The 27th Edition of the St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival!

Montreal's MainLine Theatre is pleased to announce this year’s St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival, The shows run from May 29 to June 18. Take your pick of over 800 performances by more than 500 artists in over 20 intimate venues this June. Celebrate quebecois, national and international artists converging in the Plateau Mont-Royal for a multidisciplinary, French and English festival of theatre, music, dance, visual arts and more!

 UNIQUE FRINGE PRINCIPLES

• No artistic direction. Artists are chosen by lottery or first-apply, first-accepted.
• No censorship. Artists are uncensored and have complete freedom to present anything.
• Accessibility to artists. Anyone can apply to the lottery.
• Accessibility to audience. Ticket prices are capped at $10 and 100% of that ticket price is returned to the artists you see on stage.

“Straight off the heels of hosting the World FRINGE Congress and becoming a finalist for le Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montreal, we’re feeling a surge of new attention,” says Executive & Artistic Director Amy Blackmore. “For many years, the FRINGE movement was one of Montreal’s most exciting secrets. Now Montrealers are embracing the spirit of the FRINGE, inspiring them to jump on board with our values of diversity, community and artistic freedom.”

Amy Blackmore

Montreal’s biggest bilingual indie arts party is jam-packed with three programs:

• FRINGE After Dark (May 29-June 18)
• FRINGE A-Z (May 31-June 18)
• FRINGE Park (June 8-18)

FRINGE audiences are encouraged to be adventurous, see a show and write their own reviews. Word-of-mouth is king at the festival, as most artists are premiering new works. Follow the conversation using the hashtag #fringebuzz to uncover this year’s mega hits.

New this year: To deepen the connection with community, Montreal Fringe launched the FRINGE MENU with favourite neighbourhood businesses. Lots of restaurants are in on this Fringe binge.

HISTORY
The first FRINGE Festival was the Edinburgh Festival FRINGE, established in 1947 by a group of eight theatre companies prevented from participating in that year’s Edinburgh Festival. This inspired the creation of Canada’s first FRINGE Festival, the Edmonton FRINGE Festival in 1982. A decade later in 1991, the St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival was founded on McGill Campus by Kris Kieren and Nick Morra. Over the years, the festival has grown to become an essential cultural variety pack kicking off Montreal’s famed summer festival season.

July 11th is International Fringe Day throughout the world, and so along with  Quebec's 35% French language shows and 35% of Quebec English shows, the rest of the pie is divided up: 15 Canadian shows and 15% international ones. I can hardly wait to feast on the amazing variety of Fringe shows! Thanks to Queen Bee herself, Amy Blackmore for leading us into the greatest Fringe hive ever. 

       Reviews follow

INTERSTELLAR ELDER (Directed by Kathleen Greenfield) 
A Snafu production

There is no end of skill and remarkable talent to Ingrid Hansen who plays Kit, a chronically frozen woman who for 200 years remains forever sleeping in her cryonic state until she is chosen to enter a space station as a custodian to dust off earth’s issues.  In fact, the planet remains uninhabitable due to a Swiss char take-over which has

 obliterated everything.

 Inspired by her own granny who felt isolated and terribly lonely in a seniors home, this quirky highly imaginative work, displays Kit’s own desperate loneliness. Kit must follow a daily ritual of waking up, peeing, drinking and more, and this Hansen does in fast motion, thereby showing off her amazing movement training. A huge puppet also takes over in this play that comes from a simple tissue and then grows into a humongous alien creature that attempts to kill her. Hansen is a skilled puppeteer, so this segment of the play towards the end was believable, clever and funny and yet scary too.

Audience involvement added yet another surprising element to it all.

 The props were so unique and used with great ingenuity. I must say Hansen if a star whose weird scenarios work as metaphors for the human condition. A must-see! Catch her as well in the play The Merkin Sisters whose sibling rivalry comes into the play as they create a huge sculpture.

BERLIN WALTZ (Directed by Devon more)

Devon More Music

The actress has moved to Berlin at a young age after the wall was torn down, and she takes a 100-miles bicycle ride down the path where the wall once was. 

