By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Over in the beautiful garden city if Victoria, B.C. Canada, the Victoria Fringe Festival returns for its 27th year with a few much-needed updates and, perhaps, an added regular venue. The voting system is changed so its more fair and the Maritime Museum provided the space for a unique play, “Judgement Day,” that kicked off the first week of the festivities. It will also be part of the last weekend too as the votes are being tallied for best of Fringe.
This gently philosophical and satirical look at how socially irreverent various world religions are gets center stage in the courtroom where real trials took place.
And the storm of controversy of which belief is right in granting a peaceful afterlife gets elegantly played up for laughs by New Blood Theatre, a group that may well be ‘new’ to the Victoria scene. They had done a previous production “Greg Phillips: Alleged Antichrist” in collaboration with the Student Alternative Theatre Company at the University of Victoria, and this new show marks their first production that will hopefully tour to other Fringe festivals around the world.
Ed and I were on our way to see The World’s End when we spotted this “coming soon” sign for a movie and video game shop. I’m hoping for more indie video game outlets in this town. We have one such place up on Burnside by Harriet Rd. but it would be nice to have a shop closer to the downtown core. The last shop I can recall was Doug’s TV on Cook St. near Cook Street Village.
The term, “Make Mine Marvel!” is going to be more factual than anybody can expect. Marvel Entertainment announced that a traveling show is expected to begin in 2014, and The Marvel Experience will be a first-person experience that fans can step into. They will become part of the action.
Comic artist Mark Bagley was announced as a special guest by Emerald City Comic Con. Bagley is tentatively scheduled to appear at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle from March 28 – 30, 2014.