A sure sign that the Montreal summer festival season is off and running is when Montreal Fringe Festival head honcho Amy Blackmore, along with a couple of her colleagues, sets off the explosive confetti sticks onstage at the annual Fringe-For-All kickoff event and showers the capacity crowd at Cafe Campus with a flurry of air-propelled shredded paper.
This year was no exception. If you are about to experience the Montreal Fringe Festival —whether it be for the first time or, in my case, the 15th time — then the Fringe-For-All is a must. Think of it as a one-stop Fringe shop. In a three-hour period, 87 acts have the chance to preview their respective shows to their potential audience, whether in English or French, live onstage or via pre-recorded video. However, each has two minutes to get their message across or face automatic darkness.
Hosted by the flamboyant Montreal drag queen duo Uma and Selma Gahd, the Fringe-For-All had you expect the unexpected, prepare to be amazed and get ready for the outrageous.
And there was plenty of all three, as I assumed my seat at the front row section reserved for the media at Cafe Campus, with my list of featured act previews, ready to check off which shows that will get my attention and convince me to attend during the run of the festival, as if I were handicapping horses at a racetrack.
Some of the highlights included Isaac Kessler’s “1-Man No-Show”, in which Mr. Kessler gave out random items to audience members that had nothing to do with his show, like copies of unrelated books and a rubber chicken; “Balcony Scene”, which was a sort-of anti Romeo & Juliet; one group that gave out roses to bald men; a touch of tango with “Tango After Midnight”; a couple of those notorious Fringe Festival 11-second dance parties; and one of the most pleasant surprises that was “Tic, tic…boom!”, a French-language musical comedy about a musical theatre composer. The repartee-style song that two of the artists performed at the Fringe-For-All was reminiscent of the type of songs that Quebec artists sang during the 60s and 70s. It resulted in a thunderous ovation from the audience, and my curiosity piqued to catch this show.
Finally, based on what I witnessed at the Fringe-For-All, some of the shows that I plan to attend include The Syllabus, Tango After Midnight, Sore Loser, Bloody Cabaret!, Daumas: Devil’s Advocate, 1-Man No Show, Tall Mark: Eat It Anyway, Scions, A Knight Without A Quest, Therapy Fund and Existential Lingerie by Lou Laurence.
Let the fringing begin!
The Montreal Fringe Festival runs from now until June 21. For more information or to purchase show tickets, go to montrealfringe.ca.
words and images by Stuart Nulman
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