As she does, she charts the history of the wall – the leaders who made Germany a truly divided nation, and how it all ended up. 

Screen projections and her own live music with wonderful lyrics spiced up the wall saga that concludes that capitalism, not socialism hit the once enclosed inhabitants like a ton of bricks falling down, much as the wall did. She makes a plea for humanity to help one another not exploit one another. What a talented versatile performer actress is! Her voice is her strongest asset.

 

JON BENNETT VS JASON DONOVAN (Directed by Jon Bennett)

A hilarious game involving the audience answering questions from cue cards read to us by Bennett on the subject of 90s Aussie icon Jason Donovan. We can blow a whistle when we want to stop and do anything we want – like get a beer or go to the toilet, and we can also get Jon to tell us stories which he did in vividly sad and funny ways. It’s us against Donovan. There’s a score keeper from the audience. Usually the audience loses; we just don’t know enough about him. Bennett is charismatic and totally entertaining. What a wacky way to get us to laugh and have a whole lot of fun! 

Nancy and Jon Bennett

POET VERSUS PAGEANT (Directed by Telia Neville)

She’s a gawky misfit with a brain big enough to conquer most any smart aleck or bully who comes her way. But Ms. Poole really wants to show off that she can also outbeautify and outbrain the bimboes of beauty pageants, and so she enters one. What is wholly remarkable and incomparably clever about this playwright’s piece is everything she says has been composed in rhyming couplets!

An Aussie actress of memorable talent with a memory to match. How she remembered all those lines of poetry is proof enough that she is indeed a poet laureate, and a lovely one at that!

AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (Directed by Barbara Newman)

Doctors without Boredom is the name of her solo performance company. What an astoundingly compelling piece this was, and its contents really did happen. Dr Newman is in the most remote tiny village in Haiti. She is trying to deliver a baby whose forehead is obstructing the birth. This is called an obstructed delivery. She ingeniously cuts through cartilage of Martine, the mother, to bring the baby into life. But getting the baby out is preceded with its own human obstructions. Dr. Newman who hails from San Francisco, has worked in Sudan, India and other 3^rd world countries as an ER specialist. No doubt she has a mountain of on-the-edge  stories to tell, and she does so on stage with authenticity and suspense.

AIN’T THAT RICH (Directed by Kate Robards)

A moving and funny autographical tale about growing up real poor on the Texas Louisiana border. Kate’s mom taught her good values, but the falling roof over their heads and the five jobs Kate holds compels her to seek wealth. One thing leads to another and Kate who loves to talk about money is elated, until she realizes the rich are not so nice. She can’t forget her roots nor her brother who desperately needs her help. He’s an alcoholic bit too long.  

The play goes on a bit too long, and the dramatic brother episode sadly tailgates into her riveting message, but by then, we are getting a bit disinterested. Her different characters are excellently acted by this highly talented comedian. The story in itself strips naked the polarity of experiencing wealth juxtaposed to daily poverty struggles.

Here's what Kate says about this autobiographical play:

"The issues and themes in the play are my obsessions and it's all pulled from my life. The thing about working from your life is you have to be really good about checking with the people you write about. The things I'm interested in are the things we're ashamed of, and I think that's what makes good theatre, revealing our deep human truths. 

I started performing 15 minute chunks of the piece at Solo Sundays which a a solo performance showcase in San Francisco. I used that performance venue as a way to figure out my overall story. I just started writing towards experiences of growing up broke with a single mom and an older brother, and marrying someone who just had a totally different background. There were so many things that didn't make the final cut, but I'm not sure audiences want to sit through 90 minutes of just me. There is definitely a 90 minute version, but I'm really happy with the emotional movements and beats of the piece in it's current iteration."

Kate is a trained improvisor. She has an MFA in writing from California College of the Arts and is a graduate of UCB improv training.  She said that at every performance she tries try to do something new like improvising a line or finding a new way to say something. If it works, she'll keep it. That's where she's found some of mher favorite moments actually, through improv.

