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CBC
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
2025 Hamilton Fringe Festival biggest in years and sure to 'spark joy,' says executive director
This year's Fringe Festival in Hamilton is "the biggest festival that we've had since the pandemic," said its executive director, Christopher Stanton. Stanton said there are over 400 performances happening in the city's downtown core over the next week. Many shows will be on more than once over the course of the 12-day festival, which started on Wednesday evening. Stanton said 2025 is a banner year for the festival, as it received over 200 applicants for 28 "main series" spots. "There's no sort of artistic director choosing what gets to go on the stages," he said. "It's either by a random draw or it is first come, first serve, so all of those folks that got in, they were chosen randomly." Stanton said this model gives new artists the same chance to get into the festival as those with more experience. "It really does level the playing field," he said. "It gives everybody a chance to have their voice heard and platformed." The festival has 18 indoor and outdoor stages around the city and an "insane diversity of shows," including magic and comedy shows, puppets, dances and musicals. "I guarantee something is gonna spark joy for you," said Stanton. The festival has transformed King William Street, part of which is now closed until mid-September, into a "vibrant, pedestrian-friendly hub filled with music, dance, drag, film, painting, and performance," noted the Hamilton Fringe website. "It's the living, beating heart of the festival—and the place to celebrate the weird, wild, and wonderful Hamilton Fringe community!" Programming on the street is free. Some shows and events include: Limb Loss, Love, a comedy show about the life and intersections of a disabled, mixed race and Jewish person. Fringe on the Streets – Outdoor Walking Tour, a free outdoor performance where attendees will "experience a wild and wonderful version of the city through live art." Brown Noise, a comedy play exploring different sides of the South Asian-Canadian experience. 3 Hours, 10 Minutes, a two-person drama play. A Very Queer Easter Pageant, a "drag-infused" comedy and "dramatization of the Bible's Easter story." Mind the Gaps, a performance from queer and disabled artist Nathan Lise exploring true stories from his life. Ugly Privilege, a stand-up comedy set with Vancouver comedian Jessica Pigeau. Hope in Hot Times, a "clown-inspired" physical comedy show. The Fruits that Rot in our Bellies, an "afro-surrealist ghost story" about a "young non-binary person coming face to face with the spirit realm." 500 Doubloons, a play about people's theories on a real story about a pirate who paid what is now worth $400,000 for a woman to take off her clothes. Visiting my Mother and Other Repetition Compulsions, a drama about "the complicated ways families love but not always like each other," according to its playwright, Patrick Michael Teed. Katherine Teed-Arthur, who is part od 500 Doubloons, said she's been to Fringe before and this year "feels special." "It feels like there's a real joy and exuberance and excitement for the Fringe this year that has been feeling like we were cautious in years prior, and now we've really come back into it and are able to embrace it without as much trepidation," Teed-Arthur said.
Hamilton Spectator
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Go ahead, binge on Fringe
Some people say government should be run more like a business — really? — but, if factors like debt and deficit matter, guess what government should be run more like? The Hamilton Fringe Festival. You read that right. On the cusp of the start of its 2025 edition, July 16 to 27, Hamilton Fringe is breathing easier with the exhalation of an outfit that just wiped out a $50,000 deficit. Such a sum of debt can represent an existential threat to an organization of its size — that deficit was brought on mostly by COVID-related challenges. But they paid it off not over the course of an arduously long austerity plan, but lickety-split — in a single year. How many can boast that? Not that that's what the Fringe is about — it's about creativity, experiment, challenge, fun, and access to all. But, says executive director Chris Stanton, the remarkable rebound is notable even more for social than fiscal achievement. It's a testament, he explains, to the Hamilton community and how valued the Fringe is to it. 'I think the real story here is that the community stepped up,' says Stanton. 