while the fabulous Winnipeg Fringe begins
here are three pieces i wrote about the Canadian Fringes
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THE UNKNOWN FRINGE ARTIST
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She’s out there now.
He’s out there now.
They’re out there now.
On stage.
In the dressing room.
On the bus.
In the park.
Leaving the theatre.
Running lines, warming up their bodies, their voices, their improv, their minds, their dialogue.
For a show no-one will come to.
Only ten will show up for.
Twelve payers, three volunteers and their billet.
It was the same two days ago.
And it will be the same tomorrow.
Ten. Twenty. Thirty even.
No-one.
Not enough.
Failure again.
And yet they can only do it. Keep doing it.
The show. Their show.
Making it better. Smarter. Funnier. Goofier. Tighter.
And it’s a great show.
They know it. Their mates know it. Lots of audience tell them it.
Yet no-one comes. Word hasn’t spread. The idea hasn’t taken off.
The reviewers hated it. Three-starred it. Avoided it. Nulled it?
And yet these performers? They do it.
Again and again.
In the last city, in the next province, in this town.
Yesterday, tomorrow, now.
They’re losing money. Losing their summer.
And yet they throw themselves into it body and soul. Time and time again.
They have faith in their show, in themselves, in the artform, in providence, in justice.
And they can only keep on.
Sweating, working, thinking, rethinking, playing, outoftheboxing, rehearsing, selling, flyering, talking.
Caring.
About the work, the idea, the language.
Caring. About the comedy, the ideal, the audience.
Can only keep digging the energies, the work, the ideas ,out of themselves.
Can only keep on.
Even though its hopeless.
No-one will come.
Will notice
Will pay attention.
They’re out there now.
About to go in stage.
Revving themselves up.
About to …
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from August 2011
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so yes
now that the Prairie Fringes are under way
this post consists of three pieces about the ups and downs of Fringe World
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the above is a downer
or maybe a human positive from a negative
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below is an up, from when everything suddenly goes well
from July 2011
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and at the bottom is a piece from late August 2009
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Absolute Bingo.
Meltdown.
Melt-Up.
Here i am at the Winnipeg Fringe.
My favourite festival of them all.
and its...
Hundred per cent culmination.
Consummation.
After all that work.
All that keeping the faith.
Sell-out.
Finally.
130 beautiful punters. Crammed in the hot sweaty.
And everything works.
Everything,
Every little nuance of half-gag and semi-demi-wordplay i half wondered...
Would it?
Could it?...
It did.
After all that work.
All that keeping the faith.
Those seven long tough weeks of battling for audience.
For applause.
For laughs.
For anything.
For words.
For clearer,
Funnier.
For integrity.
For functioning ideas.
Words.
Phrases.
After all that work.
All that honing and honing.
All that keeping the faith.
The long hours.
The long days.
The dry weeks.
The parched days.
The airless unbreathable weeks.
Suddenly... double the audience of any other day.
And everything works.
Will work.
Has worked out.
The electric room.
The air ringing with laughter.
The perfect silence for the poetics and iambics.
The rapt and intent.
The shaking shoulders and the widening mouths.
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And CBC are in so i get the Five Star.
And all is rolling from now on.
All is good.
All is going to work.
To pay off
To be colossal fun.
To not be futile.
O you beauty...
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while this is a piece is wrote for CBC in 2009
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STRAIGHT (FROM THAT SIDE OF TOWN)
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One thing about the Fringe Tour is, it can be cruel.
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It’s marvellous, it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in my life and I feel I’ve usually been pretty lucky: with reviews, with venues, with time-slots, with press opportunities, and so on. This also means I’ve had lots of bad luck, but I still reckon the good luck well outweighs the bad.
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Of course in many ways you make your own luck, and there is nouse in being in the right place at the right time, and fortune certainly favours the brave. But we all know there’s more to it than that.
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Good luck.
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And bad luck.
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And every year on the Fringe Tour there are great shows which get little audience.
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And there are truly admirable stick-their-neck-out flawed shows which get little audience.
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And there are usually shows which weren’t much good out East but which, after humungous effort, and bad reviews, and walk-outs, and cutting and chopping and rewrites, and axing scenes and sections and strands, get taken apart and put back together as something which works well … And then they start to succeed somewhere across the Prairies and roll nicely into B.C. for some well-deserved if belated success.
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But never have I known a show as good as Catherine Montgomery’s Straight (From That Side of Town) to get nowhere.
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Every act I’ve spoken to loves this show. I love this show. Jonno from The Accident loves this show, Gemma Wilcox from The Honeymoon Period loves this show, Rob Gee from Fruitcake loves this show, my girlfriend Priscilla loves this show, Jayson from Fall Fair loves this show, Keira McDonald from Cherry Cherry Lemon loves this show, Jimmy Hogg from Like A Virgin loves this show, Anders from Uncalled For loves this show … We all love this show.
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Yet critically, she gets slammed, and audience-wise and cash-wise, she gets very little.
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It’s not a pretty show and some people are going to walk out. It’s messy, it’s ugly, it depicts grief, it depicts a damaged, drug-addled, booze-ridden young woman failing to get her life together. Yet it shines with … life in the face of darkness, with the love of mother for daughter, and daughter for mother … with the comedy of pain, with teenage hormonal compulsion, with energetic prose, with a face lighting to a glow as it articulates and laughs at the cruelties life throws at her.
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This is a show written by a young woman with iron guts. The guts to try that. To start a show like that, there. To then take the audience on to that place. To be so aesthetically out there. And it’s performed with a woman with iron guts: to put herself through all that, day after day; to present all that to audiences show after show after show; and to get nothing back for all her heart, her guts, her sweat and her class.
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The quantity of strength that must be in that performer, any performer, believing in their art and keeping going through all the s**t the days, the shows, the press, the reviews throw at you. To see good shows doing well and yet get nowhere yourself: to see iffy shows doing well and yet get nowhere yourself. Day after day. Show after show. Review after review. City after city.
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I mean, I’ve had it tough on tours, yet I’m not sure I’ve ever even had it tough in two consecutive cities. I’ve always ridden the updown crashbang rollercoaster but I’ve always had shedloads of ups to shut out the many downs. And Straight (from That Side of Town) is excellently played, it features some great writing and it has the funniest sex-scene I’ve seen in years.
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And yet she gets no audience. How come?
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She has so much courage and, aesthetically and acting-wise, she is everything the fringe should be. Unafraid to go for the dark and twisted, unafraid to be go for the poetry in her prose, unafraid to structure a show in seven sections laid out one by one to make what should be a beautifully ugly winning hand.
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The Fringe is all about risks: Risks in writing, risks in acting, risks in themes. Well, she’s taking every risk going, she’s stuck every neck out and she’s had every neck chopped off.
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The only sad answer can be that The Fringe milieu is not everything it’s meant to be. Bravery can fail, talent can fail, risk-taking can fail.
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Who is to blame for this? Catherine for her promotion? Reviewers for not realising the power and quality of the writing and the acting? Audience for ditto? Personally, I hesitate to blame audience for anything, but …
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Catherine hasn’t failed, her show is a rocking success. The Fringe has failed her.
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I love this show. It certainly ain’t pretty, but please go see it. Maybe in Victoria or Vancouver she’ll get the response alll of us want her to get. Me, I’m going to read some Corinthians from the Bible. Is it really as great as she makes it sound?
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August 30, 2009
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in other news
quiet life on a wet green hillside
above Sedi
above Phewa Lake
next Pokhara
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in other news
good luck all ye Fringers
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Jem
i played switchy face lastnight at steel wheels with Paul Strickland
we both agreed you are sorely missed on the circuit this go around