Tag: 2023

[Victoria Fringe 2023] Even “June Bug” Needs to Grow Up

June Bug is a thoughtful work that ups the ante in what The Peanuts comic strips would do when concerning the kids dealing with adult situations.

June Bug Ragamuffin ProductionsAshley Chodat is a playwright who wants to help empower audiences. Although she went from performer to educator in the performing arts quite fast, anything she produces is worth noting. Her show, simply titled, “June Bug,” may seem like a love letter to alien conspiracies and X-Files, but there’s more to this multi-layered story.

Here, Juniper Myers is telling us about her life. She’s 11 years old, and she dearly loves her grandmother. The two are inseparable. Mom is trying her best to keep this family afloat because there’s no father around. Little is said about him and I suspect he doesn’t exist. But as for grandmama, I brought everything we wanted to know about her to vivid life. They both love Patrick Swayze and watching the movie Dirty Dancing, and despite protests from mum, nothing ever changes.

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[Victoria Fringe 2023] Is it Bad There’s New Earth Bandits? Welcome to the Future, If You’re Brave!

You’ll get plenty of exercise walking up and down the hills around Macauly Point Park to discover where the New Earth Bandits are hiding in SNAFU’s latest.

New Earth Bandits SNAFUFrom Interstellar Elder to Kitt and Jane (both shows I’ve seen and reviewed), The SNAFU Society of Unexpected Spectacles has an all new show! I’m not sure if they’ll tour this because it’s very site specific, but for anyone visiting Victoria, BC‘s Macaulay Point Park, they’ll be in for a treat! Here, their latest, New Earth Bandits, sends visitors (theatre attendees) to the future where a colony of humans, mutants, and animals kind of belligerently live together.

Also, I found space aliens! They didn’t join the visitors (theatre attendees) to figure out what’s going on. Instead, we’re told the year is 7023. In where we started, the portal to which everyone steps through takes us there and what’s presented is a glimpse of what may be this planet’s last dance, if we don’t change our ways.

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[Victoria Fringe 2023] When the Phantom Pain is Real, What Else can a Lost Soul Feel?

Some memories should not be best left buried, but dealt with carefully. In Sarah, Mo, and We’re All Friends’ theatrical presentation, Phantom Pain, maybe it’s best not to completely ignore it….

Phantom Pain Promotional Image This year the theatre company, ‘Sarah, Mo, and We’re All Friends,’ presents a brilliant late Victorian-age ghost story known as Phantom Pain. And when Theatre SKAM is offering the studio space for them to present this performance as a work in progress, I’m sure there’ll be more shows to come as the rough edges are ironed out, and maybe get a revision or two. I even have my own suggestions (which I’ll address at the end).

In this story, a talented painter, Constance (Annalyn Kind), has not gotten over the loss of Fenella (Becky Miner). These two are soul mates. Sadly, consumption would claim the life of the blonde socialite. Their love is eternal. When they first met, the attraction was instant! Although that would form a rift with a mutual friend, Daisy (Tamra Marie), who was the girlfriend at the time, nobody could truly stay mad forever.

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[Victoria Fringe 2023] Renfield, or Dining at the Bughouse – A Review

Sometimes, you just have to dive deep into the madness that created Renfield, or Dining at the Bughouse as it takes a bite at what created him, even before meeting Dracula!

Renfield or, Dining at the BughouseBram Stoker’s Dracula has left an indelible impression on pop culture, and there are many ways to read into the tale. For playwright Bill Zaget (who also performed this show at Montreal Fringe), what he’s taken from it is a new way to present the madman who declared this vampire, “Master!” In Renfield, or Dining at the Bughouse, this performer gives this character a life that’s different from what I recall from the book. By stripping away the world, what he recounts of his childhood (which has never been told before) is haunting.

While some people may get bothered by the allusions to child abuse and sexual misconduct, thankfully it’s just fiction. The story is told from the point of view of him regressing to a point of view of an eight-year-old. At other times, an insectoid perspective (basically, what he ate) gets used. As a result, I can’t help but be reminded of classical myths where these bugs are revered and even feared for one reason or another. They often lead to a chrysalis, a metamorphosis, to a new state of mind. What Zaget offers is mesmerising when he gets to that point with the stories presented within a story.

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A Nerd’s Guide to the 2023 Victoria Fringe Festival

A lot more shows are offered in this year’s Victoria Fringe Festival, and fans can delight in this guide that’s sure to satisfy fans of pop culture!

Victoria Fringe Festival 2023 PosterThe annual Victoria Fringe Festival to close off the summer is looking bigger than before! That’s because previous years had the event scaling itself in accordance with BC Health rules, but now that life has settled back to where it must exist, I can’t wait to check out this year’s event. There’s now more touring shows, so for those who can’t plan to visit this garden city, there’s always the Vancouver version or the one near your locale!

The following is my nerd’s guide, and are arranged in no particular order. The links go to show dates and how to purchase tickets.

Dave and Jon’s Mixtape

Dave and Jon's MixtapeAug 24 05:00 pm
Aug 25 08:15 pm
Aug 26 02:15 pm
Aug 27 03:45 pm
Sep 02 04:30 pm

Dave and Jon are talented Improv artists, and by combining that with music, this show will no doubt be interesting to see. Just what kind of curves can be thrown at them depends on whether they can combine Ozzy with Pee Wee Herman, and anything else audiences can throw at them.

https://www.djmixtape.ca/

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Tian Xiaopeng’s Deep Sea is More Than A Study on Depression

This latest import from China arrives just in time for the summer season, and Tian Xiaopeng’s Deep Sea does not dissapoint!

Deep Sea Poster Main Theatrical Release
© 2023 October Media. All Rights Reserved.

Screening at Fantasia Film Festival 2023 on Aug 6
Please click here to purchase tickets

Potential Spoiler Alert

Shenxiu (Tingwen Wang) is not a happy young girl in Tian Xiaopeng’s movie, Deep Sea. That’s because she’s not being loved; not only is she neglected by her dad and step-mom, making her feel very depressed, but also the relationship with her biological one is deteriorating. Because the film didn’t translate all those text conversations that blitzed by in the opening act, I’m thankful I understood enough to notice.

But to comprehend everything this motion picture presents requires a few more viewings and an updated subtitle file to play along with this movie. Although I had an electronic press kit to help reveal some other details, I’d rather want to discover these facts on my own.

Thankfully, more screenings after Tribecca and Fantasia Film Fest are planned, and I would love to see this on the big screen as the filmmaker intended. Xiaopeng is best known for Monkey King: The Hero is Back (movie review), and while that tale delivers more in the humour department, I believe his sophomore work is darker.

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