OMG – Theatre is finally happening in Montreal.

The Fringe Festival 2020 – like most things 2020 – was canceled. But this year the rules have relaxed sufficiently to encourage the organizers to take a chance. About 60% of the offerings are on line – via Fringe TV of all things – but they have 5 locations with live theatre happening.

And the Intrepid Traveler and I didn’t need a second invite! No sooner had they announced the line-up then we went on line to grab tickets. At $8 to $12 a piece, Fringe tickets are bargains – worth the price admission for sure.

We ended up with performances spread out over a week and a half. And we saw 6 different theatre experiences. (In the Fringe Universe – calling things ‘plays’ can be a bit of a stretch!)

Worst of the bunch – a forgettable two person musical experience called Blxck Cxsper: No Justice, No Peace. I think the mis-spellings should have been the indication that this was going to be a mistake. The main performer mumbled so badly into the mike as to be completely unintelligible. I think the point was how to explain how conflicted it would be to be a super hero – but this point was lost in the unintelligible mumble. Oh well. I wasn’t alone on feeling disappointed – the applause could be be described as tepid

My Favourite – Generations. Also a two person event – this was a one act play happening over several years. It mapped the development of a relationship between a mother and daughter – and explored how immigrant parents and their too Canadianized youngsters deal with that divide. At one point the daughter takes out her cell phone, and the two start swiping left and right thru potential matches. When the Mother makes a ‘Match’ – causing chimes to ring on the cell phone – she explodes in Glee – it’s a Doctor! I knew you’d get a Doctor! I had trouble stopping my laughter.

Interesting – The Celebrity Obsession

Awesomely good (but with a flawed ending) – for some reason, the heroine stripped naked. I’m not sure why though, and it kinda distracted me.

The Space Between – Much better. This is a wonderfully performed story of a chance encounter between one woman and another. The heroine has just suffered a terrible loss, and her new friend invites her to a seance where she could contact her lost buddy. Turn out it’s Halloween Eve that she decides to follow thru on this lead – and things decidedly go downhill from there. It’s cute – fast paced, and very cool. The ending is just that – and end – but the rest – adorable!

And earning a – I’m so glad I went award – GlenMary Kate Moss. The description implied this would be a gender twisted version of the famous Glengarry Glen Ross. The first thing to note – it was sold out, and sold out fast. But why that happened became obvious when we walked into the theatre. This play was being performed in a standard theatre format – 6 rows of adjoining seats, tightly spaced together, about 120 seats altogether. In order to cope with the rules of Covid Social Distancing, the theatre folks had put black drapes over most of the seats – leaving just 25 seats available – all spaced 1.5+ meters apart on the sides and on the back. I’ll bet they could have sold out the original 120!

Anyway – back to the story of GlenMary KateMoss. The idea, like the play that inspired it, is that there is a group of people who are scam artists – knowingly selling folks on land that isn’t habitable. That’s a story as old as time – they are selling the dream. And these ladies are good at it. What they aren’t good at is liking each other! It’s the cat fights and the crafty manipulation of the facts and the story that keeps you focused. Add to that some pretty decent singing and dancing – and you’ve got great Fringe Theatre. I loved it.

And the best of the bunch – yes, better than Generations although less poignant and personal – Spiral. This one is truly challenging to describe. On stage is a giant Rube-Goldberg device, and there to make it work is the maker and fixer of all things. Our heroine starts off by creating light, then dark, then light – just to show that she can, and then proceeds to explain how disappointed she is in how hard we’ve been trying to break her inventions. She has the audience using raised hands to fess up to their part in making the mess she has to fix – Were you always nice to your parents? Did you ever Gossip? Have you ever stolen anything. Meanwhile she is tinkering with the device, fixing this, repairing that until – at the end – in a truly glorious reminder of how great she really is – the thing works!

I’m reminded of the MEME that my daughter once described to me. Folks are describing how bad things have become and a woman labeled “Mother Nature’ says – “Hold my purse for a moment” and rolls up her sleeves.

It was a fabulous Fringe – albeit shortened and tightened and abbreviated. I loved every minute of it.

Signing off to see if there’s any more theatre happening in my great city…

The Soup Lady