THE MERKIN SISTERS (Directed by Ingrid Hansen & Stephanie Morin)

 A merkin is the bushy add-on “wig” to the vagina area, and so many innovative hilarious vignettes the two women present are indeed sexual, but the total hair wig that engulphs their bodies - each has her own to wear, which the sibling thespian geniuses play with. No way to describe this one-of-a-kind entertaining show, except to say that these gals are Fringe gold.

BON COP, GOOD COP (Alain Desrochers) **

After the fast moving-events of the first film, Martin Ward (Colin Feore) and David Bouchard (Patrick Huard) have gradually grown apart as their lives and careers have taken them in different directions. Ward is now a senior officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and he is sent in to investigate what is going on with a car theft ring. Both buddies are reunited. 
It would seem Feore is the cop that is more violent than his Québécois counterpart.  Both become embroiled in wacky car chases, outing the bad guys and fending off comments made a by a corrupt FBI head who turns out to have a thing against Muslims. Lots of jibes against French Canadians and stuffy anglos. Lousy plot with confusing situations and far too much violence to balance the laughs it attempted to get. Fore was too sentimental in manner, but Huard was as amusing and with-it as Mel Gibson was in “Lethal Weapon”. Loved the first one, but this one was unconvincing and both appeared to know it. They put French subtitles only when Marti spoke in English and other characters. but God forbid, they should be courteous enough to also put English subtitles for french which was mostly spoken in the film. If they want movie to go international, they had better take the enlightened path and incorporate English subtitles.

LE FILM DE BAZIN (Directed by Pierre Hébert) **

Lovely in feel, this documentary creates a meditative looks as it presents letters and photographs taken by the filmmaker André Bazin of several old Roman churches in Italy and France. 

 Most were weathered by time or partially destroyed by bombs. Animator Hébert recreates their façades – even placing people walking outside on their grounds. Narrated by Michael Lonsdale, the film project by Basin began in 1958 but it ended that year. Bazin died of leukemia. These points of historical referencing should have had a map on the screen to show the viewer their different locations as each one was examined. As well, the ending of the film was most unclear and jumped topic speaking about Martin Luther King, Hitchcock and the White House. 
 This journey into ecclesiastic monuments, although repetitive in some parts, is most peaceful to the eye.
(Screened at FIFA).

A QUIET PASSION (Directed by Terence Davies) ****

                                I’m a poet I doth admit; this film for me is a perfect fit.

                                I related to her solitude, critical mind and harsh morals.

                                                                                                                                   Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon) is so close to her family, she rarely treads beyond. She enjoys writing during the wee hours of the morning in the Amherst home. Her rejection of church and society’s repressive ideas about women fuel he verses which are mainly dark and morbid.  The irony is her verses often coincides with the films scenes. Emily was quick to judge others, cast vicious comments like swift-moving darts at those who lacked moral fiber and wit – such as her brother Austen.  Her poetry was inspired by truth and brutal honesty. No soft touch here; no nature worshiping here; no elation here. Just letting verses keep their rhyme much as she would play with words to pass time. And she paid the price for this. She was lonely. But her greatest rejection in life stared at her every day in the mirror: herself. She felt she was unsightly and suffered so much. She felt she was tainted with a mean soul. Even a suitor she would not allow to look upon her face, remaining at the entrance of her door that was ajar at the top of the stairs to address him. In the film death enters her life as she loses her father and mother, and is left alone with her devoted sister Vinnie. 

She becomes incapable of walking beyond the gorgeous gardens of this maintains close ties with her family while becoming a prolific poet whose work becomes recognized after her death in 1886. The sparring dialogue, delightful wit between her friend and herself, her sister’s elegant devotion and her father’s austere manner whose wife suffered form loneliness and melancholy was all addressed in this film. It was a beautiful portrayal of a cloistered woman who locked in her feelings along with her body inside the house. 

