No Belles
At the False Creek Gym
September 13, 15 and 16
Tickets at vancouverfringe.com or at the door
How many female Nobel Prize winners in science can you name? Marie Currie? That’s it? She not only won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) but she also won the prize for Chemistry (1911). And, not only is she the only woman to win in two categories, she’s the only person to win in two categories. Written and performed by Kimberly Wilson, Jade Hobbs Strong, Melissa Schenter and Portal Theatre artistic director Michael Phillips (on ukulele), No Belles is an intimate, playful and enlightening look at the lives of some of the only 17 female Nobel Prize winners. With the exception of Currie, I had never even heard of the other seven that No Belles illuminates. Stories of stolen ideas and tales of working as ‘volunteers’ while their male counterparts got paid abound. One winner was described by a male colleague as “a bad-tempered bluestocking who could have been pretty if she didn’t wear glasses”. She actually didn’t wear glasses. Another was heralded in a newspaper headline, “San Diego Mother Wins Nobel Prize.” This is a lively, always engaging performance with lots of variety including music and, hard to believe, sock puppets. Moms and dads, take your young daughters before it’s too late. God help you, they could go into the Arts and never get a chance to save millions of lives through their research.
Poly Queer Love Ballad
At the Revue Stage
September 14 and 16
Tickets at vancouverfringe.com or at the door
Sara Vickruck and Anais West team up in this love story that goes off the rails. Poly stands for polyamory – the ability or capacity to love more than one person at a time. Nina (West) is polyamorous and that presents a problem for Gaby (Vickruck) who just wants to be Nina’s ‘primary’. (The cheat sheet tells us a primary is a close, interconnected relationship such as a spouse) . Ah, but it’s those pesky ‘secondaries’ that drive Gaby crazy with jealousy. And Nina’s secondary is a guy – even worse. How does a nice ‘soft butch’ compete successfully with a lover who has real boy parts?
Nina and Gaby meet at an open mike on The Drive: Nina’s a poet and Gaby, a singer/songwriter. Can their love last when Gaby is into the relationship “for the long haul” and Nina clearly is not. Vickruck and West are like two puppies playing around on stage; the show – with West’s poetry and Vickruck’s songs – is obviously rehearsed but it all feels spontaneous, personal and so very generous.
Martin Dockery: Delirium
At the Waterfront Theatre
September 13 and 15
Tickets at vancouverfringe.com or at the door
It’s always delirious being in the presence of Martin Dockery, master storyteller and weaver of tangled tales that miraculously come together like a Monkey’s Fist Knot – mariners, weavers and macramé artists know it well. And Dockery is beyond animated: his long-fingered hands are like spiders jumping, flying and spinning webs in the air. He’s long, he’s lean and all his long-time Fringe fans will be happy to know he married the much-storied Vanessa – yes, she’s real – and they are the parents of a four-month-old baby. Delirium blends a situation with Vanessa at a border crossing, meeting a dark stranger at Burning Man and the death of Dockery’s dog Lucy. I know, impossible, right? Dockery does it. Invoking the Flaming Lips, “Do You Realize (That Everyone You Know Will Someday Die?)”, he suggests we cherish the good times. Delirium feels good. No, it feels great. Don’t miss it.
A Sad Ass Cabaret
At Havana Theatre
September 12, 14 and 15
Tickets at vancouverfringe.com or at the door
There are songs that make us sad but there are singers who spend a lifetime writing and performing those sad songs. TJ Dawe, who must hold the record for the most Fringe appearances – 113 and counting, teams up with his real-life partner Lindsay Robertson in A Sad Ass Cabaret which, sadly, isn’t set in a cabaret. (In fact, it’s easy to miss the Havana Restaurant because it’s all boarded up due to a recent fire. Entry to the theatre is through a side door.) Storyteller extraordinaire TJ zeroes in on the lives of Hank Williams, Bessie Smith, Judy Garland and Sufjan Stevens and lets us in on some of the reasons they sang those oh-so-sad songs. TJ steps back, Robertson steps in and, accompanying herself on the guitar, sings some of the songs including William’s “Rambling Man” and Garland’s “Over The Rainbow”. Accustomed as we are to TJ’s rapid-fire, non-stop delivery of ironic, funny, weird and wonderful stuff, a Sad Ass Cabaret feels stuck: story, song, story, song etcetera. Robertson has a terrific voice but this show might work better if there were simply ‘snippets’ of songs and less of TJ standing quietly, hands folded in the background. Hard to imagine, right? For diehard TJ fans, he’s also performing A Canadian Bartender at Butlin’s, an oldie but still a goodie.
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
At The Cultch
September 11, 14 and 16
Tickets at vancouverfringe.com or at the door
This show made me so uncomfortable, my heart was racing. And not in a good way. Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, it is so misogynistic it’s painful. The film version, based on Fassbinder’s earlier play, came out in Germany in 1972 and caused a huge controversy from critics and filmgoers alike who claimed it was not only misogynistic, sadomasochistic but also homophobic. Petra (Nadya Debogorski), is a high-end fashion designer, living in luxury (although the set looks as if she’s down and out, living on a mattress on the floor) and obsequiously waited upon by silent, ever-observant Marlene (Shelby Satterthwaite). When Petra’s friend introduces her to Karinn (Kate Boutilier), Petra becomes immediately besotted by her, lavishing praise, alcohol and promises of making her a supermodel. In this all-female cast of half a dozen, there is not one character that isn’t nasty, narcissistic, overbearing, bad-tempered, petulant and downright bitchy. Debogorski does a good job to the extent that if she snaps her fingers or yells at Marlene one more time, you just want to throttle her. Except for showcasing Debogorski, I can’t imagine why Midtwenties Theatre would dig The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant out of the archives.
Rabbit Hole
At The Cultch
September 12, 15 and 16
Tickets at vancouverfringe.com or at the door
This show rings so true and is such a fine example of ensemble playing, I felt like a fly on the wall of the Corbett household. It’s a family drama beginning eight months after the death of Howie and Becca Corbett’s four-year-old son Danny. While the story of his death unrolls gradually, it’s apparent off the top of the play that this couple is broken. Becca (Lori Watt) is brisk, folding laundry, making lemon squares. Howie (Chris Nowland) watches TV. Becca’s mother (Linda Darlow) tries to help but is still suffering over the suicide of Becca’s brother Arthur years ago. Becca’s sister Izzy (Lesli Brownlee), newly pregnant, watches but doesn’t know how to help. Nobody does. Not ‘group’, not friends. No one. And then there is Jason (Braden Lock) who was at the wheel of the car that killed Danny. Is there any help for him? Written by Pulitzer prize-winning David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole is intense, honest, insightful and, without being saccharine, it offers a glimmer of light to the Corbetts – and to us – in a strange and wondrous way. This Frolicking Divas presentation deserves remounting after the Fringe in the same intimate setting at the Vancity Culture Lab at The Cultch.