Fringe Festival

Bruce Burwell: “Imagine if a burlesque, a cabaret, and a circus act walked into a bar and decided to join forces to put on a show. This might very well be the show that they came up with.”

Erin Murray: A different group of comedians takes the stage for each performance to spend an hour telling their best completely-made-up-on-the-spot jokes. Lifshitz has recruited a talented crew of some of Ottawa’s favourite comics to take the stage with him.

Sam Woods: All Request Radio’s improvised nature will keep you on the edge of your seat, asking yourself questions like “How did they come up with that?”, “Are you sure this is improv?” and even “What’s Velvet doing after this? Can we hang out!?”

Sam Woods: Always Because: The Adventures of Maggie and Meghan is an intimate look into a relationship on fire, barreling recklessly towards the brink of utter collapse and sheer destruction… just kidding. They’re actually very in love.

Julia Bueneman: We follow our host as he combines psych history, sleight-of-mind, and science (pseudo-science?) to prove that while not all the patrons are psychic, a good few of them may be!

Brian Carroll: “Simon alone has been chosen to create a new world. Everything he writes will be in the new world. But everything he forgets to write will cease to exist. If he forgets to write giraffes, then giraffes will cease to exist.”

Not long ago, Ted lost their only friend. Their friend Steve is lost forever. Members of the audience step in to try to fill in for Steve, but Ted is still overcome by grief, loss, and loneliness from losing their social connection. This is the start of Ted’s journey to find a new friend, even possibly a few friends, by whatever means possible.

Barb Popel: Do you enjoy really good storytelling? Feminist folk tales? Then Stars, Stones and Shadows: A Heroine’s Tale is for you.

Grimprov! Created by Grimprov Produced by GRIMprov (Ottawa, Canada) 60M | Comedy Content Warning: Mature Themes, Audience Participation To all my fellow improv sceptics, I can honestly say I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed Grimprov’s opening night performance. If you’re like me and cringe when you hear the word improv or your […]

Nathan Erb: “Northern hospitality goes south in this thriller about cottage country, family, and human connection.”

The Stakeout is a whip-smart tragicomedy with crackling, sometimes absurd dialogue that reminded reviewer Barb Popel of Samuel Beckett and Philip K. Dick.

Brian Carroll: In Kimiko, Kreatrix draws on a number of sources, including the WWII internment of Japanese Canadians, their forced diaspora from British Columbia across the rest of Canada, the Shinto performance arts of Edo Daikagura, the art of kimono and obi dressing, and the paper cranes of the young dying girl Sadako Sasaki of Hiroshima.

Colin Noden: I’m not going to spoil it for you by giving any details. Instead, let me just encourage you to be self-aware of your reactions during each musical segment. This is a multi-layered performance. It can appeal to any age and degree of sophistication.

The Merkin Sisters is a theatrical piece of few words—but that doesn’t mean it has nothing to say. In contrast, the sparseness of its words makes those it does include stand out even more. An exasperated verbal mention of art is even more powerful when it comes after minutes of silence.

It’s a busy early-summer weekend in Ottawa. From ByWard Market to biking, here’s the ultimate list of things to do this weekend.