Smells like Fringe spirit
Jennifer Ball and Laura Moses
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Pearlman : can't live without my radio
photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser
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Local troupes rock Ottawa at this year's premier indie arts fest
For two frantic mid-June weeks, dramatic types of all stripes descend upon the Capital to peddle stories, ideas, laughter and tears in exchange for a few bucks.Please people, take the Nike challenge at this time and just do it: Go out and support them. Many have been rehearsing for eons, will perform on improvised stages (often just vacated by a bevy of confetti-throwing clowns), they will dress and make themselves up in spaces the size of broom closets just to get on stage before a gallery of short attention spans who might as well be whistling Kurt Cobain's refrain: "Here we are now, entertain us!"
COME ON-A MY HOUSE!
If when you hear the name Clooney your first thoughts are of George you were probably born 30 years after the era that inspired Emily Pearlman's Fringe show Radio Collar.
His aunt Rosemary was a popular singer, a big name especially in the 1950s and she, along with Doris Day, are worshipped by Louisa, the crinoline-clad heroine of the show, whom Pearlman also plays.
"Louisa loves the idea of these sweeping dames who are poised and so classy," Pearlman says. "She is interested in things that are proper and she feels that whatever is happening in society now is not. That the way to get people to recognize the wonder of modesty and family values is through this music."
Louisa's charm (and also her flaw) is her idealization of the past; how it applies to her personally as well as nationally. "She is saying, 'I am going to create this lifestyle for myself that is
totally incongruous with modern day society.' But ultimately it causes her a lot of difficulty in connecting with other people," Pearlman says.When we meet her she is 24, recently nudged out of the nest by her parents and fired from a soul-destroying retail job. Then she discovers that Slow-jive 990, the radio station that is her life-in whose company she feels connected, centred and safe-is having a play-list change because "nobody wants to listen to the oldies anymore."
She must act fast. She takes to the streets of downtown Toronto with placards and implores people to understand the importance of the oldies and the values they impart.
Yet this anachronistic young dame-wannabe has something to learn herself: that by struggling to save the past she is losing sight of the present.
"What I am looking for mostly when I see theatre are tiny truths that people can apply to their own lives," Pearlman says. "Maybe (Louisa's) mission does have some weight to it. Maybe we should slow down just a little bit."
Advice unheeded by Pearlman herself, who is busier on the Fringes than ever. In addition to Radio Collar, which she wrote after her 2004 Fringe show Swimming Lessons with Paisley Kite won awards in both the Venue Favourite category and Spirit of the Fringe, she has also taken a role in Black Sheep Theatre's production of John Patrick Shanley's The Big Funk.
Radio Collar plays at Arts Court Library, 2 Daly Avenue, on June 19 at 8:30 p.m., June 21 at 11 p.m., June 22 at 5:30 p.m., June 25 at 1 p.m., June 25 at 5 p.m. and June 26 at 8 p.m.
The Big Funk plays at Arts Court Theatre June 19 at 1: 30 p.m., June 20 at 5:30 p.m., June 22 at 7 p.m., June 23 at 11 p.m., June 24 at 4 p.m. and June 25 at 9 p.m.
HAS LEGS, WILL TRAVEL
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| Sage-Passant : why so glum, chum? |
For every Fringe show produced by high school students pumped up over the chance to be on stage at the Arts Court, there is an international act actually managing to eke out a living while touring the world with their show.Mad dogs and Englishmen In Tales From Another England, Screwed and Clued's Justin Sage-Passant wonders what is left to make Great Britain great now that David Beckham lives in Spain, Johnny Rotten presents wildlife documentaries on telly and Camilla Parker Bowles has been made an honest woman? Arts Court Theatre, June 19 at 9 p.m., June 20 at 7:30 p.m., June 21 at 5:30 p.m., June 23 at 9:30 p.m., June 24 at 11:30 p.m. and June 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Boys to men The Pajama men-Mark Chavez and Shenoah Allen formerly known as the sketch duo Sabotage-have been likened in the literature to Muppets on hallucinogens. In their show Stop Not Going, the Albuquerque, New Mexico duo aptly point out little absurdities in life. They mimic a little girl with superpowers, play Rock, Paper, Scissors and ponder the inanity of two cowboys comparing tattoos. Arts Court Library, June 20 at 9:30 p.m., June 21 at 7 p.m., June 23 at 5:30 p.m., June 24 at 11 p.m., June 25 at 6:30 p.m. and June 26 at 1 p.m.
