Plenty of variety at Toronto’s Fringe Festival

With 150 productions of every type, The Fringe, Toronto’s largest theatre festival, has plenty of variety.  (with video)

Ariel Platt brings her one-woman show to The Fringe

My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish-Wiccan Wedding is a musical comedy based on a true story.

“It’s basically the story about how my mother moved from Saskatchewan to Ottawa and in the process discovered her lesbianism and rediscovered her Judaism,” the musical’s co-writer David Hein says. “It’s about how she came out to me, both as a lesbian and a Jew.”

The musical features Stratford and Shaw festivals alumnus Lisa Horner as Claire Goldstein, as she comes out to her teenage son, ex-husband and homophobic Jewish mother.

“It’s 95 per cent true,” Hein says. “People have said it’s a love letter to my moms.”

His mother’s wedding was held under a chupah and had the traditional breaking of the glass, as well as the not-so-traditional jumping over a pail with a broom.

“It’s a lovely story about how they reconciled their beliefs,” Hein said. “Things that I find typical, everyone thinks is bizarre.”

He says when his mother came out, he found it easier to understand his mother as a lesbian than as a Jew.

“I was aware my family was Jewish, but we didn’t celebrate any holidays or anything. It was stranger to me than her coming out as a lesbian. I had no idea what I was supposed to do.”

The musical features 20 songs written by Hein, including Don’t Take Your Lesbian Moms to Hooters.

Hein wrote the play with Irene Carl, his wife, whom he introduced to his mother at Hooters.

My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish-Wiccan Wedding is performed at the Bread & Circus Theatre in Kensington Market, 299 Augusta Ave.

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A relationship of different sorts between two women is the subject of the comedy Build a Bridge and Get Over It.

“It’s about two girls who come from completely different backgrounds, who spend  a weekend at a self-help retreat in north Ontario,” says co-writer and actor Lori Pearlstein.

Kathy Mulligan and Jessica Goldman are two unlikely cabin mates who find themselves shut away in the woods surrounded by drum circles, primal scream therapy and parsnip burgers.

“My character [Jessica] is a young Jewish professional, and the other character is a lesbian with no educational background. The play is about how we judge people on superficial issues.”

Pearlstein says she knows many people who have faced severe hardships in their lives but got over it.

“I know someone who had a child die,” she says. “Some let these hardships ruin their lives, but others don’t. And if they can get over stuff like that, then I can get through the little things.”

Pearlstein once worked at a retirement home where several residents were Holocaust survivors. One woman, she recalls, would tell a joke each morning.

“If they can laugh after what they’ve been through, it puts everything in perspective,” Pearlstein says.

She said that she wants this play to inspire people. “It is possible to wake up with a smile each day. I wanted to write a play that got people to question where they find the answers and if there even is one right answer.”

Shannon McDonough, who co-wrote the play, plays Kathy Mulligan.

Build a Bridge and Get Over It is at the Tarragon Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Ave.

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Slam poetry contest winner Ariel Platt writes and performs her one-woman show Down to the Underwire, a stream-of-consciousness monologue that touches upon every possible subject.

“Parts are ‘laugh-out-loud’ and parts are more dramatic,” Platt says. “I cover a wide range of things, from heartbreak to eating bacon, to my family. Basically, life in general and what it’s like to grow up in Toronto.”

She delivers her monologue in spoken word poems. “Spoken word poetry is poetry for everyone. It’s more conversational, like rap or hip hop. It’s not ‘snobby’ poetry,” she explains. “It’s not like Shakespeare or anything.”

She says she tries to infuse her sense of humour into her work so that people can laugh one minute and be struck by her sheer honesty the next.

“I write about my experiences and relationships that are quite personal, but often I think people can relate to them quite well. I say what many people are feeling but just don’t say in casual conversation.”

Her performance is a high-energy, staccato delivery; a series of three-minute poems. “It’s all about performance. It’s poetry from the stage not from the page.”

Platt has a theatre background and has performed in slam poetry contests and at numerous events, including Cool Jew Cabaret.

Down to the Underwire has a “unique style for a Fringe show and something to which audiences can relate and find inspiring,” she says.

Platt performs the show at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse, 79A St. George St., south of Harbord St.

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More like something out of Cirque de Soleil, Head First, produced, created and performed by Femmes du Feu, is a bare knuckle, death-defying, aerial dance with a hefty dose of indie rock.

Performed by an all-female cast, Head First has two aerial dance pieces choreographed by Holly Treddenick and Sabrina Pringle, which combine expression, physicality and dance.

At the Theatre Passe Muraille Main Space, 16 Ryerson Ave.

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Finally, Bags: Obsession of a Hoardaholic, written and performed by Lee Michael Buckman, explores obsessive personalities.

 


 

“When I was writing this show, I thought I was outing my freak, but the more I spoke to people about it and heard their own experiences with obsessive nature, the more I realized how human and universal it was,” Buckman says.

“The extra pens you stash in your desk. The packets of Sweet’N Low from the coffee shop. That was my mother’s favourite. We found hundreds of them stashed in her stuff after she died. Or even hoarding your heart. I began this project to out myself as a hoarder and discovered we are all indeed hoarding something.”

Bags: Obsessions of a Hoardaholic will be performed at the historic Glen Morris Theatre, at 4 Glen Morris St. (3 streets south of Bloor St.W., just east of Spadina Ave.).

The Fringe runs from July 1 to 12 at various venues around the city. Admission is $10. For dates, times and information on these and other performances, visit www.fringetoronto.com. Call the Fringe Hotline at 416-966-1062 or 1-866-515-7799. You can also buy tickets at the Fringe Club at 292 Brunswick Ave.