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Fringe Festival succeeds financially – and artistically |
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Written by Barbara Shainbaum
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Wednesday, 22 July 2009 |
TORONTO – The 2009 Toronto Fringe Festival (July 1-12) celebrated its 21st year with 150 shows at 30 venues: the biggest and best yet, and I’m an experienced Fringer.
More than 60,000 patrons attended ticketed shows, and 12,000 people hung out at the Fringe Club for free late-night entertainment, up 3.5 per cent from last year’s ticketed shows, and up 15 per cent at the club. The club also recorded its highest bar sales, reflecting the good time had by all.
Presenting musicals, modern dance, comedy, searing drama and everything in between, the Fringe Festival gives both artists and patrons an opportunity to be part of a shared creative experience. This was particularly true for the plays with Jewish content that I saw.
The big crowd-pleaser, with long lineups and word-of-mouth buzz, was My Mother's Lesbian Jewish-Wiccan Wedding, a title that indicated either a hit or a flop. Luckily, it was the former. Writer/performer David Hein transformed his autobiography into clever, moving and well-executed musical theatre. As the narrator, he fronted a live 3-piece band on stage as he recalled his teen years in Saskatchewan, his parents’ divorce, and his mother’s move to Ottawa and life-changing choice of partner that informs the play’s title as well as her subsequent return to Judaism. A talented 7-member cast enlivened the production and the audience cheered wildly through the witty, funny and catchy songs. It deserves a main stage production and an extended run.
New York writer-performer Lee Michael Buckman delivered a confident, bold and compelling one-man show about his obsessions as an actor-hoarder (with an impossible Jewish mother whom he resembles in character more than he ever wanted to admit). With Bags: Obsessions of a Hoardaholic, Buckman had an immediate rapport with the audience, hooking us in by getting us to share little obsessions before he delved into his own delicate and breakable parts of his psyche. Funny, risque and reality-based material was transformed into art, though a few parts felt like unprocessed therapy sessions. Everything was intimate, intense and compelling, like Buckman himself. I wanted to look away, but I didn’t. He showed people much of what they hide.
When Marty Hirsch, mid-20s, unfocused, histrionic, non-religious, and sly-as-a-fox, suddenly becomes an Orthodox Jew, recants his wild ways, and plans to move to Israel to study the Torah, he informs his friends in a series of humourous dramatic rounds, in the Goodbye Rounds. Each friend, including his ex-girlfriend, thinks Marty’s completely lost his mind so he does not have to deal with his problems. A talented cast of youngish actors bring honesty and humour to Robert Shapiro’s and Joshua Saltzman’s timely play revolving around the consequences of choices and the dilemma of quick religious conversions for lost souls. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 July 2009 )
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