That's a Wrap-Up: Fringe '07 (Part 1 of 2)

And so, the curtains fall on another Vancouver Fringe Festival. (Except for the Pick of the Fringe, which offers a last chance to catch some of the highlights.) Once again, despite not seeing nearly as many shows as I would have liked, I come away duly inspired, optimistic about the future of indie stage, and proud that I successfully resisted the urge to grab any one of the hundreds of Fringe-only theatre-goers by the collar and scream "where are you the rest of the year? Huh? Where?" into their face. Well, at least you're seeing some theatre, right? I'm sure you're very busy the other eleven and a half months, but if you liked the feeling your Fringe experience gave you, maybe you could consider seeing a play or two before the next one. I know, we suck at getting the marketing right to your doorstep, but we are getting better, and you can always check in here every Thursday, where yours truly will be dutifully previewing your options On the Boards. Now, on to the mildly anticipated reviews...

Protest by Vaclav Havel. Mmn...Productions

This one was pretty high on my hit list due to a personal fascination with the playwright and the autobiographical and political nature of the piece, which I had never seen before. It was a bring-your-own-venue show put up at the studio space occupied by Methodica, an acting school in a scary old building on West Hastings that teaches method acting exclusively, and I was curious to scope out the level of work that they're wringing out of their students. I think it might be pretty top-notch. I think the play itself might be very good. I can't really say for sure though, because I couldn't hear much of it. There's an old criticism of Stanislavski's technique of emotional realism on-stage that says that, taken to it's n-th degree, method actors will have so successfully built the fourth wall that they'll be mumbling their lines into the back wall of the theatre. This is actually a misrepresentation of the method, but it's something that Valerie Vanderstappen and Costin Andrei did way too often during the course of their performances. From what I could tell, they are both above-average actors, with a clear understanding of two very difficult characters, Andrei's political dissident Ferdinand Vanek in particular was an effective portrayal of a battered man down but not out. From the intensity of the actors and the dialogue that I could hear, it seemed to be a remarkable play, it's not fair that we couldn't experience all of it.

Bondage by David Henry Hwang. Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre

I am so happy that this city has a theatre company like VACT. In accord with their simple, elegant and crucial mandate of presenting plays that make us consider racial identity and tolerance, they delivered with this 1991 play that throws a little naughty into the mix. Set in an L.A. S & M parlour, Bondage presents us with a blossoming yet halting courtship throughout a session between a chain-mail and leather clad dominatrix and one of her likewise camouflaged customers. The games they play have them assuming various ethnicities and acting out their stereotyped societal interactions, he can only get off on stylized social commentary. Indeed, the play itself is mostly a stylized look at how various racial groups, Asians in particular, interact socially with themselves and with each other. The play was remarkably chaste and devoid of even a whiff of danger, odd considering the setting and subject matter, but it was nevertheless an accessible and often chuckle-inducing examination of cultural relations and our varying sexual appetites, handled confidently by a solid cast, which included a chorus of three adorable shackle-wielding dancers-cum-punishment-vixens. I walked away seriously considering my own carnal proclivities and their origins, which was the play's whole point, I suppose. VACT has earned itself a necessary niche in Vancouver's art world, keep an eye out for their future efforts.

Tomorrow: Wrapping up the Wrap-Up...

Photo courtesy of Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre