Fringe 2019 Schedule

My planned schedule for the Fringe.

Show	Date and Tme	location
July 4
Please Stand Clear	Thursday Jul-04 7:45 PM	TPM Back
Lights, Camera, Odd Jobs	Thursday Jul-04 10:30 PM	Annex
July 5
Unravelled	Friday Jul-05 7:00 PM	Grace Toronto Church
Dinner with Goebbels	Friday Jul-05 9:00 PM	Trinity St. Paul
July 6
Spend Your Kids Inheritance	Saturday Jul-06 12:45 PM	Helen Gariner
Into the Tango	Saturday Jul-06 2:45 PM	Randolph
Red Knows	Saturday Jul-06 4:00 PM	Al Green
Tales of a Cocktail	Saturday Jul-06 5:45 PM	Al Green
Icarus	Saturday Jul-06 7:30 PM	Al Green
Searching for Marceau	Saturday Jul-06 8:45 PM	Tarragon Extra
Three Men on a Bike	Saturday Jul-06 10:00 PM	Tarragon Main
July 7
Brunch	Sunday Jul-07 11:00 AM	Scadding Court
Palabra Flamenco: Fox Woman	Sunday Jul-07 3:15 PM	Crowsnest Studio
Destiny, USA	Sunday Jul-07 5:00 PM	Crowsnest Studio
Off the Island	Sunday Jul-07 6:45 PM	Crowsnest Guloien
The Huns	Sunday Jul-07 8:30 PM	Crowsnest Guloien
Outside Ethel: Inside	Sunday Jul-07 10:15 PM	Crowsnest Studio
July 8
The Pricess is the Pauper	Monday Jul-08 2:30 PM	St Vlad
Night Cows	Monday Jul-08 4:00 PM	Factory Studio
Checkpoint 300	Monday Jul-08 5:15 PM	Factory Main
Mayhem at Miskatonic	Monday Jul-08 7:00 PM	Painted Lady
Audience of One	Monday Jul-08 9:15 PM	Tarragon Solo
July 9
THE ICON EXPERIENCE	Tuesday Jul-09 4:00 PM	Fringe Pattio
The Ballad of Frank Allan	Tuesday Jul-09 5:00 PM	St Vlad
Young and the Limbless	Tuesday Jul-09 6:45 PM	Robert Gill
American Christian	Tuesday Jul-09 8:30 PM	St Vlad
The Ashes of Forgotten Rain	Tuesday Jul-09 10:15 PM	Robert Gill
July 10
Dandelion	Wednesday Jul-10 1:00 PM	Randolph
Night Feed	Wednesday Jul-10 2:30 PM	Tarragon Extra
Eusha	Wednesday Jul-10 4:15 PM	Tarragon Extra
Death Ray Cabaret	Wednesday Jul-10 6:00 PM	Monarch Tavern
Swallowed Whole	Wednesday Jul-10 10:30 PM	Helen Gariner
July 11
Above and Beyond	Thursday Jul-11 1:00 PM	Robert Gill
Through Bamboo	Thursday Jul-11 2:30 PM	Factory Main
Till Death	Thursday Jul-11 4:15 PM	Tarragon Main
Escape from Shady Acres	Thursday Jul-11 6:00 PM	Tarragon Main
I, Malvolio	Thursday Jul-11 7:30 PM	Smart Cookie Club
Deep End	Thursday Jul-11 9:30 PM	JCC Pool
July 12
Beneath the Bed	Friday Jul-12 2:00 PM	Scadding Court
Everything is Fine	Friday Jul-12 3:30 PM	Tarragon Solo
Boy falls from the sky	Friday Jul-12 5:00 PM	Supermarket
Table 7	Friday Jul-12 7:00 PM	Paintbox Bistro
Ouvre le porte…	Friday Jul-12 8:45 PM	Helen Gariner
Molly Bloom	Friday Jul-12 10:30 PM	Helen Gariner
July 13
The Commandment	Saturday Jul-13 1:00 PM	Tarragon Extra
The Road to Damascus	Saturday Jul-13 2:45 PM	Tarragon Extra
Glimpse	Saturday Jul-13 4:30 PM	Factory Main
After the Beep	Saturday Jul-13 6:15 PM	Tarragon Extra
Didn't Hurt	Saturday Jul-13 8:30 PM	Tarragon Extra

Fringe 2018 schedule

For those interested, here are my current selections for Fringe. Bold indicates I am already bringing a guest to the performance  

Unlike former years, I'm leaving more breathing time to fill in based on recommendations and buzz. 

