Top 10 (My hot picks for Vancouver Fringe Festival 2019)
Vancouver Fringe Festival continues to lead and launch some of the most promising new voices in Canadian theatre besides featuring a great mix of local and international talent. Fringe, in my opinion, is an amazing platform for artists from different background, abilities, and experiences to experiment with unique ideas. It is at the Fringe that I launched my career in theatre and it is at the Fringe I still continue to experiment with new ideas, concepts, and projects. This year I am quite excited to partner with the Fringe to bring their Theatre Wire series and our Diwali in BC festival together for another short limited remount of Bombay Black by Anosh Irani - with an upgraded production design along with a brand new cast. Bombay Black was first produced as a part of the dramatic works series in 2017 and since then we have been excited to keep this production alive for three years in a row in different cities and with different partners and presenters.
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Bombay Black will play November 1-3 in Vancouver and then head to Surrey. But for now, we are excited to welcome the Fall season officially with 2019 Vancouver Fringe Festival. As I scrolled through the program pages, I decided to come up with my own list of top picks for Fringe shows that looked interesting to me. Below is my top ten list. Hope you strongly like or dislike my picks! There is no room for the in-between. Be on the fringe, Be on the Edge, Be Bold. And if you are not on this list then it's not meant to exclude anyone. It's just a list. There are plenty of awesome shows out there.
I have my blind spots and break a leg friend! Enjoy!
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MX
Lili Robinson
Vancouver, Canada
Playwright: Lili Robinson
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PTC and the Vancouver Fringe Festival are pleased to announce that Lili Robinson is the winner of the 2019 Fringe New Play Prize for Mx.
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What of culture and ancestry lives within us, and how much is determined by our upbringing? Does blood equal belonging? Pulling on elements of clown, bouffon, and mythology from the African Diaspora, Mx cracks open notions of mixed-race, Black, and Queer identity through the lens of a character stuck in the in-between
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The cast and core creative team of Mx is made up entirely of queer and/or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) Artists. The show is based around navigating queer, Black, mixed-race identity, based on the experiences of creator Lili Robinson.
Å«tszan
North Vancouver, Canada
Playwright: Yvonne Wallace
Director: Nyla Carpentier
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As a part of ADVANCE THEATRE: NEW WORKS BY DIVERSE WOMEN
at the False Creek Gym (1318 Cartwright Street)
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Ruby Slippers Theatre, in partnership with Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Fringe.
A one-woman show about first language reconnection. Auntie Celia is at the end of her days. She has suffered from a heart attack and realizes that she has very little time left in this World. She makes a decision to have others accommodate her by refusing to speak English. Margaret, her niece, is about to discover that a lifelong path is about to unfold. Margaret is put to task to learn and think in her Ancestral first-language, Ucwalmicwts. Love will give her the strength she needs to let go as she realizes that the language is easy and it’s the life that was hard.
Sis Ne’ Bi-Yïz: Mother Bear Speaks
Instruments of Change
Burnaby, Canada
Playwright: Taninli Wright
Director: Julie McIsaac
As a part of ADVANCE THEATRE: NEW WORKS BY DIVERSE WOMEN
at the False Creek Gym (1318 Cartwright Street)
Ruby Slippers Theatre, in partnership with Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Fringe.
Inspired by the true story of this Wet’suwet’en artist, who walked 1,600 km across British Columbia to empower First Nations children and other marginalized youth. Guided by the spirits of her Tsets (Grandfather) and Sis Ne’ (Mother Bear), this captivating emerging artist weaves personal and ancestral narratives that cut to the heart of racist systems and intergenerational traumas, as she triumphs to find her own voice.
We the same
Playwright: Sangeeta Wylie
Director: Rachel Ditor
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As a part of ADVANCE THEATRE: NEW WORKS BY DIVERSE WOMEN
at the False Creek Gym (1318 Cartwright Street)
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Ruby Slippers Theatre, in partnership with Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Fringe.
This play is based on a true story about Vietnamese oceanic refugees. A multi-, inter-, and intra-cultural story over three countries, sharing art forms across borders. A story that mends the most precious of relationships: parent-child. A universal story of love and hope, and the strength we create when we stand together as one race to help one in need. See the other: king, prostitute, or one with a drug addiction. Now dissolve those words, and begin with “we” and “us.” We the same. Please join us for the journey.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Two Modern Noh Plays by Yukio Mishima
Midtwenties Theatre Society
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Vancouver, Canada
Playwright: Yukio Mishima
mtstheatre.com
As a part of DRAMATIC WORKS SERIES
at The Cultch Vancity Culture Lab (1895 Venables Street)
This year’s Dramatic Works Series participants are being mentored by Raes Calvert, a Métis theatre artist from Vancouver.
