Toronto summers are often a dream — filled with sunny days, beaches, and an avalanche of entertainment. With hundreds of events ranging from cookouts to art festivals, this city hardly takes a break. Despite the never-ending list of festivals to attend, the annual Toronto Fringe Festival or “Fringe Fest,” has managed to make its impact for the 36th time in a row.
Fringe Fest is the city’s largest theatre festival, attracting more than 90,000 people each year. It provides a perfect escape from the stressful summer internships in dreary buildings and a chance to indulge your creative senses.
From July 3–14, Fringe Fest organized 77 shows across downtown, including a pop-up patio with free programs every day. Uniquely, the festival prides itself in being a non-juried event where they decide the productions through a lottery-based system, encouraging a wide range of artists to apply. I had the opportunity to visit some festival favourites and interact with the audience and cast members alike.
In an interview with The Varsity, Seamus Tokol, director of the play Unfurnished, recommended the festival “not only as a platform,” but as an opportunity for new creators to break even in the world of theatre. An upbeat act inspired by old Cary Grant comedies, Tokol’s Unfurnished showcased at Tarragon Theatre this year.
The Cabaret of Murder at Alumnae Theatre Mainspace was perhaps the most hyped-up show in this year’s line-up, sporting seven fringe show nominations across Canada and the 2022 ‘Pick of the Fringe’ award in Vancouver. This dynamic theatrical performance grappled with a common element shared by many serial killers: artistry.
The actors set up an eccentric, loud, and crudely funny tone while performing art pieces curated by notorious serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. Clad in glowing white shirts and blood-red lipstick, the actors re-enacted the plays, poems, and even songs composed by some of the most ferocious criminals in history. The dim stage lighting and minimal props added to the venue’s rusty, dark atmosphere, where the audience was presented with a whirlwind of information about the serial killers and a rapidly changing storyline.
The play allowed the audience to catch a glimpse into the minds of the dangerous individuals through the art they created, inciting a few uncomfortable chuckles from the audience at the performance I attended, which countered the ghoulish atmosphere.
Taking a 180-degree turn from the dark undertones, I introduce a play set on irony and sarcasm: Yoga For Billionaires. This performance at Tarragon Theatre Extraspace targeted the natural, deeply embedded desire to get filthy rich. Sara Raj — a famous South Asian comic — played the role of a yoga guru dedicated to earning billions through this practice.
Yoga for Billionaires was an immersive act where the audience were called up on the stage to perform multiple yoga asanas or poses — but there was a twist: the asanas were all named after famous personalities like Jeff Bezos and Oprah Winfrey. The show was speckled with snide comments on the failed capitalist institutions and the rising cost of living in the city of Toronto, earning an uproar of approval from the audience.
The limelight of the show belonged to Lindita, the helper in Raj’s temple. Lindita blended herself with the props and executed a near-perfect symmetry for the stage layout.
The finishing touch of the play was the humorously edited pictures of Raj with multiple billionaires that were passed around the theatre. The play’s interactive elements left me with an overwhelmingly positive impression, and the audience was elevated from the level of mere spectator to active contributor.
Alongside these talented artists was the cast of My Time Will Come: a play at Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, based on Brazilian folklore about society’s subconscious and the arbitrary concept of good versus evil. To many of the international actors on the cast, it was their first time working in a fully English production. Similarly, Tokol recalled his show as, “the idea of a bunch of young creative artists trying to show that this will be the next generation.”
In addition to an eccentric make-up look that adorned all the actors with a ghostly mask, My Time Will Come was led by a live narrator. The Toronto-based producer, singer, and songwriter Leo Dressel was a guitar-playing narrator with remarkable voice modulation. The constant reverberations of Dressel’s guitar and the clever use of onomatopoeia elevated the stage presence of My Time Will Come. The 45-minute-long production’s colour-changing stage lights also provided a phenomenal contrast for the viewers.
The final show I attended was a drastically underrated puppet show, Chloe and Meraki. Despite being aimed at a younger audience, this play tackles themes like environmental degradation to raise awareness towards otter conservation. The writer intended to serve both entertainment and information.
The theatre at St. Volodymyr Institute was awash in a peaceful sound of the seashore, but accompanied by an angsty script. Plastic, cups, and bags littered the stage to create a gnarly picture of the garbage that had trapped Chloe and Meraki, while the actors — alongside the adored sea otters — implored the kids in the audience to save the planet.
The play’s use of puppets and minimal dialogue allowed the audience to absorb the visual artistry, focus on the plot, and understand the broader message. Moreover, each attendee at the performance I attended was given a small bookmark in the shape of an otter, eliciting excitement from the children on the Toronto Fringe Festival’s last day.
As the City’s most beloved theatre festival concluded, you could still hear the lingering chatter of the audience and writers and actors reminiscing about their roles. Fringe Fest is set to bring back a sister festival in October — the 17th Next Stage Theatre Festival.
“I highly recommend anyone with an artistic soul or a creative soul in their body… check it out” adds Tokol. So, in case you missed this year’s iconic Fringe Festival, prepare yourself for another round of creativity waiting to showcase itself this fall.
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