By JON KAPLAN
Get your water bottles, running shoes and between-show snacks ready. It's Fringe time again, that period when theatregoers glut on the most extensive and intensive 12 days of shows during the year.
This year is the 16th annual Fringe, and not surprisingly for a festival that's grown with each installment, we can look forward to a larger-than-ever event. This year features 128 productions, with over 950 performances across the city in venues both traditional and unexpected.
What to see? That's always a big question, and you can't discover the good players without a program. The Fringe program is available at selected Starbucks, and online either at the Fringe website (www.fringetoronto.com) or NOW's website (www.nowtoronto.com, but you probably already know that one since you're reading this article.)
But note that there have been a few changes since the Fringe program was printed. Two shows - Second City Presents: The Imponderables in 'Etch A Sketch' (Artword Theatre) and Bride Of Sasquatch (Robert Gill Theatre) - have dropped out of the festival. At this point in time, it's unlikely that companies on the waiting list will be replacing them. Another possibility - though again it's late in the game - is that the other groups in the venue will get the seven time slots left vacant. The best way to find out? Check in the (almost) daily Fringe Harold, the festival's newspaper, which has updates for the fest. We'll keep you on top of changes as well at this website.
Be careful not to show up at some of the usual venues expecting to see a performance. The Glen Morris Theatre and the George Ignatieff Theatre aren't part of the Fringe this year. And while I liked the intimacy of the Glen Morris, its heat sometimes got the better of audiences, especially during a 90-minute show on a steamy July day. The George Ignatieff is more a lecture hall than a theatre - I could always lift up the hidden desktop and take notes on it if I wanted - but it's a big, air-conditioned venue that some groups have used to advantage.
As in the past, the bring-your-own venues (BYOVs) supply some of the festival's most cutting-edge and entertaining work. That's not just about the writing and acting. The locations themselves are often part of the show, since that's why they're chosen as BYOVs. One of the potentially strong BYOV shows this year is Cyrano De Bergerac, set in the Trinity College Garden. Adapter/performers Chris Coculuzzi and Roxanne Deans have taken the classic about the lover with the large nose and will play it in an outdoor setting to suggest the atmosphere of the piece's last act, a nunnery garden. Staged as a memory play for the heroine, Roxanne, this production allows both actors and audience to conjure up the sense of romance that permeates Edmond Rostand's splendid play (Venue 19, and see more on this and other shows in the July 1 issue of NOW).
If you like your Shakespeare fast-paced, ribald and sent-up, don't forget Upstart Crow's annual outdoor Bard performance. This year it's Shakespeare's Comic Olympics (Venue 20), in homage to the August events in Athens. The show draws on Shakespeare's 17 comedies and romances to offer contests such as the Love Letter Relay, Tempest Fleet Sailing and Cross Dressage. The company's never let me down with these shows - they're good for some corny and some inspired laughs.
Other BYOVs to check out? Donikers Daily stages the 6,000-year-old Sumerian myth of Inanna, complete with music, in a walkabout at the Royal St. George Quadrangle (Venue 15), while MacKenzieRo Productions offers Conor McPherson's spooky series of character sketches, The Weir, in Rowers Pub and Grill (Venue 17). Taking place in an Irish pub, the show invites audiences into a parallel setting, so you can drink and watch your theatre all at one go.
We're glad that The Patrons' Pick is back this year. The show that's the most audience-successful at each regular venue gets an added performance on the final day of the Fringe. Of course, that show isn't chosen until near the end of the festival, so check to see which one'll be chosen. We're also happy that organizers have moved the time for that performance. It used to be the first slot of the day on the final Sunday - this year, July 11 - and that was hard for some people to get to, what with late-night show-going and beer-tenting on Saturday. Now the time's wisely been moved to the final slot of the day. It's a great way to end the festival, with both audiences and artists going out on a high.
= Critics'' pick (highly recommended)