ringe finds

First week of the Vancouver Fringe Festival

The Eighth Annual Vancouver Fringe Festival. Ten locations centr-
ing on Main and 11th. Te Sept. 20. 873-3646 for information.

HERE 1S a jar of jellybeans on display in the volun-

_ teers’ lounge.

Count them obsessively
for prizes or wonder at the possi-
ble flavor combinations.

Like jellybeans, the fringe expe-
rience can be crammed chaot-
ically into the organism in an orgy
of timetables and frantic dashes

: from ticket wicket to venue in
order to consume the mast in the
least amount of time.

Or it can be savored, one play at
a time, leisurely digesting sharply
different taste sensations. .

There should be something for
everyone among 100 different.

“shows.. ;

Finding it; of course, may owe

“something to luck.

Frenetic, funky, often funny, ec-

casionally frustrating, the Fringe is

Martin Millerchip

. THEATRE REVIEW

And that is both the strength and
weakness of the show.

The modish mood whisks the
audience along so briskly that
several of the pieces have no time

44 Frenetic, funky, often
Sunny, occasionally
frustrating, the Fringe is
Srugal. 93 .

frugal. With most tickets $8 or less

_ you can get a lot of beans for your _

“puck

> Pinter's Briefs and Beckett's

.. Shorts.

“- Full House Theatre performs two .

short pieces by Harold Pinter and
Samuel Beckett with stylish charm.

-_ Costume and props by Tanya

Dixon-Warren create a surrealistic

. elegance that co-directors Kathryn

: Bracht and Corinne Hebden fully
utilize ina series of seamless -

~ segues that are choreographed to
a superb soundscape by Randall

+ Plt .

--S-<e lip &-Severinte

to settle into our psyche. They are
denied the time to make their own
point. —

This is most obvious with the .
Beckett works.

The three women of Come and
Goshare space, memories, and
secrets before joining hands and
sitting in ‘silence.

The final line, “I can feel the

” rings’ resonates with layers of

connection and experience that
need time to resolve.

However, wanting more time
with the Beckett pieces (plays?) is a

- recommendation of both content

and performance.

te

Vancouver

Join the Fun and Win:

© Play

Admission:
Single Adult $6.00
Seniors”

the Passport Game © Door Prizes © Grand Prize - Trip for 2 -Australia

Name:

“$4.50
Child.(6-12) $4.50 Address:

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[Max,

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linear plot.

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olfice,

The Pinter plays are generally
disappointing in comyarison.

Bruce Harwood and Cavan
Cunningham who, together with
Laura White, are brilliant in Catas-
trophe, have no handle on the
slow North Country rhythms that
generate the comedy implicit in
Trouble in The ivorks, while Ap-
plicantis played for Monty Python
laughs throughout with no thought
as to any horror that might be im-
plicit in physical pain. —

This is a playwright whose major
plays are suffused with an aura of
menace.

The one excentional Pinter work
is Night.

Aman and woman explore their
recollections of the first date while
alienation poisons their memory.

Michaei Fera and Gina Brunton
are coldly fascinating in this early
exploration of the Betrayal theme.

Raw Materials.
_ Co-created by director Brenda
Leadlay and North Shore actor

Suzie Payne, Raw Materials is a

work-in-progress that is not

scripted in the conventional way.

Payne speaks words that seem .

- appropriate to the moment and

hence can change from night to
night. oo ;
--There is information to be im-
parted but how it arrives depends

- on Payne’s response to following

through on ail physical impulses.
There is also no conventional
Instead a series of female images
is presented by Payne. O
! thought | understood: woman
as old {and rejected); woman as
virgin (and rejected); woman as
lover/whore (of the devil?).
Understanding this performance
work is better achieved by experi-
ence than analytical thought, but
the old woman’s repeated ques-
tion, “Do you know me?” pro- .

See Out page 32

includes: Airfare by
Ss

& Ground Package Courtesy.
of BACESETTER
Travan

Austra

17:00 a.2i - 6:00 p.rs,

pre

HAROLD S. Keith (left) and Bruce Harwood model Pinter: brie!
and Beckett shorts: Full House Theatre performs short. work

the playwrights at this year's Vancouver Frings Feativa