Elegiac in feel, the movie is a remarkable reflection of this poet who dies at the age of 53 from  Bright’s disease. but whose poems outlived her. Her genius finally received recognition posthumously.                                                                             

Two incomparable countertenors in stellar concerts

During Montreal’s Highlights Festival, The Theatre of  Early Music presented two special concerts. In the first one titled "The Lark and the Nightingale", Michael Chance and Daniel Taylor sang soprano-like pitches of such immeasurable beauty as they articulated the profoundly moving music and lyrics written by Henry Purcell (1659-1695). Profound in their religious and lovelorn themes, Purcell’s songs sublimely suited these world-class singers whose exquisite voices sonorously evoke a century international audiences are nostalgic for. The program’s setting was apt as well. Within Montreal’s graceful yet understated Chapelle Notre-Dame-De Bonsecours, Taylor with humour and modesty also gave the stage over to renowned musicians whose instruments artfully brought back the Early Baroque period. The lute (Sylvain Bergeron), viola (Pemi Paul), violins (Adrian Butterfield, Christina Zacharias), recorders (Mathias Maute, Sophie Larivière), cello (Amanda Keesmat) and organ (Christopher Jackson) were in perfect unison as they lushly filled this lovely chapel with instrumental concerto titled, "On the Death of Henry Purcell", composed by recorder/flute virtuoso Mathias Maute.

Encores were endless; perfection can produce such adulation for artists who touch our hearts in the purest way. These artists did. 

Daniel Taylor

                                                                      

Michael Chnace

The following evening’s concert titled,” Come Ye Sons of Art” featured the choir and orchestra of The Theatre of Early Music with Daniel Taylor conducting. He also sang as did Michael Chance. They repeated some songs from the previous evening, including, “Strike the Viol”, “Fairest Isle” and a lovely duet whose song’s remarkably beautiful refrain of “Oh no, Oh no” highlighted their notably lush harmonies. Another repeat from the previous concert was Matthias Maute’s “Concerto on the Death of Henry Purcell”. He masterfully performed again with Sophie Larivière. There was absolute clarity and ease despite the alacrity of tempo and notes most prevalent in the two allegro movements.  The concert’s title song featured full orchestra, choir, and soloists that sent rapture up to the imperious vaulted ceiling of Saint Léon de Westmount’s Church – concert’s venerable venue. Tenor, Jacques-Olivier Chartier, and sopranos Hélène Brunet and Jana Miller, along with the rich bass voice of Daniel Lichiti beautifully interpreted the lyric segments whose themes were of love, nature, religion and royal jubilation. In its entirety, the finale’s long vocal and orchestra piece was in fact an ode composed for the birthday of Queen Mary II in 1694, by Henry Purcell, one year before his passing. One must mention the virtuoso playing of British-born Adrian Butterfield, first violinist who received his training at Cambridge University and whose recordings are world renown. Amanda Keesmat on cello was remarkably strong. In fact, all the soloists, including trumpeter Alexis Basque and lute player, Sylvain Bergeron have performed centre stage in prestigious halls in North America and Europe.

The above concerts took place February 25 & 26.

A Wondrous Performance of Magnificat with Matthias Maute and Friends

On Saturday, January 21, a large-sized audience was inspired by a rare concert that sublimely resurrected the utmost beauty inherent in Baroque music. The supremely noble interior of Montreal’s new Bourgie Hall (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) with it stunning array of stained glass windows was sacredly fitting to the Magnificat program offered by conductor and recorder player extraordinaire Matthias Maute and his Ensemble Caprice.  The choral music sung by the18 artists offered typically reverent praise of God in lyric. The effect was magical mysticism. Bach’s Magnificat and Arvo Pärt shared most of the compositional honours – the former having been born in 1685, the latter still living. Yet the message of each was clearly similar as each verse resounded brilliantly in the Baroque vein; the technical virt
uosity of the vocalists and mid-sized orchestra was noticeably unified. The message was mainly of praise, glory and humility, though solemnity and reference to those who shun God’s omnipotence was evident in Part’s Magnificat. In each of his two choral songs, the choir was godly in tone and phrasing. The voices were immeasurably unified; the harmonies were glorious in colour and mood. The final notes, always lingering into the distance until silence spoke the final beat. Soloists Shannon Mercer (soprano), Philippe Martel (bass) were particularly captivating in Bach’s Magnificat.  Matthias Maute’s lively energy swooped over the musicians, leading them on to perform with gusto the Bourée and Gig in Bach’s Suite III BWV 1068. Although it got off to an uneven start, an exquisite balance of expression and tempo effortlessly overtook the first flaws of looseness in the overture.

