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NXNE 2016 RECAP >> SEAGULLS!

Father Stretch My Hands Pts 3-6: My NXNE 2016 Experience

Every year, for every city-wide festival, anywhere in the world, there is a chorus of people shouting the same thing. "It's just not the SAME this year." "It's not as good as last year." Or "[Insert event] sucks this year." Or most succinctly, "Wah!"


Port Lands Skyline/Seagull


CJLO #FRINGEBUZZ DIARY 2016: A RECAP, THE FRANKIES, AND GRATITUDE!

Year after year, one of the most fascinating things that I love about the Montreal Fringe Festival is that you will never know what you will bump into, you will never know what you will discover, and you will never know what happen until you go out there and dive yourself into the excitement.

It gets crazier by the moment, and zanier by the second. And just like life itself, spontaneity is what makes this festival so exciting - whether you're a playwright, performer, or a random spectator. This is the magic of the Fringe happening, and needless to say, it goes beyond words in describing it.

Okay maybe euphoria. But that's just one of many.


FRINGE 2016: Science, Love and Revolution

Through a mixture of spoken word poetry, dialects, saxophone solos, animal grunts, and an instrumental backing track, Science, Love and Revolution was most certainly a memorable performance.

Before the event began, David Lee Morgan chit-chatted with the audience for a fair amount of time, making soft self-deprecating comments and repeating the same question to the crowd multiple times just in case someone was hesitant to speak up, or had gestured to speak but he couldn’t quite see. All this to say, from the very start he was charming as hell.


FRINGE 2016: A Thousand Kindnesses

To say that Rachel Jury’s A Thousand Kindnesses is ambitious, would be an understatement. In this one woman show, the performer weaves first-hand experience of asylum seekers, and refugees from war-ravaged nations of the past 30 years, from the Sudanese civil war to the ongoing Syrian conflict.


FRINGE 2016: Empty Rooms

Empty Rooms drags the audience through the pain, guilt, and crippling despair one experiences after the loss of a loved one. Daring to say the things one often brushes over, this play held no punches.


Pokemon Sun and Moon: A Journey into the Seventh Generation

CJLO's Lazy Sunday Series

Earlier this year, Pokémon released the English titles for the newest version of the series: Sun and Moon. Needless to say, fans went crazy. Speculations and theories about what wonders awaited players in the new titles shot up in every corner of the Internet. From concept art of possible new starters, to ideas for new types, to hopes that the map would include the ability to travel to previous regions. Whether or not some of these speculations are true is yet to be seen, but Pokémon has been dropping teasers for the release of the game coming this November.


FRINGE 2016: Se rincer l’âme au windshield washer

Sitting in the waiting area of the Mainline Theatre feels like I'm sitting in the living room of someone I've only met once - familiar yet extremely uncomfortable.

I'm sweaty, I've been walking up and down Boulevard Saint-Laurent for hours, and I'm waiting for Se rincer l’âme au windshield washer to start. Through the chatter and footsteps of the other play-goers I hear pow-wow music coming from inside the theater and I cringe internally.


FRINGE 2016: Joyce N'Sana at #CJLOFringeTunes

There’s nothing like finding a treasure in your own backyard.

Joyce N’Sana was this year’s resident World artist at CJLO and though I heard her name and praise often, I never got around to listening to her music let alone see any of her performances.

Luckily this past Friday she was performing at the Montreal Fringe Festival as a part of the "CJLO Presents" music series and I was available to go check her out.


FRINGE 2016: Love and Pasties, Miss S.

"Miss Sugarpuss must die", we were warned a fair few fringes ago as the play by the same name packed houses and won the 2010 Centaur award for best English-language theatre. Six years later, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, the "real world" alias of Miss Sugarpuss, is making good on her threat.

Love and Pasties, Miss S. is what Gauthier-Frankel is calling a killing off of her alter-ego, a strange funeral for one of the Fringe's grande dames.


FRINGE 2016: A David Lynch Wet Dream

Simone de Beauvoir said surrealism is often more real than realism, and this certainly rings true in regards to A David Lynch Wet Dream. Promoted as a dark non-narrative, after seeing it for myself I’m reminded that there is no such thing as a non-narrative, only that the viewer dictates what’s happening instead of the screenwriter.


FRINGE 2016: Jon Bennett - AUSSIE RULES (Playing With Men)

2hoot Production’s Jon Bennett is no stranger to the international Fringe festival circuit. The five-time Just For Laughs award nominee is a consistent crowd favourite for works that include "Fire in the meth lab" and "Pretending things are a cock." Shows as such are seemingly tailored for the “anything goes” of alternative theatre.


FRINGE 2016: Extreme States

As part of a special Montreal Fringe edition of Creator's Chorus that first aired June 15th 2016, co-hosts Jess Glavina and Annick MF together discussed issues, the challenges, and the narratives that surround mental health through the lense of the independent theatre.

Guiding you along for this special review that you will read is some contextual and important information regarding this sensitive yet important topic. Included below is an excerpt of the audio from that episode, and a few notes from our author as well.


Lust For Youth / Dernier Sex / Xarah Dion / The Marquis @ La Sala Rossa

CJLOXSUONI

REVIEW: CJLO - 1690AM, CHOQ.ca, No Exist, Suoni Per Il Popolo, and CKUT 90.3FM present: Lust For Youth / Dernier Sex / Xarah Dion / The Marquis - Saturday, June 11, 2016 @ La Sala Rossa

From the shimmering synths and slick production on Lust for Youth’s latest release “Compassion”, the band’s trajectory over the past 5 years represents an unassuming sonic evolution. What started as the lo-fi darkwave solo project of Hannes Norrvide, gradually morphed in to 3 piece pop band, through an organic process of collaboration.


FRINGE 2016: Checkout 606

The Plateau is full of oddities - offbeat, extraordinary, or just plain strange. To people who don't understand Montreal or have never been here before; I tell them its the french Portland in 30 or so blocks - keeping it weird. Still, nothing could have prepared me for The Fringe Festival's Checkout 606.


FRINGE 2016: Captain Aurora II: A Superhero Musical Sequel

I need to start this review off by being honest about myself in a few ways. The last thing I want to be as a journalist is biased but that's not always possible, so let's put a few cards on the table:

1. I love super hero anything and everything. I don't care how well or poorly it's been done, I'll love it because it's super heroes.

2. I generally dislike musical theatre, especially if it takes itself too seriously.


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