Adam Francis Proulx and friends in Emilio’s A Million Chameleons, The Pucking Fuppet Co. at Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo

638 Ways To Kill Casto, Vault Theatre at Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo by Spenser Kells.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

It’s the eve of the 43rd annual Edmonton International Fringe Theatre festival. And you have 216 shows in 38 venues to choose from. Don’t be daunted, be pumped. Be curious as you dive into the Fringe multi-verse.

To help support 12thnight.ca YEG theatre coverage, click here.

Did you have a peek at 12thnight’s selection of intriguing prospects here, to get you started on your Fringe quest? It’s here. And here are some further thoughts for Finding Your Fringe.

A new play by a young playwright. It’s what we all want to find at the Fringe. And here’s one with an unusual dark comedy/satire premise. 638 Ways To Kill Castro by actor/playwright Sebastian Ley caught my eye. It’s the ‘70s, and here’s the thing: Can a team of four bumbling CIA agents — code name Operation Mongoose — accomplish what 15 years of assassination attempts have failed to deliver?

“I came up with the idea years ago when I was at Studio 58, after reading a great Politico article about the assassination attempts,” says Ley. “I found that the real-life stories were almost more absurd than anything I could come up with, including exploding seashells, cigar bombs, botulism-filled diving suits, boots to make his beard fall out, and of course psychic warfare.”

For Ley, the recurring question was “what kind of bizarre people would come up with such crazy ideas to assassinate someone?” We’re about to find out. The core of the plot is “the interpersonal relationships and awkward personalities of the four agents….” He summarizes the theme: “I’d say the show is about nepotism, unchecked governments, and what it means to be a hero. A good stylistic comparison would be (the movie) The Death of Stalin.

The cast assembled by innovative director Kathleen Weiss includes Samuel Bronson, David Ley, Sebastian Ley, and Patrick Lynn. Yup, two Leys: the last time David and Sebastian, father and son, were onstage together at the Fringe was in David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre in 2019.

Amabano y’inka at Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo supplied.

Populating the stage. There are a lot of one-person shows at the Fringe, to be sure. The Fringe’s only show ever from Burundi (I’m pretty sure) is Amabano y’inka, an acrobatic traditional dance from the Burundian province of Makamba — with a high-energy cast of 18. High School Musical, which premiered on the Disney Channel in 2006 and has been a hit onstage and screen ever since (including meta versions that have high school kids auditioning to be in High School Musical) has a 13-member cast. And, hey, that number includes the great musical theatre guru Linette Smith herself! An antidote to every Fringe play you’ve ever seen that wonders aloud how anyone ever survives the endless nightmare miseries of high school.    

A new venue. Fringe shows of every description have long rehearsed downtown at the Citadel, Edmonton’s largest theatre. But the only Fringe show ever to actually play the mighty Citadel, as a BYOV, happens this year. Bull by the Brit playwright/ screenwriter/ satirist Mike Bartlett (and a companion piece to Cock), is an eviscerating attack on the corporate culture, a disturbing office power play that gets nastier and nastier. That it’s billed as “site-specific” and happens in the Citadel Boardroom (Stage 38) is satire in itself. Director Jake Planinc, who has an MFA in directing from the U of A  and a group of like minded U of A theatre grads to direct says Bull falls into the repertoire he favours — plays that lean into realism, and are “actor/dialogue-centric, fast” says that the Citadel “are very excited to have a Fringe show in the building.”

Sue Huff and Kevin Tokarsky in I, Diana, Northern Sabbatical Productions at Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo by Axel Torres.

Custom-made. The Fringe is a hotbed of “creation theatre,” custom-made by artists to perform themselves. With I, Diana playwright Linda Wood Edwards (Spring Alibi, True Grid) has created a comedy/drama for other people, to wit the husband-and-wife team of Sue Huff and Kevin Tokarsky. I, Diana draws a bead on relationships and marriage from the unexpected angle of an independent goddess, a serial spouse, who operates on the narcissist’s code. Intriguing that it’s “inspired by real life prairie events,” as billed.

Adam Francis Proulx in Emilio’s A Million Chameleons, The Pucking Fuppet Co. Photo supplied

OK, you’re in love with puppetry (and occasionally wonder if you might be a puppet yourself). If you caught sight of Adam Francis Proulx’s brilliant, ingenious, (and bonkers) one-man all-crow murder mystery last summer, The Family Crow: A Murder Mystery, you (like me) will be very attracted to the cross-species return of this virtuoso puppeteer/ playwright. Emilo’s A Million Chameleons concerns the volatile fortunes of the title impresario who tours the world with his celebrated chameleon circus.

The Flying Doctor, Empress of Blandings at Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo supplied.

Reinventing the classics. The Indie troupe Empress of Blandings is all about reimagining the classic repertoire for young, fleet, contemporary. They celebrate their 10th anniversary with a Fringe revival of their very first production, Celia Taylor’s original translation of the Molière comedy The Flying Doctor.

Tell me a story. The Fringe circuit has always attracted great storytellers. Three of the best have returned for Find Your Fringe with new shows. And it’s perhaps no coincident that, in this bizarre and chaotic post-truth world in which we find ourselves, two are actually about lies. Martin Dockery: Truth, which brings back to town the wry, sly Brooklyn-based storyteller, is one. The puckish and genial tall-tale Kentuckian yarn-spinner Paul Strickland, an heir to the Mark Twain tradition, is another. The image of the “implied garden” at the Big Fib Trailer Park from his show Ain’t True & Uncle False, lingers in the mind. His new show? 1nce Upon A Lie: Paul Strickland. The third, the Australian storyteller Jon Bennett (Fire In The Meth Lab), has actually moved to the U.S., target of his comedic barbs in the past. In Jon Bennett: Ameri-can’t,  he will have to account for himself.

The Bells, Orpheum Productions at Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo supplied.

Reimagining the musical theatre. It’s kind of awe-inspiring that Fringe artists continue to experiment with the demands of music as a way of storytelling onstage. Here are a couple of new ones. With The Bells, for example, emerging Edmonton artists Cassie Hyman and Eli Gusdal have created a folk/blues musical exploring the world of the Brontë siblings, “cradle to casket.” And they’re testing it out at the Fringe.

Let’s Not Turn On Each Other, Walters and Watt at Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo supplied.

The team of Jacquelin Walters and Michael Watt, creators of last year’s highly original folk musical What Was Is All, is back with a new “play with music.” In Let’s Not Turn On Each Other, two outcasts from a cult have been surviving in the wilderness awaiting a sign from the “divine leader,” when “a discovery” inspires a relocation, and a musical pilgrimage. Watt calls their chosen musical style “theatrical folk music.” The new “play with music” is of a similar style to the music of What Was Is All, but if it were written by clowns.”

Eleanor’s Story: Life After War, by and starring Ingrid Garner at Edmonton Fringe 2024. Photo supplied.

And now the sequel. Eleanor’s Story: An American Girl in Hitler’s Germany, Ingrid Garner’s affecting and vivid hit solo show culled from her grandmother’s memoir, toured the Fringe circuits world-wide for many years. It was a fascinating vision of war-time Berlin seen through the innocent eyes of a little girl. Now Garner has fashioned a sequel, in which Eleanor, now 16, returns home to the U.S. after seven years. How will she negotiate American high school after the memories that haunt her?

For a full schedule, show annotations, changes and updates, and tickets: fringetheatre.ca.