The 40th edition of the Vancouver Fringe Festival has been entertaining audiences since the 5th of September at various indoor and outdoor settings on Granville Island. I caught some shows this week and here are my reviews!
Waxing
The absurd premise of this solo show invokes intrigue: H tries to wax her emotions (because one can, duh!) but ends up waxing her hair that takes her on a quest to reclaim the lost hair. Before the show begins, the artist invites audience participation in the form of written responses to a few prodding questions. It becomes clear that the show deals with themes like depression, happiness, and friendship.
The 45 minute performance is replete with unpredictable antics that sometimes take place outside the stage. The artist attempts dialogue, physical comedy, and a sequence with sock puppets. The story is incoherent and at times confusing. Audience responses to the initial prompts are woven into the play, but the execution lacked finesse.
My biggest gripe with this show is its venue–Waterfront Theatre. Nearly half of the story is enacted beyond the range of ergonomic viewing, especially for the audience seated in the front rows. The effort left some of us in the audience with a sore neck. I hope the show is taken back to the drawing board for a thorough rewrite and improved stage direction.
43 and me
Anastasia Koutalianos’ theatrical debut is one of poised vulnerability. In the very beginning, Koutalianos admits that she is a writer and her appearance at the Fringe Festival is very much a result of fluke and tragic coincidences.
Part improvisational storytelling, part deep listening, the protagonist’s journey of grief is very much a work in progress. The audience bears witness to the many threads that have come undone for Koutalianos over the last few months.
On the opening night, the narration feels raw, an uninhibited tumbling out of stories that scream of grief and unbidden yearning. The audience learns a great deal about the Koutalianos family and the events in the protagonist’s life as she barrelled towards the nadir of parental bereavement. This show is intimate, not merely a performance. There are no easy answers or takeaways. The show definitely pushes boundaries of theater-based storytelling.
I think Koutalianos is still in the process of understanding her grief story. The narration tends to meander and traipse in circles, in search of larger meaning in ways that can feel unfulfilling to the audience. Despite this, there is a great deal of truth-telling about our society’s inability to handle illness, disorder and death in dignified ways.
I would recommend this show to someone who is navigating the loss of a loved one.
Site Stories
“Site Stories” is an experiential outdoor show that offers a great excuse to go on a charming walk around Granville Island. Participants are provided with an audio playlist with stories of local legends, history of Vancouver. The show can be enjoyed at one’s own pace. All one needs is a phone, earphones for the audio playlist and the urge to experience the skyline of Vancouver through a historical gaze.
The audio tour uplifts a vast array of social changemakers belonging to the Indigenous, queer and racialized communities. It allows one to intimately experience the diverse fabric of the colonized land that has witnessed radical changes in the last couple of centuries.
After gallivanting across the mountains and islands during the sunny summer months, I usually find it challenging to be outdoors in the month of September. As the days get shorter, the weather turns chilly, the early Fall season is also prone to have bad air quality due to wildfires. “Site Stories” offered me the perfect excuse to enjoy a golden sunset by the waterside. The audio play was contemplative and engaged my imagination in ways that brought alive Vancouver’s diverse histories.
Daddy Issues
Michaela Chung is not a daddy’s girl, or is she? “Daddy Issues” is a stand-up comedy show that does not shy from exploring some hard truths about being mixed-race and dating in your 30’s.
The show begins with a comprehensive, rib-tickling definition of the word “Daddy” that sets the tone for the rest of the hour. Chung sprinkles autobiographical stories with audience interactions that demonstrate her mastery of extempore humor. There is a refreshing warmth to the way Chung ribs about millennial woes. Her good-natured digs at unsuspecting men in the audience subverts the white patriarchal gaze that has defined much of stand-up comedy.
With an incredible talent to nurture good-natured exchanges, Chung’s jokes land in the perfect spot between social commentary and relatable life rants.
A Smoke Behind the Rope
Presented by Sky Theatre Group, “A Smoke Behind the Rope” is a play that is inspired by true stories of political prisoners. Set in a high-security prison, Golnaz (played by Miyu Yakota) and Farhad (played by Navid Charkhi) discover each other’s voices through the walls. A compelling exchange between the two unravels a coherent narrative exposing how Iran’s regime dehumanizes and executes political and religious dissidents. The two characters trade stories and curiosities. They laugh and cry about their own fates. They derive strength and solace from the messages carved by others who occupied their cells. They revel in the ability to imagine, sing and dream about better possibilities and an inclusive world that is free of oppression.
The lighting and set design recreate the somber minimalism of prisons. With no physical wall to separate the characters, the set design allows for dynamic storytelling, lulling the audience into a meditation on the limits of carceral confinement. The dialogues are layered with emotions ranging from poignant and contemplative to funny and boisterous. Both the actors bring the dreadful confines of a cell alive with their physicality. They fall, crawl, groove and mime–they make conversation with their bodies as much as they do with words and songs. Despite the heavy themes of carceral violence and oppression, the story is one of hope and resistance. “A Smoke Behind the Rope” confronts the heavy-handed tactics of political repression with a righteous spirit of artistic rebellion. It boldly takes forward the tradition of political theater that speaks truth to tyrannical powers.
Buy your Fringe tickets here as the festival runs till the 15th!
– Annapoorna Shruthi