Show	Date and Tme	location
June 7
INESCAPABLE	July 7, 3:30	Tarragon main
The Brothers Gentle	July 7, 5:00	TPM Back
The Fall	July 7, 6:30	Trinity St. Paul's
Featherweight	July 7, 8:00	The paddock tavern
fing perfect	July 7, 9:15	factory main
Circus shop of horrors	July 7, 11:00	annex
July 8
Police Cops in Space	July 8, 1:15	factory main
Josephine, a burlesque	July 8, 3:00	Randolph
Anywhere	July 8, 4:30	factory main
Mabel and Abel	July 8, 6:15	factory studio
Six stories told At night	July 8, 8:45	tpm main
July 9
The princess of the Tower	July 9, 1:30	GIT
Paradise Lost	July 9, 3:15	TPM Main
In threes	July 9, 5:00	al green
Carmilla	July 9, 7:00	painted lady
July 10
AWKWARD HUG	July 10, 1:00	Tpm main
Jimmy Hogg	July 10, 2:45	Tpm main
Crave	July 10, 4:30	tarragon extra
Dead talks	July 10, 6:30	Tarragon main
Restless Spirits	July 10, 8:00	Tpm main
SUM	July 10, 10:00	Helen gardener
July 11
Women of the fur trade	July 11, 1:45	TPM main
25	July 11, 3:45	Robert Gill
One Hour Left	July 11, 5:15	Randolph
Mrs. Mamas house	July 11, 7:00	Bata Show museum
The Gameplay	July 11, 9:30	Factory studio
Compulsion	July 11, 11:30	factory main
July 12
The Bird Killer	July 12, 12:00	tarragon main
Hooked	July 12, 3:30	factory main
Space hippo	July 12, 5:15	randolph
Cheri	July 12, 7:30	Al green
Kandar and Ebb	July 12, 9:15	annex
The honeymoon period...	July 12, 10:45	Factory studio
July 13
Wounds to the face	July 13, 4:00	Annex
Birds make me think...	July 13, 6:15	Al Green
How to be Fearless	July 13, 8:30	bell tower cafe
July 14
The gentle art of punishment	July 14, 1:45	robert gill
Rage against the inferno	July 14, 3:30	robert gill
The grass is greenest...	July 14, 8:00	Freedom factory

A Doll's House

On June 1, I attended the West End Studio Theatre production of Henrick Ibsen's A Doll's House.

First performed in 1879, A Doll's House follows the protagonist, Nora Helmer, who lives with her husband, Torvald, and their three children. All seems well with the couple until Nils Krogstad, a banker soon to be in the employ of Nils, appears to blackmail Nora as a means of maintaining his position at the bank.

Upon entering the performance space, an intimate and configurable space, in this case set up to hold an audience for forty-five, I was immediately struck by the set, presenting the front room of the couple's apartment. The deep wooden browns and reds of the set pieces evoked a clear location, and a decision to extend the set pieces right to the audience edge, and even into the aisles, really worked to bring the audience right into the living space of the characters.

The lighting, designed by Taylor Sinstadt, served the main action well, but lacked coverage to the edge of the acting space and into the aisles. As a result, there were a number of pockets of shadow, which, invariably, the actors stepped into for significant periods of time. To Sinstadt's credit, however, the gentle dim-light of the third act worked very well to portray a candle-lit space without keeping the audience in the dark.

Kayla Whelan presented an energetic and nervous-as-a-bird Nora Helmer and Mischa Aravena a highly controlling and self-absorbed Torvald. While both performances were individually engaging, Whelan and Aravena never managed to communicate the sense of relationship between their characters. Whelan's performance, though grounded, seemed to be playing for a much larger space than the close and intimate quarters of this production, and Aravena, though commanding in his performance, never quite succeeded in portraying Torvald's playful affection for his precious wife.

Director Paul Groulx, while keeping the action motivated and clear, needed to encourage his lead actors towards a more consistent acting style given the space and demand for naturalism embraced by the rest of the the production. As it stands, the mismatch in performance style between the leads causes Nora's motivations to land more weakly than they should, and causes Torvald's inattentiveness to read (by turns) as either gross ignorance or gas-lighting tendencies that at one moment threaten rape, both of which, I feel, undermine the thrust of the script.

The supporting cast as a whole provided nuanced and naturalistic performances:

Rod McTaggart brings a gruff bitterness to Dr. Rank, but one that gives way to true tenderness when he admits his love for Nora. This tenderness is again beautifully played when he bids his friends farewell, having realized that his death is immanent.

Linda Spence, as Christine Linde, Nora's school-days friend, communicates clearly a woman who has had a life of challenges and now seeks to find someone to care for.

Chris Reid, as Nils Krogstad, the primary antagonist of the piece, gives a stand-out performance. His performance is deeply rooted and clearly brings across the complexity of Krogstad's motivation. Here, truly, is a man who is trying to be good, and is disgusted by the fact that he must sink to blackmail to survive. The scene between Krogstad and Linde at the top of Act III is a standout moment of tenderness and revelation, completely satisfying.

In closing, I must say that the strengths of this production outweigh its shortcomings, and I was always engaged by the action. As this is not a show that I see done often in the GTA (and I feel now that it should be done more often) I would encourage people to see it.

Recommended

A Doll's House runs until June 16, 2018 at the West End Studio Theatre
1109 North Service Road, Oakville, Ontario
Tickets available online at http://www.the-west.ca