Fringe Festival Web Report #2
Friday, July 6th

By GLENN SUMI

Picks
One of the joys of Fringing is discovering new talent. That happened with the ensemble show Flushed (Factory Studio), written and performed by Kate Gordon, Lorna Wright and Jessica Whyte. The trio of energetic women explore women's washrooms. There's an urban edge to the show, with various vignettes looking at graffiti, waiting for a stall, hygiene, toilet paper and tampon crises and more serious issues like drugs, sex and the singles' scene in clubs. Too bad there aren't more emotionally risky scenes. And this sort of all-women thematic blowout show has been done before, for instance in last year's Fringe hit She Never Bought Me An Easy Bake Oven. But all three performers have lots of energy, there are some nicely choreographed scenes and there's true poetry in their rhythmic revelations. Recommended.

Pans
No longer content just to drape banners and posters around venues as per usual, two of the Fringe's main sponsors (a beer company and a website) have decided to project their names onto the walls of the theatres. Very Orwellian. Very annoying. And a waste of lights, too.

Last-Minute Changes
Two shows have been added to the Fringe and aren't listed in the program book. Sarah Quick's The Men Commandments and Hoopal's Pure Hoopal play Royal St. George's College (120 Howland). Hoopal's zany comedy played last year's Fringe, and if you like silly clown-like comedy, this show is for you. Quick's comedy, with one of the best titles at this year's fest, explores - what else? - single women looking for relationships.

The Show Must Go On
What happens when your actor bows out of your show a week before opening night? Look around, and if there aren't any men, choose a woman. Kudos for Ellen-Ray Hennessy for stepping into the suspenders role in Christian Values, after actor Alan Jordan bolted. This isn't the first time Hennessy, a Fringe mainstay, has performed in drag, and let's hope it's not the last.

Busiest Fringester
Fringster Mike McPhaden wins the award for busiest opening day performance. At 7 pm, the actor/playwright joined 39 other writers to pick up the four items to include in his new play. Then he booted down to the Factory to get into 40s garb for his 11 pm performance of Black Jack Justice, playing - you guessed it - a stressed out writer. No doubt he stayed up all night writing his 24-hour script. Problem is, he can't even squeak in his script at the last minute. The second performance of Black Jack Justice is at 7 pm, the contest's deadline. Oh, and did we forget to mention that his play Flight 198 opens at SummerWorks in about four four weeks?