By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Every year, there’s a uniqueness to be found at the Victoria Fringe Festival that will bring out the pop culture enthusiasts when it starts today and runs till August 31st. These theatre productions cater to a smaller crowd than a large one in the scale of Broadway, and they usually cater to niche audiences.
Last year had shows like “An Improvised Quentin Tarantino,” “Geek Life” and “Bing Bang Query: A Dirk Darrow Investigation” to draw me out. Some I’ve reviewed and others I just wanted to sit back and enjoy.
To go further back in time of what I’ve seen: P.I. Darrow proves that he’s “NCSSI (Not [A] Completely Serious Supernatural Investigator).” Although Fringe theatre does not usually support returning acts, it’s really the luck of the random lottery that sees some performers get to play three or four years in a row before fortune favours someone else. I miss seeing the maestro Colin Godbout on the roster since he did some fantastic guitar playing which includes “Music on the Orient Express” (2011). I first discovered him playing all the tunes associated with “Route 66” back in 2010. Those two years were great since it offered the Steampunk inspired “Tara Firm and the Lunar War Chronicles,” rock n’ roll themed “Z-Day: The Anthem for the Post-Zombie Apocalypse,” and the darkly choreographed “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.” It was those shows which made me become a Fringe addict.
Continue reading “[Victoria, BC] How to do the Nerdy Fringe 2014 Edition”
There is nothing like a good geek musical to get the lovers of all things comic book, cinema and anime into an enclosed space. I’ve seen The Addams Family, Harry Potter, Batman (excuse me, Bat Man) and Sailor Moon (I’m going to hear about this one). But recently I’ve seen a Star Wars musical by Brophy Student Theatre out of Brophy College Prepatory in Phoenix, Arizona. Brophy Student Theatre wrote, directed and performed That’s No Moon! (It’s a Star Wars Musical). Admission price to a performance was one canned food item. All canned goods were donated to Phoenix’s food banks.