Review: Zack Adams; Love Songs For Future Girl (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by Janis Kirshner

Promising. I walked in to the groove of Bob Dylan pre-show music. A wonderful mix of pre-show music in fact, to get you in the mood. That, unfortunately, might have been some of the best music in the show. Zack Adams, an actor/comedian from Western Australia, is a professional performer with a degree. I just wanted the show to be funnier or deeper or goofier or more of any other adjective besides mediocre.

Review: Small Talk (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by David King

Onstage, there's no such thing as small talk. Which is why when NYC's Talk Productions gives us five completely unrelated short scenes (call them one acts if you will), we immediately get excited about finding out what's really going on behind the water cooler.

Writer Eric Fallen, who has already worked with director Eric Michael Gillett on Fallen's plays THE MONSTER and PERFECT WEATHER at the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, has already had SMALL TALK published by Samuel French this past winter, and it's his first collection of published short plays. Morphing locations from park benches and libraries to porn sets and family homes, SMALL TALK's scenes all explore that suspicious enemy called 'small talk', and what may or may not be lurking behind it. Using only folding chairs and a few props to make transitions, Gillet's chosen the KISS system (that's "keep it simple, stupid") to focus on Fallen's text and the performances of foursome Henry Farnam, Christopher Halladay, Carter Jackson and Sarah Kate Jackson, all

well cast for these roles.

Review: How to Become JAYEE (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by  Estelle Rosen

I have very fond memories of the free spirited 60s. Included with those memories, the evil J.Edgar Hoover. How to become JAYEE presents itself as a film in process about Hoover. Unfortunately, what we got was a weak fleeting glimpse that didn’'t touch on the manipulative, lying, corrupt nature of Hoover. Zack Amzallag as Leo, an actor hoping for an Oscar for his portrayal of Hoover, gives us a one dimensional character. We’'re dealing with a multi-layered person. Amzallag was way too reasoned, way too nice, way too soft spoken, in his portrayal of Hoover. Where was the macho Hoover. Where was the evil Hoover. The flat one tone portrayal represented a good idea that went nowhere.

Review: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by Jessica Wei

Crushing. This is the only word to describe “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea”. In an empty bar in the Bronx, Danny and Roberta meet and immediately begin to share their own respectively messed up pasts. This play is dark, angry, violent, tender as a raw scrape, yet perforated with optimism. As Roberta and Danny's night unravels, moving from the bar and into the bedroom, the audience is intimately introduced to these two deeply psychotic characters, who are so down on their luck they can lick the salty gravel of rock bottom, just waiting to be saved. So crushing one can't even take their eyes off the stage. Daniella Forjè, as Roberta, is a magnet on stage. She's charming, heartbreaking, and she's got a flawless New Yawker accent. Danny, played by Jonathan Shatzsky, is brooding and a little too angry, but keeps up well. 

Review: A Different Woman (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

You will not see many performances, in or out of a Fringe, as assured and hypnotizing as Veronica Russell's in this true story of the childhood of Gertrude Beasley in the American West in the 18th and 19th centuries. You have her, in period costume, a chair and a basket and that, ladies and gentlemen, is it as far as scenography is concerned. For 85 minutes she tells her story of a childhood which, she tells us, "will curl your hair" and which puts the romanticized Wild West of Louis L'Amour to shame. It is a tale of rape, incest (forced and not), hilariously sordid stories of barnyard hijinks and of a mother who bore 13 children and a husband whom she despised.

Review: Think Outside/BOX (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by Gaëtan L. Charlebois
(This show is listed variously as Think Outside and/or BOX)


I guess you might call the collective creation from Burnaby In The Flesh - Think Outside - a piece of children's theatre for adults...or at least, about adults. Amy works in a cubicle; she is up for a major promotion and must do a "project" to earn it. She lets her imagination loose, the imaginings take form as a cast of energetic, young sprites who go back and forth from inspiring her to controlling her.

Robin (The Only Bar) Henderson's Fringe Blog (New Feature)

CharPo is very proud to be publishing Robin Henderson's Fringe Blog. Henderson is director/choreographer of The Only Bar, to which CharPo gave a 5/5 charpie rating. (See our review here.) Photos are provided by Ms Henderson.

FRIDAY, JUNE 10th, 2011

Hey Montreal Fringe,

So last night marked the opening of “The Only Bar” at the historic tavern Verres Sterilises and phew! what a night it was!!  Forget that there was media there, my nerves were twisted like a pretzel knowing that Alain (our script/lyrics writer extraordinaire) and Mark (of Louch brothers fame and our set/lighting designer) would be seeing the show in its entirety for the first time.  I really wanted to make these boys happy as “The Only Bar” marks the first collaboration of Robin Henderson Productions with Le Nouveau International and the first time Alain has let someone else direct his script.  So whatevs, no pressure or anything. 

CharPo's Real Theatre! (New feature)

Photo modified with permission: Adopt This info

(This cartoon does not reflect the content of the actual show but is instead inspired merely by this photograph.)

The Friday Five, Fringe Edition, June 10, 2011

A Fringe Fool's Survivor's Guide
Get ready - it's a marathon, not a sprint
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois and Estelle Rosen


We have been to a lot of Fringes, a lot of Fringe shows and seen or lived damn near everything. So let us share. Here are five tips about preparing for and doing the Fringe.


Before you even leave the house
- On the Internet Google Maps and Méteo Média are you best friends. The Maps will tell you what is around each venue: cafés (with washrooms), bars, restos. Well, the weather is something you simply need to be aware of as join queues, leave theatres, dash off to the next show or simply aim at sitting at the Beer Tent imbibing.

Review: El Desarollo de la civiliacion venidera (FTA, 2011)

(Photo credit: Sergio Chiossone)

BARE BONES DOLL’S HOUSE WORTH THE WAIT

Beg, steal and bribe whoever you need to. Just go see this show.

joel fishbane

Not even a volcano can keep a good theatre company down. After having their first performance delayed due to the recent volcanic eruption in Chile, the artists behind El Desarrollo de la civiliacion venidera (The Development of the Coming Civilization) finally made their appearance at the FTA Thursday night – and God, was it worth the wait. A stark and bare bones update / adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the ensemble directed by Daniel Veronese has produced the sort of theatre you should ignore the Fringe to see.