The sensitive guy Taking top honours at the Melbourne Fringe Festival-the same Antipodean city which is home to the show's creators, Suitcase Royale-Felix Listens to the World has consistency of vision in its storytelling. Felix journeys all around the world to find his sweetheart, who has sailed away from him in a teacup! Studio Leonard-Beaulne, 135 Seraphin-Marion Street on the University of Ottawa Campus, June 17 at 8:30 p.m., June 18 at 7 p.m., June 19 at 3 p.m., June 22 at 9 p.m., June 23 at 5:30 p.m. and June 25 at 8 p.m.
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
Fringe performers must be the most thick-skinned and/or complex-ridden bunch of people you could hope to meet. Who else would chance suffering the horror of a first-night audience comprising one lone figure (the director's mom)? But some performers just have good luck and good shows that put bums on seats and come back next year-like these.
Oy veigh! Tania Levy is one quarter of the theatre troupe Gruppo Rubato who trotted out last year's pygM@Ilion. On the throne in The Jewish Princess Diaries is a cross between Bridget Jones and Mia Thermopolis (of The Princess Diaries), who has not yet met that nice Jewish boy, despite Herculean efforts by Mummy and Bubbie. Saw Gallery, June 18 at 2 p.m., June 19 at 3:30 p.m., June 20 at 7 p.m., June 21 at 8:30 p.m., June 22 at 7 p.m. and June 23 at midnight.
Sitting in a tin can From Big Smoke Productions, the creators of The Reefer Man which nabbed the 2004 Pick of the Fringe awards in Edmonton, Saskatoon and Vancouver, Rocket Man invites you to ride a rocket into the universe and find yourself again. Being stoned isn't mandatory. Studio Leonard-Beaulne, June 20 at 5:30 p.m., June 21 at 7 p.m., June 22 at 9:30 p.m., June 24 at 11 p.m., June 25 at 6:30 p.m. and June 26 at 11:30 a.m.
NO INTRODUCTIONS NECESSARY
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| Kendal : a tippy treat |
Twisted sisters The show's collaborative director Karen Hines, who many of us were more than smitten with after she came to town with Citizen Pochsy (Head Movements of a Long-Haired Girl), calls Three Sisters: A Black Opera in Three Acts, "a little Chekhovian freak show on the prairie." But even Chekhov's long-suffering characters could not better execute backwoods sensibilities-and with such cabaret flair to boot-as do these thar Cuddy sisters from the prairies. Academic Hall, 135 Séraphin-Marion at the University of Ottawa, June 17 at 11 p.m., June 18 at 1:30 p.m., June 19 at 7:30 p.m., June 21 at 5:30 p.m., June 24 at 9:30 p.m. and June 25 at 5:30 p.m.
Hold the olives If awards were handed out for best Fringe press release, in addition to Venue Favourite and Spirit of the Fringe, Colette Kendal would win hands down for her efforts in promoting Tippi Seagram's Happy Hour. A pair of black thong panties once removed reveals...well... we'll admit we weren't certain so we referred to the official Fringe website to learn that her show is one part B. Davis, one part M. Monroe with a voluminous dollop of R. Barr, strained into rose-coloured glasses. Pretty neat. Arts Court Library, June 21 at 9:30 p.m., June 22 at 9:30 p.m., June 23 at 7 p.m., June 24 at 5:30 p.m., June 25 at 9:30 p.m. and June 26 at 6:30 p.m. (Jennifer Ball)
XXXKNOW WHEN TO WALK AWAY
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| Matthews (left) and Quesnel : love's a gamble |
Natalie Joy Quesnel and her fiancé Stewart Matthews both urge me to "pick a card" from a deck of playing cards to better demonstrate the concept of 52 Pick-up, a 60-minute play they're rehearsing for the Fringe Festival. I think I pick the ace of spades, but my glance is quick before they pluck it from my hands and nod to each other.Jumping up from their interview positions behind a desk at a University of Ottawa studio space they snap into performance mode and a short scene that starts with Quesnel pleading, "We need to talk ... when can we talk?" and ends with Matthews screaming "I don't know!"
The whole high-drama moment unfolds in less than a minute, and it's all based on that randomly chosen card I picked. It wasn't exactly the trick I expected.
"Emotionally we have to turn on a dime in a second because you never know what card you're going to get," explains Quesnel.
This short scene is just one of, yes, 52 that trace a relationship from first meeting, through all the ups and downs of dating, sex, and fights until two years after the break-up.
Shuffled and thrown up in the air to mark the start of the play, each different card represents an individual scene. The Queens are "Her" monologues, Kings are "His" and the sixes are "mostly about sex."