The program opened with Antonio Lotti’s Crucifixus à 8, and tears came to my eyes. This choir was outstanding. Superb colouring and a multi-layering of voices in deep minor harmonics was both haunting and eternal.  Finally, in contrast, the robust energy of the entire ensemble showed off its spritely sparkle in Bach’s Magnificat. Everyone left feeling uplifted - that all was right with the world.

Trio Fibonacci “Made in Canada”

 Friday, May 22, 2016, 19 h 30 at the / Vendredi, 22 Mai à 19 h 30 à la Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur 

Members / Membres 

Julie-Anne Derome : violin / violon

Gabriel Prynn: cello / violoncelliste 

Wonny Song: piano / piano

Trio Fibonacci Premiers Great Canadian Compo

It was an evening of unabashed contemporary-style compositions by four daring creators, two of which were commissioned by Trio Fibonacci. This evening’s works fell into two lines of thought regarding contemporary music; it can either be conceptual in image input or completely cerebral in form. The first piece – Elemental was written in 2014 by Jeffrey Ryan. Its four sections – Earth, Water, Air and Fire offered astounding burst of crescendos and dramatic contrasts in use of the instrumental application and expression. To my mind, this fell into the image category. Piano strings were played inside the piano itself; I was hearing and seeing the naissance of the Big Bang, and as it exploded, and then the aftermath -what ensued: the creation of the four vital elements. I loved the rain-drop type lightness of water and its subsequent flow. The music evoked eruptive moments in our planet which from the beginning introduced the sostenuto of the violin and cello on a single note. This piece for me was conceptual in composition, and image visualizations were born via the music we heard.

 The second work by Uriel Vanchestein was commissioned by the Trio and premiered in this concert. Cerebral in approach, the composer told me he had no feeling – no sentiment behind the piece. It was really an intricate play of notes in the sonata – rondo form of four basic notes: F, E, D# and C# used in a motif in three parts. The piece was called Création, and compared to the first piece, it was not nearly as interesting for me, despite the grand variety of instrumental application. It would be a marvellous piece put to a ballet of some sort as Stravinsky did in The Rite of Spring.

The third work performed was titled On the wake of the wind for violin, and the composer David Eagle definitely succeeded in conjuring up images of the wind on water and the transformative mutations of turbulence. Inspired by the poem written by Daniel David Moses. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the computer was subtly used to create an echoing sound at the beginning or the tail end of phrases. It was as if the wind was dying out and new gusts came into the air. The electronic aspect of this work was masterfully planned, and the effect was wonderful.

Finally, my favourite work of three continuous parts was composed by the genius, François-Hugues Leclair. Titled, Hymnen an de Nacht (Hymn at Night), this astounding work – commissioned by Trio Fibonacci – was positively inspirational. I could feel night coming on, and then I was led into its mysterious qualities of its magical darkness. The piece opened with the strings inside the piano being brushed. Here the bows of the artists were set down to create the dying down of light as night begins to ascend. The piano was muted several times so the inside strings when ‘brushed” would create their own tonal lines. It was so ethereal. Ever-so quiet slides up and down the string instruments then came into play as the artists returned to their instruments; good thing violinist, Julie-Anne Derome  had taken off her high-heel shoes to avoid any sound as she returned to her violin.

Nighttime held me in its grip. The ending part of the piece which offered moving harmony in ascension was god-like.

Trio Fibonacci pulled off a remarkable feat playing this highly interesting and challenging program. Their timing and virtuoso attack perfectly conveyed the excitement and ever-changing contrasts that marked each work. This composition fittingly marked the finality to the Trio’s programming season

Bravo!

Trio Fibonacci’s 2015-2016 season will take place on October 13^th inside Bourgie Hall, Montreal. The program will feature the music of Robert and Clara Schuman, and that of Johannes Brahms. I can hardly wait!

For more information, visit: www.triofibonacci.com