Upon a successful run last year, Midtwenties Theatre is proud to be back to premiere Two Modern Noh Plays By Yukio Mishima for the 2019 Dramatic Works Series.
A 20-year-old poet falls in love with a 90-year-old woman and a young girl waits for a long-forgotten lover in this double-bill of two Noh plays by famous Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima.
“Hauntingly enigmatic, subtle and beautiful, Mishima’s masterpieces reach back into the deep past of ancient myth and brings into the modern world stories that are part fairy-tale, part surreal drama.”—Broadway World
Guards at the Taj
SACHA (Vancouver)
Burnaby, Canada
Playwright: Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Paneet Singh
As a part of DRAMATIC WORKS SERIES
at The Cultch Vancity Culture Lab (1895 Venables Street)
This year’s Dramatic Works Series participants are being mentored by Raes Calvert, a Métis theatre artist from Vancouver.
A flourishing empire, an architectural marvel, one of the cruelest acts in (perhaps fabricated) history, intense drama, and at the centre of it all... a weird bromance?
Adele Noronha and Andeep Kalirai star in playwright Rajiv Joseph’s sharply written story of two Imperial Guards who stand on duty at the famed Taj Mahal in India in 1648.
“Joseph writes sly, funny dialogue laced with jolts of lyricism, and the initial exchanges between the two guards are highly captivating, even if some of the play’s verbal detours are more bewitching than enlightening.” —Hollywood Reporter
Josephine
Lil Theatre Company
Orlando, USA
Created by Tymisha Harris, Michael Marinaccio, and Tod Kimbro
liltheatre.co
Six-time “Outstanding Performance” winner Tymisha Harris stars in this six-time Best of Fest winning off-Broadway biographical musical that combines theatre, cabaret, and dance to tell the story of the iconic Josephine Baker, the first African American international superstar and one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th Century.
***** “Tymisha Harris’ performance is a tour de force.” —CBC
***** “If there’s a truly must-see show... it’s Josephine.” —Winnipeg Free Press
***** “It’s is a perfect piece of theatre for the time we are currently in.” —PlaysToSee, New York
In Several Times
O Albatross
Vancouver, Canada
Playwright: Linnea Gwiazda
linneagwiazda.com
How does the body remember? How does space hold memory? An enchanting choreography of space, memory, and the body, in several times weaves movements, sounds and scents from the stories held within us. An ever-evolving concert, enveloped in wafts of fresh dill and lemon, takes us on a hypnotic journey through times both past and present.
Created by the Director of Awkward Hug: BC Touring Council Award winner at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, 2018.
***** “Engaging from start to finish.” —Vue Weekly
***** “Spectacular.” —GigCity
“Beautiful.” —CBC Manitoba
“Poignant.” —NOW Magazine Toronto
Dissection of a [ Indian Aboriginal First Nation Indigenous Native Full-Blood Status Non-Status Halfbreed Métis Rez Urban ] Mixed Heritage Woman
Nyla Carpentier
North Vancouver, Canada
Playwright: Nyla Carpentier
Which part belongs to who? Told through family and personal stories, poetry, dance, and a bit of song. One woman tries to find out who she is and where her mixed heritage is pulling her. Unravelling and weaving together her experiences to figure out how to fit within society and not set it on fire.
Warm and Fuzzy / Tear-Jerker / Poetic / Multicultural / 14+ / Coarse Language / 60 minutes
Written and performed by a Mixed Heritage Woman (Tahltan First Nation, Kaska First Nation, French and Scottish)
Diagnose This! Tales of a Medical Actor
Donna Kay Yarborough
Portland, USA
Playwright: Donna Kay Yarborough
DonnaKaySpeaks.com
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When an improv comedian plays patient for medical students, what results is a hilarious and moving view into the world of healthcare. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, it’ll make you cringe, and it’ll make you say, “F*** THE SYSTEM!”
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Warning: contains strong opinions about the US and blunt talk about lady parts.
“Yarborough can whip up a sense of fun, keeping the crowd under her spell.” —Orlando Sentinel
“A serious tour-de-force performer.” —The Road to 1,000