The cards are picked up one at a time so that the scene order is so random you'd probably have "better odds of winning the Loto 6/49 jackpot than of seeing the show in the same order twice," according to real life ex's T. J. Dawe and Rita Bonzi of Toronto who conceived the play and co-wrote it after their own break-up. In 2000, 52-Pick-up took home the Chapters Best Text award at the Montreal Fringe Festival.
"It's like when a relationship has passed and a couple years have gone by and you start thinking about it again-you never think about it in chronological order-some memory will pop into your head of some warm, fuzzy, lovely thing and then the next minute you'll remember that thing that he said that made you want to kill him," says Quesnel.
Quesnel and Matthews met at the 2003 Fringe Festival when they tried to pass each other flyers to the respective shows they were involved in. Less than three months later there was a marriage proposal.
Some indication that Quesnel and Matthews' relationship is working is their joint production company, Enigma productions in Ottawa, which they started-up after Matthews made the decision to hop across the pond from Britain to Canada last year.
"A lot of production companies start off for various reasons and I suppose ours is quite a selfish reason: We wanted to work together," says Quesnel.
52 Pick-up at the Ottawa Fringe Festival, Venue 9, Studio Leonard-Beaulne, 135 Seraphin-Marion, University of Ottawa. June 19 at 7 p.m., June 20 at 9:30 p.m., June 21 at 11 p.m., June 22 at 5:30 p.m., June 24 at 7 p.m. and June 25 at 5 p.m.
CORPORATE VISION
Hidden in This Picture has a lot of things to say about Hollywood and the film industry and how art can get overridden by commercialism, says director David Whiteley. Its two main characters are a writer and a director, and throughout the performance the audience gets a good idea about how little power these creative people have in shaping their production.
"You would think they ought to be important but they are very low on the totem pole because the producers have overrun any artistic sense with something that will sell as opposed to an author's vision," says Whiteley.
The satirical elements of Hidden in This Picture won't be lost on Fringe Fest audiences because "by definition [the Fringe audience] is interested in artists doing their own work, rather than prettied up packages that are answerable to industrial powers."
Hidden in this Picture, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Whiteley, plays at Academic Hall, University of Ottawa, 133 Seraphin-Marion Street. June 17 at 9:30 p.m., June 18 at 3:30 p.m., June 20 at 11 p.m., June 23 at 10 p.m., June 25 at 11 p.m. and June 26 at 5:30 p.m. (Laura Moses)
OTTAWA FRINGE FEST
JUNE 16 TO 26
VARIOUS VENUES
ALL TICKETS $8
WWW.OTTAWAFRINGE.COM
Last night I went to see "Her Body; War Body" at the Arts Court theatre. As a dance fan, I expected to see something fluffy, but when the lights came up, something distinctly different was presented. For some people, this might seem to be a strictly feminist reaction to war in general, but having had a couple of aunts who served in WW II, and having been in the military environment myself, everything that was shown was accurate... the good, and the bad. This 45 minute presentation would also provide an education on world history as well; not only dwelling on the Canadian experience, but also the junta in Chile.
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Brian Downing
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{9 votes}
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These plays run the gamut, and they are all real people not phony Hollywood types. With an array like this anyone in Ottawa would be hard-pressed not to take in at least one play. It used to be that fringe festivals sold badges and then the admission was not a lot tacked on to that. I'm just aching to get inside that tent beside the Ottawa Art Gallery. Every time I walk by it seems that there is something else on my plate. Time to slow down and take in some drama...
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Skeleton James
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{22 votes}
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Just finished seeing SCHEHERAZADE THEATRE's performance of "Stale Pizza, 4am and No Conclusion" (I think that's the title). It was really funny and the girls were all great. I don't know when they're on again but I really liked them. Keep the arts alive in Ottawa!
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a k
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{20 votes}
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| I certainly plan on attending... |
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I couldn't help myself, but write a good comment regarding the Fringe festival's programming. I certainly plan on attending more than one of these shows, but not as many as I used to in the past years, when the whole thing was free. But, I will definitely like to see 52 Pick-up, sounds like it's going to be a quite interesting discovery.
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Valerie Augier
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{2 votes}
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Well now that we've seen one scene of the play, I'm hooked to see the rest.
This play looks amazing. It also looks more geared to the minds that don't like a structured play, which hopefully is enough people out there to make this play worth while.
I've personally never seen this type of play done before, and am overly intrigued by how it's going to unfold.
Best of luck to the rest of the fringeiest of spectators and performers out there.
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Jeremy King
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{7 votes}
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Go see A Plot Against Me. i think their playing the arts court on Sunday, June 19th at 10pm (confirm with event listings). Be sure to see Scarecrows their next year. Remember music is much a part of the arts as any other of these events.
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Ger Madden
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{6 votes}
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