Ottawa Fringe 2009, Day 7: Ain’t Nothing Going To Break My Stride

I found some time to work on my monologue from Scorched and then jetted off to see shows.

First on the bill was The Accident. This one-man show starts with a lot of promise, mixing up an exhilarating cocktail of movement and dialogue. As the show progresses, the story turns out — by my tastes — to be fairly conventional and the characters not terribly complex. As a result, the very long (and sometimes over-time) show drags. Jonno Katz is skilled at what he does, so if you are interested in the intersection between theatre and dance, this may be worth seeing.

A quick hop, skip, and a jump and I was in line for the much talked about Catgut Strung Violin.This is a talented bunch of guys and they do what they do very well. There are some wonderful sight gags and some great moments of impressive on-stage physicality. If you like your comedy light and physical, this is sure to delight.

Then, a bunch of us made a desperate and futile attempt to go see Countries Shaped Like Stars which was, unfortunately (for us, but not for the production!) already sold out. Thanks to the Facebook status birdie, I learned this morning they sold out in twenty-five minutes. Nice.

As we walked back to Academic Hall, it was great to see people jogging towards the venue. Any locally produced show that can generate that kind of excitement for theatre is good for all of us. Well done Team CSLS. I hope I actually manage to see the damn thing. Re-mount?

Fortunately, thanks to a very strong line-up at this year’s Fringe, if your first show-choice sells out, there is plenty of other quality fare to see. And such was the case here. Our posse returned to Academic Hall to catch Spiral Dive, Episode One. I enjoyed this character and plot-driven show which tells the tale of a young Canadian pilot in World War Two. In particular, I liked the attention to detail with respect to the technical aspects of flight, something which I can’t recall ever seeing in any story about pilots. Well-worth seeing.

Then, it was off to the beer tent. First stop, priority number one: the food guys! I had the beef sticks with peanut sauce. Yum! Especially, with a beer in hand.

Sadly, we arrived too late to get on the karaoke set list but there were many capable performers who were more than willing to rock the mic. Which comes as a great surprise because we all know actors are a bunch of shrinking violets who are terrified of free publicity. The Adorkeable Thespian (formerly known as DQ — check out the new blog!) got her Oreo mojo working by dropping… wait for it …. wait for it…. Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover by whiter than white Paul Simon.

Once again, there was an impressive number of people rocking the beer tent right up until Noah the barman politely indicated we had ten minutes left. Apparently, in the days of Ottawa Fringe gone-by, there used to be an award along the lines of “commitment to drinking.” He suggested I would be at the top of the list. Ah, the cockles warm. Shame it’s no longer kosher to publicly reward alcoholism. The legends of theatre are rolling in their graves I tell you.

For more posts like this, click here.