'Donors came out of the woodwork and different funders. People really came through for the Fringe.' Indeed, Hamilton does love its Fringe, as the crowds illustrate, as does the volume and vibrancy of the programming. Last year, almost 18,000 people attended Hamilton Fringe, coming from all over Canada, the United States and beyond, and this year, one of the festival's biggest ever and the very biggest by some measures, promises much of the same if not more, with some new wrinkles and some alterations to old ones. To get to the actual meat of the matter, the Hamilton Fringe Festival this month will feature more than 55 performances, covering everything from sketch comedy, improv, theatre, dance, puppetry, magic, musicals and more. General information on discount Fringe buttons, ticket orders, prices, dates, times and locations of all performances and other Fringe events (including kickoff party July 16, Mills Hardware 6:30 p.m. start, and closing parties with DJs and music on Fringe Boulevard, 6 p.m. on July 27) see the Fringe website at: Physical schedules are also available at Coach & Lantern, 384 Wilson St. E., Ancaster; Crown and Press, 303 Ottawa St. N.; Democracy, 202 Locke St. S.; Detour Café, 41 King St. W., Dundas; Last Supper Books, 148 James St. N.; Mulberry Coffeehouse, 193 James St. N.; Paisley Coffeehouse & Eatery, 1020 King St. W.; Playhouse Cinema, 177 Sherman Ave. N.; RELAY Coffee Roasters, 27 King Wiliam St.; Tourism Hamilton, 28 James St. N., Village Coffee Roasters, 977 King St. E. 'For one thing, we have two new indie venues,' says Stanton. 'The Gasworks and the Centre for Talking Arts (156 James St. S.), with new partnerships and more players taking part than ever before.' Some of the featured plays/treatments/shows are: 'Minimum' The premier of Ontario finds himself having to live on minimum wage in this outrageous comedy by The Intergalactic Federation of Space Beers production company. 'Brown Noise.' 'Brown Noise' A mix of standup, sketch and storytelling probing the South Asian-Canadian experience from two different sides. Media Arora is first generation Canadian. Rishabh Kalra is older stock, and together they clash, connect and find laughter. 'Once Upon a Pizzeria.' 'Once Upon a Pizzeria' Hamilton's beloved Charly Chiarelli is back with a chase through the city stemming from Nonna Maria's square pizzas and her grandson being bullied because, well, pizzas are round, right? Music, visuals, audience participation. Also featuring Jay Shand. '3 Hours, 10 Minutes.' '3 Hours, 10 Minutes' Two strangers, one painting. What do they see in it? In each other? A look at connection, reflection and the power of shared experience in an age of screens and self-absorption. By Beauchemin Productions. 'Ugly Privilege.' 'Ugly Privilege' An hour of standup comedy by Vancouver comedian Jessica Pigeau featuring discussion of autism, social awkwardness, and growing up gay in rural Alberta. This is just a sampling to give a sense of the wide variety on offer, but there's so much more — as mentioned, more than 55 performances in nine stage locations (Theatre Aquarius, Mills Hardware, Players Guild of Hamilton, The Staircase, The Westdale, Hamilton Theatre Inc., Ringside and, aforementioned, The Gasworks and Centre for the Talking Arts). 'And Fringe on the Streets is back,' says Stanton, 'and we're billing it as a tour (of downtown Hamilton) unlike any other. It starts at the farmers market with performance and fun all the way up King William' to Theatre Aquarius. 'And people can hop on and off as they like and come back later.' Fringe on the Streets, free and in partnership with City of Hamilton and with support from Downtown Hamilton BIA, is an immersive walking experience punctuated with live art and performances along a 75-minute route, featuring music, burlesque, women of vaudeville behind the Tivoli, and a grand finale of dancing at King William. Some of the tour acts are Cesar C. Cordoba (accordion, keyboard, storytelling, bird puppetry); Claud Spadafora (cabaret/burlesque/theatrical comedy/storytelling): Sheep's Clothing Theatre (Pony Girls vaudeville); Flesh & Wire Co. (puppet show celebration of Elizabeth Bagshaw, Hamilton feminist icon/doctor/birth control pioneer); Devin Bateson ('Everything Is a Condo' enactment of time traveller beaming down from the future to give ghost tour of urban development); and Bloom (dance imagining of garden planted in concrete of downtown, with choreographers Skye Rogers and Vik Mudge. Tours depart the Hamilton Farmers Market, 35 York Blvd., at 3 p.m. and/or 6 p.m. most days. Check the festival's website for more, including stops along the route. Replacing single space Fringe Club of the past is this year's more expansive Fringe Boulevard, along King William and James Street North. It is a pedestrian-friendly hub of music, dance, drag, film painting and performance, sprinkled with local artisans in marketplace tents, on both the Saturdays of Fringe (19, 26) and an Indigenous marketplace on Saturday, July 26. The boulevard is designed to maximize integration of the festival with the neighbourhood and area food culture, typified by restaurants like The Mule, The French, RELAY, The Diplomat; HAMBRGR, Undefined, The Standard, Electric Diner, Parma and Piccolo, as well as other businesses and organizations along the strip. A feature of Fringe Boulevard will be the RELAY Licensed Patio, open 6 to 10:30 p.m. every night at RELAY Coffee Roasters, 27 King William St. Two other features of the festival this year: Visual Fringe Work by nine visual artists at RELAY Coffee Roasters. Film on the Fringe Short showcase competition, sponsored by the Downtown Hamilton BIA on Thursday, July 17, after 9 p.m. with entrants' films shown under the stars on Fringe Boulevard.
