday September 4th 7:40pm
Thursday September 6th 9:10pm
Saturday September 8th 8pm
It was a busy and fulfilling Saturday at Halifax Fringe. I’m looking forward to doing it all over again tomorrow!
Halifax Fringe runs from August 30 to September 9th, 2018. For more information and to purchase tickets please visit http://halifaxfringe.ca or stop by The Bus Stop Theatre in person at 2203 Gottingen Street. The Bus Stop is the Festival Hub and the Main Box Office. You can also pick up a Fringe Guide there.
You can follow Halifax Fringe on Social Media: Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@HalifaxFringe)
Hope to see you at Halifax Fringe!
