And just like that, another year of reviewing the Fringe comes to a close. It’s been a fabulous ten days of theatre, friends, connection, and community. I’d like to thank the Toronto Fringe Festival for having me back to review again this year, it’s always such a marathon but one which leaves me feeling fuller than when I started.
Catching a Cheese Pervert: A Priscilla Patton Mystery – 3LG Productions
No no, you read the title right, it says “Catching a Cheese Pervert”. What is a cheese pervert you might rightly wonder? You’ll just have to check out Kayla Kurin’s Catching a Cheese Pervert: A Priscilla Patton Mystery at this year’s Fringe. With more dairy puns than you thought possible and a mystery for the ages, you won’t want to miss Catching a Cheese Pervert.
Priscilla has moved back home to her family farm just in time to help organize the year’s biggest event: The Butterball. News breaks of a man flashing the women in town with cheese placed on his…baguette. He’s now threatening to ruin the Butterball if Priscilla doesn’t stop investigating him! Will she be able to uncover the cheese pervert in time? And can she reclaim her Butterball crown at the same time?
Catching a Cheese Pervert: A Priscilla Patton Mystery is everything you love about a Fringe show: it’s fun, silly, and yet teaches you a little bit of something too. I didn’t actually know how the diary industry in Canada worked, just that butter’s suddenly expensive, so it was really interesting to learn how that all works. And I love that the couch this messaging and understanding in the most unserious of packages.
Arleigh Curran and Jose Andres Bordas bring this hilarious comedy to life. Curran is perfectly precocious as Priscilla, and she’s a leading character you can truly cheer for! Bordas is wild as he switches between characters, using puppets and various hats to easily switch from one character to the next. The two of them have great chemistry and work so well as a team!
I’m so glad I got to catch Catching a Cheese Pervert: A Priscilla Patton Mystery; this is one where the title gets you in the door, but you stay for the fun!
https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/catching-cheese-pervert-priscilla-patton-mystery
The Everlasting Friendship of Billy and Bink – Little Lamb Theatre
Billy and Bink aren’t just brothers (well, Billy was adopted) but they’re also the best of friends. They do everything together: wear the same clothes, go to the same school, play in the same park, they even like the same bagels from Pim Porton’s. But when Billy has a surprise for Bink, things get kinda awkward between them. Can they fix it before bedtime? The Everlasting Friendship of Billy and Bink, written by Will Parry and directed by Andrew Lamb, talks about brotherhood, friendship, and most importantly: the importance of communication.
I was fortunate enough to get to bring my sister-in-law and nephew to see the show. My nephew is now a big brother, and I think getting to see a story about another set of brothers, and what they go through together, was a lot of fun for him. There’s lots of interacting with the audience and we even get to do a sing along!
Will Parry is great with his audience, welcoming everyone into the world of Billy and Bink and making sure that everyone’s having fun. I also love that there’s a Q&A included at the end of the show; it’s always fun hearing the questions that the youngest theatre-goers have for a performer.
I’m hoping to make taking my nephew to a Kid’s Fringe show a yearly event now that he’s old enough, and he seems pretty hip on the idea too! It helps when there’s fun, interactive, and thoughtful shows like The Everlasting Friendship of Billy and Bink to take him to!
https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/everlasting-friendship-billy-bink
Photo by Tifereth
Love, Shakespeare, and Rope – Of a Feather
If you think you know Shakespeare’s Sonnets, think again. Love, Shakespeare, and Rope is a Shibari performance directed by Tifereth & BH.Rope being performed at Birdhaus as part of the Fringe’s Unconventional Venues category. Unconventional definitely describes this show, in the absolutely best possible way. Sensuous and scintillating, marvellous and magical, Love, Shakespeare and Rope is one of the most artful, and sexy, things I’ve seen on stage in a long time.
The best way I can describe Love, Shakespeare and Rope is that it’s like watching a magic show: you know that they know exactly what they’re doing, and yet as they continue to tie and untie knot after knot, transfiguring the other person into various shapes and forms, you realize that you have no clue how it’s all happened.
Tifereth & Amanda Maccagnan, BH.Rope & Stitch, Miranda Tempest & Caleb Ford, KJ & Lily, and Sabá & Vida, give dynamic performances in this show. I think my favourites of the night were Sabá and Vida, because they have a passion and intimacy which is palpable from the audience, and Tifereth and Amanda Maccagnan. For the majority of the pieces, the performers themselves are quiet, save for the breathwork they use to indicate that they’re going to do something, with the sonnets being played over the sound speakers. Some of them made better use of multiple sonnets, which I think fit the format very well. But the final piece, with Tifereth and Amanda, the two of them shared the sonnet, echoing the line spoken by the other performer. In doing so, they tell us a whole story as tones change and the power dynamic ultimately reverses, creating a dramatic ending to the work.
In the final moments, as Caleb Ford (dressed as Shakespeare) is being pulled back and forth by the audience, you suddenly feel the connections being made to the work, to each other, and with the performers all at once. If you can get a rush ticket for Love, Shakespeare and Rope, you definitely should do it!
https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/love-shakespeare-and-rope
Cover Photos: Photo by Ally MacKenzie Featuring Arleigh Curran. Billy and Bink. Tifereth and Amanda Maccagnan. Photo by Tifereth.
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