What a fun year this fringe has been! Not only did I get to enjoy nineteen shows as part of Victoria Fringe, I also snuck up to Edmonton and caught two shows up there (and love love LOVED Rat Academy 2!), and Snafu brought us a new iteration of New Earth Bandits with New Earth Bandits 2!
Runners Up:
Useless – This incredible show was the result of many year’s worth of research and rewriting. I wasn’t really sure if I had interest in John Wilkes Booth, but somehow Melissa Blank made this story so incredibly engaging and, yes, hilarious that I couldn’t look away. I really have to give credit to Blank’s portrayal, you can see Booth’s line of thinking, and simultaneously understand how delusional he was.
Rethinking Good Intentions – As far as storytelling shows go, this one may be one of my all time favourites. Nancy Edwards’ experience of working as a community health nurse in Sierra Leone was inspiring, challenging, and incredibly profound. Edwards’ career in public health shines through in her show, and it was an honour to learn from her.
Ducks – Take an Albertan scandal, add a bit of political intrigue and laugh a minute humour, you’ve got the basics of Ducks. This show had a lot of laughs and the characters were each brought to life by a cast of strong actors, with fast paced timing that just flew by.
5. A Waste of Stage Time
Sure, we all know recycling is important, but when was the last time you got a kick-in-the-pants reminder to do all we can? While this show is appropriate for all ages, grown-ups especially will appreciate a show with a message that isn’t didactic, but makes you laugh (and sing) all the way through.
Logan Swain & Sadie Fox have created two endearing pieces of personified recycling, and getting to know them was both fun and educational, and really reminded us viewers of how important it is to do our part! Balancing two contrasting personalities of the recycling, Fox gives a high energy ( with a little bit of a diva), and Swain’s somewhat melancholy contrast is incredibly fun. The pair invite the audience in to play along with them throughout the show.
4. Enrichment Hour
What do the critters at the Calgary Zoo think about? What’s deep in their hearts and minds? In this one hour open mic night, we meet the charming and charmless creatures in their own words. We get to know their inner musings through original songs, jokes, slam poetry, and journal entries.
The humour is often dark, it’s often a bit uncomfortable, but they are animals, after all.
3. Evie and Alfie: A Very British Love Story
Returning fringe favourites Jimmy Hogg and Alex Dallas starred in this utterly sweet journey through the married life of Evie and Alfie. From first meetup, to falling in love, to marriage and babies, the wonderful big moments to the mundane sweetness we know so well. There’s a difficulty to watching the hard moments, to seeing the heartbreak of everyday life, but that honesty added so much to this show.
Incredibly realistic and sprinkled with humour, this was a beautifully told tale that is, as the name implies, very British, but is a story that could be from any time or any place.
As an amazing full circle moment from Fringe, Hogg shared that he and Dallas decided to do this show together at Victoria fringe last year – another show created from creative collaboration from a Fringe meetup!
2. Lady in the Fountain
Initially, reading the description of this show and looking at the promo shot, I wasn’t really sure what to think of this show. However, this incredibly polished, smart piece zipped along and it was an utter joy to experience. Hannah Ockenden’s performance was sassy and steamy, telling the story of Ramona, a young woman traveling in Italy in the late 30s.
The inciting incident of the play is a woman being tossed into a fountain by a man she has spurned, and from there, the play raises the stakes moment by moment. With nothing onstage but a bench, Ockenden takes us on a wild ride of political intrigue, twisted connections, mayhem, and a little bit of sensuality. In only 50 minutes, we’ve traversed a tale that is thrilling, tense, and sweet. Bravo to this incredible performer, and I hope we’ll see Ramona on stage again soon!
1. 1ForUOne4Me
Full disclosure, I wasn’t going to see this show at first. I felt a little intimidated and I wasn’t sure if this type of clowning was going to work for me. Luckily, I leaned into my fringe philosophy (try something new!), grabbed a few friends, and got to see this show.
From the description:
A very simple show with very simple rules.
I’ll do something for you (The Audience)
And then?
Then I’ll do something for ME
Despite our clown’s somewhat grotesque appearance, performer Leslie Cserepy took good care of the audience throughout – don’t get me wrong, we were uncomfortable at times – but we were uncomfortable together, and it never felt like the joke was at the expense of someone in the audience.
We railed against the shit that’s getting us down, we laughed through gritted teeth together, we took deeps breaths together and were together in the weirdness together.
I don’t know what Cserepy has planned next, but by leaning into the weird and the honest feelings behind that, he’s hit on theatre gold. Like, weird, lumpy gold, but it’s gold nonetheless. Throw in a bit of diegetic light, and it’s Fringy perfection.
Why Fringe?
Septimus Brown sums it up so beautifully in their post here.
Fringe is a place to see the new, to see the old told in new ways, to enjoy art you never would have seen before, to enjoy new collaborations, and yes, to be part of the audience where a brand new baby show doesn’t quite work.
And further, Fringe is where we laugh in lines with people we don’t know, and swap recommendations. Fringe volunteers give away knitted hearts just because. Fringe front-of-houses have us chanting the Fringe website address. We spot fellow show-goers by the pretty button they have on, and some show their clout by wearing years of fringe buttons. Fringe is a little bit of community, and it behooves us all to welcome more people into this fun and funky little club. It’s about the art, absolutely, and it’s about the community. And as Fringe 2025 wraps up, I’m so immensely grateful to have experienced both.
