Who doesn’t like a good foursome, right? KnowwhutImean? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. We’ve got The Beatles, The Ghostbusters, ummm..Three Men and a Baby….wisdom teeth…that one time you experimented back in college when…no wait…
Anyway, why work towards a six-pack when you can have an awesome four-pack, right? You see, like me and at least one college chum, Patrick Gauthier knows the value of trying something new in fours and he’s urging you to do it at the Ottawa Fringe Festival.
“There’s lots to see and little time –and you need to cram as much as you can into the next two weeks. Instead of spending that time in front of a screen, why not binge on Fringe?” asks Gauthier, Fringe fest Director and one-time juggler to the Duke of Devonshire. Note, one of these facts may be a little off. You decide. Life’s about choices, folks. Choices like what to see at Fringe! #awesomesegue
Now you, yes you (I see you lookin’) can experience your very own Fringe Festival foursome (say that three times fast!)! Your even get fourplay and by fourplay I mean four plays and by four plays I mean four plays of savings and by savings I mean 15% off…that’s like get the hell out of here HST + 2!
Let’s break this money saving tip down, shall we? With 57 shows in 10 venues over 11 days you can see what jugglin’ Pat means when he talks about having a lot to, well, juggle. Fringe makes it easy to narrow things down a smidge by asking you to scan their show listings page, select four you can’t live without seeing, pick your performance date and, voila, zap, zowey, wow: insta 15% off.
Okay, but I hear you saying: “Mr. Gagne, sir. You said there are nearly 60 shows. However shall we choose? Plus where am I going to find the time to go through all that when I gotta’ sock drawer to collate, hamsters to walk and six hungry jobs to feed?”
Firstly, my father is Mr. Gagne, so just Andre or Superfly Jr., please. Secondly, no worries, alternative theatre lover, I’ve grouped together 5 themed foursomes for your fourplay pickin’ pleasure just a few short lines from now. Note, please check the festival website for show times because, I mean, I can’t do everything for ya’, right, especially after you talked me into walking one of those hamsters. Sheesh!
The Date Night Package
Daters Gonna Date
(Created by Brendan Main & Colleen Waltenbury | Produced by Good Morning Apocalypse)
Follow poor Deb as she struggles to break up with a mime. Thrill at a cavity-inducing visit to Count Chocula’s castle. Shudder at the spirits that haunt a Sexy Swayze Night. Staged by a team that was Patron’s Pick at TOFringe, this is one show worth swiping right for.
The Date (Created by Phoebe Webber | Produced by Phybee): Dating isn’t easy. Phoebe has a blind date. As a woman of a certain age, she knows what to expect. Join her as she waits for his arrival with a calm maturity that is in no way influenced by her fear of the unknown. Plus various opera arias.
What They Said About Love (Created by Steve Budd | Produced by Steve Budd Presents): Steve Budd wonders why other people can and he can’t–tie the knot, that is. So he asked couples about the push and pull of love—what keeps them from pulling apart despite annoying the heck out of each other. Meet a New Age couple that swears they met before they met, a pair of Metal Heads who thought it would be a hoot to get married on 6-6-06, and more.
Dating Myself (Created by Rob Corbett | Produced by Dating Myself Productions): Computer dating in your 50’s sucks and blows but sometimes that’s a good thing. Join our hero on his journey of surviving and celebrating love, sex, distance, kinda open relationships, and dad bods. Losing yourself and finding what you really want?
The Songs and Snickers Package
Piaf and Brel: The Impossible Concert (Created by Melanie Gall | Produced by Melanie Gall): Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel: Two French musical icons. They sang songs of romance and heartbreak, and lived lives of drama and passion. This ‘impossible’ concert, featuring internationally-acclaimed singer Melanie Gall, relives their legendary lives and music.
The Musical Buffet with Rory Gardiner (Created by Rory Gardiner | Produced by Break Free Entertainment) : This award winning songwriter has opened for acts like Keith Urban, toured 3 continents, and he now turns his experiences into a one hour show. Take a comedic look behind the music as Gardiner shares stories, original songs and takes audience requests.
Ottawa Stand-Up Comedy Showcase (Created by Various Artists | Produced by Aldershot Sun Productions): A selection of the finest local comedians will have you grinning, giggling, and crying with laughter. These charismatic comics will destroy the capital city’s stuffy reputation with their witty repartee.
