The 2015 Ottawa Fringe Festival is only days away. This week, Allan Mackey and Valerie Cardinal talked with some of this year’s presenters and pored over all the available material for all 56 shows at this year’s festival in order to decide the ten shows they thought were the most exciting and/or intriguing. From the 12th to the 16th, they’ll be highlighting those shows. Then on the 17th, we’ll talk about a few honourable mentions and give you a video preview of five local shows sure to entertain. Happy Fringing!
What is Uncouth
The endearingly maladroit Wynazz has the taste for Showbiz – thanks in no small part to the gentle whisperings of the Devil – and fantasizes about her impdening international acclaim. However, cut out for traditional showbiz she is not.
- An extraordinarily fast-paced, gut-wrenchingly funny, theatre, clown, and burlesque phantasmagoria starring comic showgirl, Windy Wynazz
- Performed largely pantomime, in the classic style of Charlie Chaplin and Carol Burnett.
- Brimming over with the novel use of puppetry, song, dance, acrobatics, and direct audience participation (you too can be a star!).
- An award-winning solo work of contemporary clown theatre and much more!
Where and when to see Uncouth
Venue 5: ODD Box
June 18th – 9:00pm
June 20th – 4:30pm
June 22nd – 8:30pm
June 23rd – 10:00pm
June 26th – 7:00pm
June 27th – 1:30pm
Why we’re excited about Uncouth
To me, when I think of Ottawa Fringe, what I look forward to most is the kind of show you don’t get to see often if at all at through the rest of the year. While I love my local artists with reckless abandon and there are always many thoroughly enjoyable pieces of traditionally delivered theatre at Ottawa Fringe, they’re not what grabs my attention the most in this setting. It’s the highly original or deeply theatric shows, often coming from artists touring in from cities with different theatrical energies and ecosystems that I’m keenest to learn more about and grab a seat for.
photo: Yvette Waters
This year, Uncouth tops that list. At the risk of simply repeating the bullet list above: pantomime, clown, burlesque, puppetry, song, dance…
A great recipe for a wonderfully unconventional and unique theatre going experience — and in a festival like Ottawa Fringe with 56 shows, if you don’t challenge yourself to seek out and see at least one of the “Fringier” shows, the ones that promise a radically different experience than you’re used to, you’re doing it wrong. How often do you to get the chance to see a show like this from a California-based performer who’s touring the Canadian Fringe circuit for the first time? (She’s doing a seven city tour through the summer, which also gives some assurances – few people undertake such a thing unless they’re confident about what they’re offering.)
Based on the video alone, this promises to be a show you’ll remember and be talking about and I’ll leave you with this extra bit from her press release:
The endearingly loveable Wynazz:
- Has a throbbing sweet-tooth for ShowBiz and ..Fantasizes about her impending international acclaim. Except…
- A natural she is not. Yet…A contender she is…and so:
- Using a mop, a Barbie, a Fred Astaire cut-out, and much, much more…
- She ultimately finds and defines her own subversive sweet success for your viewing pleasure!
I suggest buying your tickets soon.
Kevin Reid is perhaps best known in circles ’round these parts as proprietor of The Visitorium where he spent a good handful of years building a reputation as theatre reviewer and promoter and friend to the community at large. After making the conscious decision to delve into the artist side of the world, he went full in, enrolling himself in the Ottawa Theatre School and getting involved in a number of high level workshops including spending a summer at clown camp.
Emily Pearlman.
Crush Improv’s popular Armando-style format, “Spotlight On…” was first seen at the 2011 Ottawa Fringe Festival, where Crush was awarded Best Ensemble. We’re super excited to be back at Fringe, in one of our favourite venues, Arts Court Theatre.
It is that most wonderful time of year once again. No. The other most wonderful time of year. It’s time for the 2015 Ottawa Fringe Festival. Which means it’s the time we put our entire team to work full time doing our best to provide the most thorough coverage of the festival around.