A very Merry Fringe-mas to you all! I’m so excited to be reviewing the Toronto Fringe Festival once again this year, and sharing all of my thoughts with you! I started off my Fringe with an easy two-show day, but they were both shows which, to me, epitomize the Fringe experience.

My Own Private Shakespeare – Hay & Associates Inc.

Imagine getting one of the worst phone calls of your life…and you’re casually sitting on the toilet. That’s what happened to Justin Hay, a Shakespearean actor whose life seems to totally fall apart within a single month in 2014. He details this harrowing time of his life, and how he managed to survive it all, in his solo show My Own Private Shakespeare, directed by Mona Zaidi. By taking his own deeply personal stories and relating them to the characters of the Bard, My Own Private Shakespeare not only shows the staying power of Shakespeare’s characters, but how those stories can manifest in their own ways all around us.

With just a single, throne-like chair on stage, set atop an ornate carpet, all of the audience’s attention is on Hay as he regales us with the heartbreaking events of his life. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!” I had thought of this quote from Hamlet before Hay even uttered it; his life as he knew it disappeared in a matter of weeks, and it breaks your heart to hear him recount the events. Any one of these things happening to someone would irrevocably change their life, but divorce, illness, and death all in a month? That’s an unbearable weight.

Yet we learn that it’s been Shakespeare – his beautiful words and his characters – which has gotten Hay through these tough times throughout his life, even in childhood. Sometimes feeling like Lear, others like The Thane, Hay has experienced it all. My Own Private Shakespeare intricately weaves in passages from Shakespeare’s cannon with Hay’s own stories, and he moves between the two worlds seamlessly. For those who love the Bard, or just love a good story, My Own Private Shakespeare reminds us of our resilience as well as our shared humanity.

https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/my-own-private-shakespeare

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Every Fringe Show You’ve Ever Seen All At Once – Bradnen Kane Production Company

Are you interested in Fringe, but don’t know where to start? Or are you a seasoned Fringer looking for something lighthearted and silly? Then Every Fringe Show You’ve Ever Seen All At Once is the show for you. This hilarious comedy show is a mix of sketch, improv, scripted comedy and more, all blended into the ultimate Fringe show. Starring a troupe of talented comedians, you won’t want to miss Every Fringe Show You’ve Ever Seen All At Once.

It is impossible to summarize the plot of Every Fringe Show You’ve Ever Seen All At Once, but that’s the best part about it. It is everything and nothing, all at the same time. Wildly self-aware, Every Fringe Show You’ve Ever Seen All At Once plays on common themes found in Fringe shows, while also going to far as to make fun of conventions like being asked to Tip the Fringe at every single show you see. Not to mention, they expertly work in call backs to previous sketches as the play goes on; it’s comedy at its best. Whether this is your first Fringe and you’re discovering this unique environment, or if this isn’t your first rodeo, there’s a joke for everyone in this laugh-a-minute performance.

Matt McCready, Meredith Mullen, Edward Choi, Talia Rockland, Colin Sharpe and Tyra Banda all give gut-busting performances throughout the play. Playing everything from Gollum to 100 year old men to a giant phallus, this cast gives truly gives it their all. Every Fringe Show You’ve Ever Seen All At Once is a fitting tribute to everyone’s favourite part of the theatre season, and exemplifies the wacky wildness that is the Fringe.

https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/every-fringe-show-youve-ever-seen-all-at-once

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