Flawed (Created by Jenn Hayward | Produced by The Jenn Hayward Show): Everyone has flaws, but do we celebrate them enough? Join comedian and author Jenn Hayward as she attends the first annual Flawed awards! Take a trip down memory lane as she celebrates her flaws one by one in a hilarious and touching manner! Flaws from overeating, gambling, pride, and getting turned on by Anne Murray Music, Jenn dishes all!
The Getting Sketchy With It Package
Canada 151 (Created by Not Oasis | Produced by Not Oasis): The party is not over until they say it is! After a Sold-out run at Toronto Fringe, Not Oasis takes their sharp wit and snappy punch lines to the nation’s capital. They’re fashionably late but ready to celebrate!
Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chamedian (Created by Josh Glanc | Produced by Josh Glanc): Glanc’s unique brand of surreal, character sketch comedy is not to be missed. Named by major Australian Broadsheet paper The Age as one of the country’s ‘most exciting emerging talents’. He is strange, surreal, sweet, side-splitting hilarious and bringing it all to Canada for the first time!
The Shit Hot Shit Show (Created by Deborah Ring | Produced by Shit Hot Shit Show): Laugh along with a gang of misfits including outdated phone sex operators, feral hipsters, disgruntled Oompa-Loompas and politician-lusting inanimate objects.
Flabbergasted (Created by Rylan Schwarze, Mitch Muirhead & Ashley Krawchenko): (F)un. (L)ots of fun. (A) lot of fun. (B)unches of fun. (B)unches and bunches of fun. (E)normous amounts of fun. (R)eally fun. (G)reat fun. (A)mazingly fun. (S)ooooo fun. (T)ooooo fun. (E)verything is fun. (D)on’t come to this show.
The Growin’ Up Package
High School High (Created by Alli Harris | Produced by Alli Harris): What REALLY went down in the French portable? Did your mom drop you off too close to the front of the school, and you’re still pissed? Did your friend sell you drugs, but it was actually just a bag of oregano? This one woman musical comedy by Rhythm & Burgundy’s Alli Harris smells like teen spirit!
25 (Created by Elliot Delage | Produced by 1919): Two actors bring to life twelve characters in their mid-twenties, already parents or still kids themselves, longing for the past or projecting into the future. As they slalom through life, they attempt to find “purpose” through work, dance, murder and procreation.
C A M P (Created by Troy Arsenian, Georgia Gibbons, Bennett Langdon, Lauren Rae, Taylor Stewart, Brooke Trealout and Ben Van Dine | Produced by Taboo! Productions): Four teenagers are given their first taste of freedom and authority as they are signing up to be counselors at Camp Nooke. Things go horribly awry when they are not able to handle their newfound autonomy, and struggle to find their place in the world.
Staying Alive (Created by Janice Israeloff & Michael Smith | Produced by Awe! Theatre): Comedian and Recreation Therapist Janice Israeloff shares stories of the horror and joy of aging: a geriatric survivor’s guide drawn from personal experiences of growing old while providing therapy for very old people with Alzheimer’s. Be prepared to laugh and cry.
The Deep Thoughts Package
Becoming (Created by Erum Khan | Produced by Floral Theatre): A woman confined in purgatory grapples with fractured memories of her life. Inspired by the work of avant-garde filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist Maya Deren, Becoming delves into a stream of consciousness exploration of our identities and their ongoing metamorphosis of continued motion through discontinued space.
Re:Construct (Created by Even Gilchrist | Produced by theatre decentred): Struggling to craft his magnum opus, an artist pieces together fragments of his past. He debates with another side of himself about which parts of his life should be used as inspiration and which should be hidden from the rest of the world.
Lungs (Created by Duncan Macmillan | Produced by Cart Before the Horse Theatre): In today’s climate, is having a child a right or a privilege? An intimate and searing glimpse into how quickly life can happen. From the producers that brought you Perfect Pie, Rideshares and Rope Swings and The Shape of a Girl we present the Ottawa premiere of Lungs, written by multi award-winning playwright Duncan Macmillan.
…like nobody’s watching (Created by Jake Simonds Produced by Jake Simonds): Tom Hanks had Wilson. Jake Simonds has Spalding. Inspired by survival-in-isolation cinema and the monologues of Spalding Gray (“Swimming to Cambodia,” Wooster Group), …like nobody’s watching is a funny show about loneliness.