Hamilton Spectator
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Behind the Fringe curtain: Get creative, or die trying
When it comes to writing, there are only three rules: write, write, write. When it comes to writing a play for the Fringe Festival, the rules change exponentially: Write, direct, stage manage, produce, and do the tech if you're not actually on stage performing. Oh, and sell the hell out of your play. Hamilton's Brian Morton knows this. He's been doing it almost since the festival started in Hamilton 20-plus years ago. The first Hamilton Fringe play he ever did was a one-person show in 2006. At the time, Morton was a venue tech, but the Fringe organizers had no budget to pay crew, 'so they gave me a slot and I performed 'Krapp's Last Tape,'' a one-act, single-hander that Samuel Beckett wrote in 1957. Such one-person shows, Morton said, are the bread-and-butter of Fringe because they're easy to produce, 'but they're hard to market. It's so hard to distinguish yourself.' Megan Phillips and the team behind 'Cheese Pervert' takes the show to the mother church of Fringe festivals, to Edinburgh, in August. They're the bread-and-butter because a playwright/director/producer/publicist doesn't have to hire a crew to help. That helps moneywise since 100 per cent of the base ticket price of every show goes to the artists. It also means one person has to carry the load. Lisa Randall, of Toronto, figures she's up to the task. Randall comes to the Fringe this year in an almost roundabout way. She and a collaborator won a spot through the Fringe lottery — which plays get to be staged are selected by a Bingo ball machine. Later, her partner got a spot in the Toronto Fringe and Randall found herself with a Fringe spot and having to go solo. But not to worry: This is her seventh Fringe production, including Toronto and Vancouver. 'It was a good nudge,' Randall said, or a good kick in the pants to finally write 'Sister Sophia Kicks the Habit.' Randall had two aunts who were nuns. The surviving one is 98 and lives in the Mother House in a small Ontario city. 'I stopped practising Catholicism after my parents divorced, the way many people do. At the time of the divorce one of my mother's sisters told her she was going to go to hell.' That was more than enough for Randall to disengage from them and the church. But then she 'started to learn things about their lives — and they became so important to me, not as Catholics but as family members. I gained a deep compassion for them. The play is like a tribute.' Two other solo woman shows are in the works for this year's edition of the Fringe: 'Horseface,' featuring U.K.-born, Toronto-based artist Alex Dallas and directed by Clare Barry, herself a veteran of the Canadian Fringe tour; and 'Catching a Cheese Pervert,' co-written by Kayla Kurin and Krista Rowe (also the director) and starring Megan Phillips. For Dallas, it seems a lot of the hard work for 'Horseface' (the name comes from the Trump insult against Stormy Daniels) has been completed. The show premiered in Orlando in 2019 and has played in Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Victoria. 'Horseface' features U.K.-born, Toronto-based artist Alex Dallas. 'The show came about after #MeToo and the Weinstein trial. I became so enraged about what was being revealed about women's lives that I started to reflect on my own in relation to the way I have been treated by men — teachers, boyfriends, strangers — and I put that rage and comedy into a show.' The show's success and Donald Trump's 34 felony convictions are their own publicity. That 'Horseface' won Best in Show awards in Ottawa and Orlando helps. The Kurin-Phillips-Rowe collaboration also has its origin in the headlines. 'The show is (loosely and unfortunately) inspired by the bizarre real-life case of the 'Swiss Cheese Pervert,' a man who made headlines in Philadelphia in the early 2010s for his … dairy-centric public indecency,' Rowe said. 'We took that strange but true headline and ran it through a feminist glow-up of corporate greed, environmental collapse, and Canada's most ridiculously powerful interest group, the dairy lobby.' In their case, as well as with Dallas and Morton, collaboration seems to be the key to a successful production. Randall even found that as well as working solo was going, collaborating has kicked it up a notch. Randall had worked on 'Sister Sophia' for several years, 'monologue by monologue' (even writing three songs for it) before she showed some of them to another friend, Kate Johnston, an award-winning filmmaker. 'She asked questions I hadn't thought of,' which proved helpful in finding the arc of the story. As for Morton, he's been working with Hamilton musician Chris Cracknell for more than 20 years. 'It's usually his playing Robin to my Batman, but instead, this time, it's me as Robin to his Batman.' Their play has what can be described as a uniquely Fringe title: 'A Non-Canonical Musical Adventure with Pookamhura: Mistress of B-Roll.' It's based on a 12-episode YouTube series Cracknell created about the gaming world. The Fringe play is 'noncanonical,' meaning audience members don't have to be gamers or know the web series to follow the story line, which is about self-discovery, gender identity and the complexities of life. Also uniquely Fringe. The collaboration between Cracknell and his four actors, two of whom are transgender and new to the stage, is a 'creative act of faith, like jumping off a cliff and hoping it will come out OK,' Morton said. The team behind 'Cheese Pervert' takes the show to the mother church of Fringe festivals, to Edinburgh, in August. They, too, have worked together for some time, first connecting while filming a short comedy, 'Break Up Time Machine.' They quickly discovered a shared comedic sensibility rooted in absurdism, a mutual disdain for nepo babies, and a love/hate relationship with therapy, Rowe said. After the show's been written, cast and rehearsed, there's the small matter of publicity. Hamilton Festival Theatre Co., the Fringe's parent organization, has organized online meetings with producers to guide them in getting the word out. 'The Fringe's job is to get 200 people out to the Fringe every day. Your job is to convince those 200 people to catch your show at 4 o'clock,' Morton said. Yet, in the end, it still comes down to the work itself, what the playwright, director and actor leave on the stage. Everyone else is invited along for the ride. How uniquely Fringe.
