22 — Friday, September 18, 1998 — ?vorth Shore News

Picking diamonds from the dreck

@ The 14ch) Annual Fringe, Vancouver’s Theatre Festival. Eight venues split benween Commercial Drive and Downtown East. Tickess ar door or in advance from Festival Box Office, 1146 Commercial Drive. Phone 257-0366.

IT was weird.

Cruising the Fringe the day after attending the opening of Rent was definitely weird.

First there’s this huge difference in production values.

At Rent you get: a large cast who don’t miss a beat; rock musical lights and costumes (albcit grunge-inspired); megawatt amplification; air conditioning; comfcy, reserved seats.

At the Fringe you might get: a single actor making it up as he gocs along; cight lamps, but if you run them at full power they blow up (W.I.S.E. Half); actors wearing basic black on stage and grunge off it; taped music if the cast member with the cassettes remembers to bring them, air conditioning if you know your venues, a free sauna if you

don’t; a reserved ticket, but THEATRE -

you'd still better be there an

hour before curtain if you want your choice of seat. Then there’s something of a

difference in the audience.

_ At Rent, most customers were dressed way cool, drank

Perrier with a twist and spoke only to their friends so that

others might hear.

Most savvy Fringers dress to stay cool, carry their own water and strike up real conversations with total strangers about what’s worth secing.

And then there’s the moncy.

You can see one two and a half hour musical for as much as $80 or you can see as many as 10 shows, or 15 hours of theatre, for the same money.

Ren Aah, you say, would any of these shows be 2s good as

‘elt, I say, most will range from sclf-induigent dreck through well-mcaning boredom. Some will feature good acting, or a good script, and fewer still both.

But the the odds are good that onc out of fifteen, for whatever reason, will have you on the edge of your sear, the heat forgotten, totally immersed in an unexpected gem of a production. That at the end, you will bounce to your feet

ra standing ovation without wondering whether you arc doing it because it is de rigeur for all visiting musicals. That you will leave the theatre wondering on the weirdness of tw entertainment dollar and why $8 sometimes seems to

worth ten times as much.

Under The Influence. And this was it. ~~ This was the little show with one actor and three charac- ters that had me making enjoyment comparisons with Rent. 3” Vid not see North Vancouver playwright Michele Rim!’s _ 1993 Fringe mt: Miss Teen. Y'm regretting that now, because: Under The Influence demonstrates real talent. “| Rim! gives us three urban women cracking under socictal pressure. In the hands of Susinn McFarlen they are all differ- ent and all, to some degree, affecting.

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Masrn MiLLercHie CURTAIN CALL

Morcover, Rim! finds three different conventions to justify the monologues cleverly circumventing the downfall of many one person plays.

Simone is a recovering fashion addict — “a harsh ward. You can’t OD on Chanel, can you?” Her real tragedy is not her 13 maxed-our credit cards but what they say about her self-worth.

Dee is a video director who doesn’t realize she is obsessing on keeping the princess- myth (as in Di) alive. “I want to keep it real here” she says, oblivious to her own manipulation of sentinient. Although (very good) director Andrew McTroy allows McFarlen to go over the top ‘in the com- parison of Dee's studio boss to the Queca, this segment is the strongest in terms of character shading.

Physically, the final character, Anna, presents Mcfarlen with the biggest challenge as the actor manifests her charac- ter’s inner child. A wild romp ensues as two character halves struggle for expression and control.

Twas left torn between marvelling at McFarlen’s comic ability and a desire to know more about what brought Ana here.

There are actually four characters in Riml’s play and I can’t wait to see it all performed, preferably by McFaricn.

One show remaining, Sept. 20 at noon. Blinding Light Theatre, 36, Powell St.

Shadows of Under Milk Wood

I still can’t decide if knowing Under Milk Wood was a handicap to enjoying this collective work that springboards off Dytan Thomas’s play for voices.

On the onc hand there was knowledge that helped to fill in some of the structural holes of Shadows, but on the other side of the equation there was regret for the loss of all that lovely Welsh-accented poctry.

Shadows is the collective creation of 12 actors who have been workshopping under the guidance of well-known Fri ringe actor and director Kate Hale of England’s Foursight Theatre.

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Hale says her process is actor-centric — the actor is given full responsibility and begins with physical impulses in order to ereate imagery and character.

The company went camping together, in character, and have come back with something that reminded me of Marat Sade, as performed by the inmates of the asylum!

There are some heart-stopping moments of theatricality, images that had a truly manic, magic quality to them. But when every choice is pushed to a grotesque edge the shew only has some- thing to say about grotesqueries.

I have no wish to belittle the process these (mostly) very good actors went through, but perhaps 13 are too many voices trying to decide what is being said. Or per- haps there was simply not enough time to fulfill the promise of all the exploration.

Two shows remaining, Sept. 19 at 2:30 p.m. and Sept. 20 at 2:15 p.m. Vancouver Performing Arts Centre (VPAC), 138 E. Cordava St.

JASON Bryden Stars in Nervous at the Fringe.

Nervous