For Americans, summer officially began with Memorial Day weekend, in which the actual holiday fell on May 27 this year.
For Montrealers, summer — especially summer festival season — began on that same day. That’s when the St. Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival kicked off its 2024 edition with its annual Fringe-For-All launch event.
A packed house at Club Soda on St. Laurent Boulevard gathered on a Monday night to get a mass sneak preview of what to expect for this year’s festival. Hosted by Maryline Chery and the irrepressible — and always entertaining — Kenny Streule, Fringers were treated to a showcase that featured 80 acts — both in English and French, in person and via pre-recorded videos — and gave a sample of what their respective shows were all aboiut to help those Fringers make their show choices for the coming three weeks. And the catch, as in previous Fringe-For-Alls, was each act had a maximum of two minutes of stage or screen time to get their message across, or else face the prospective of having the lights and microphones shut off at the 2:01 mark.
Needless to say, the showcased acts offered us a plentiful variety of dance, music, magic, drama, solo and comedy shows, which were previously selected by lottery, so there were shows that well represented the major artistic disciplines. Some got their message across very quickly (and judging by the post onstage applause from the audience) became must-see shows; some were met with a great deal of curiosity; and some were met with puzzled looks and head-scratching. As well, there were previews of some of the Fringe festival’s long-standing features, such as “Tip the Fringe”, and the new “So You Think That Was Dance?” event.
Based on what I saw that night, here are my top three Fringe shows that I will be checking out this year: Bucket List (a thematic magic show, which sold me when Jimmy Cao presented his actual, scroll-like, life-sized bucket list); Wit and Wrath: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker; and Love, Sharks & Frenching: A Hot Date with Lou Laurence (who killed at last year’s MainLine Theatre Christmas Show).
Other personal must-see Fringe Shows include: Beyond Ken Dryden; Tango: Take Two; The Singing Psychic Game Show; Comedy Game Showdown; Hey Buddy, Good to See You; I Hate Magic; Mile End Improv’s Fest of the Fest; Admiring Librarians; Stories from the Brink; Jon Bennett: Ameri-can’t; You’re Good for Nothing…I’ll Milk the Cow Myself; and Cabaret of Murder.
And a couple of final notes from this year’s Fringe-For-All: First, there was a sustantial absence of flyers and postcards that are usually spread on top of every table to promote shows to potential spectators, which, understandably so, is a means for the festival to go green; however, a very polite member of the Toxique Trottoir troupe approached me during the intermission to present me with a card and talk aboiut their music and dance production Pitit Ayiti. I was so impressed that she went that extra mile, that I gladly added Pitit Ayiti to my list of must-see shows.
Finally, the brave soul of the evening honours went to co-host Kenny Streule, who took the bull by the horns and decided to wear the traditional Fringe buzz bee dress for most of the second half of the Fringe-For-All. Although the fit was a little tight (it was previously worn by past festival spokesperson Holly Gauthier-Frankel and festival artistic/executive director Amy Blackmore), Kenny literally wore it well (and I bet he will be expected to sport that dress for many subsequent festivals to come).
For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to montrealfringe.ca.
Fringe on! See you at the fest!
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