All posts by Jonathan Lavallee

LIGHTS! CAMERAS! ODD JOBS? (Arthur MacKinnon) 2019 Fringe Review

Photo of Arthur MacKinnon in LIGHTS! CAMERA! ODD JOBS? by Olivia MacKinnonThere are stories of personal journeys filled with interesting characters and thoughtful moments. They can be done as a series of vignettes jumping back and forth in time providing details and context. I felt that LIGHTS! CAMERAS! ODD JOBS?, on stage as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, wanted to have all those things but it didn’t really know how to put it all together.

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Elbow Room (Gloria Grethel Productions) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review

line art drawing representing the four actors in Elbow Room. No credit for artist found on the site.I am going to get all Marshal McLuhan for a moment and say right now that the medium is the message. I say that because this is playwright Lana Lovell’s debut theatre production after having so much experience writing for television. The best thing I can say about the script of Elbow Room playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival was that it was educational.

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Personal Demon Hunter (The Velvet Duke) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review

Photo of Velvet Wells in Personal Demon Hunter by Tyra Sweet

I read the info for Personal Demon Hunter on the Toronto Fringe Festival site and expected the kind of show that really does a send up of motivational speaking. Something that was irreverent, funny, self-aware, and ready to make fun of the whole enterprise. That is not what I got at all, and I think that was a very good thing. Instead, Personal Demon Hunter is a very sincere walk down Velvet Duke’s PATH(c) to fight both his and your personal demons.

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Woke ‘n Broke (Sixty60) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review

Photo of Rob Michaels, Neha Kohli, Carolyne Das, Zohaib Khan and Sima Sepehri and Nkasi Ogbonnah by a self-timer for Woke n Broke

Woke ‘n Broke the Toronto Fringe Festival is a variety show play which has that improv feel with a series of frantic short sketches. The sketches range from a reimagining of The Last Supper, to meeting an old friend who has started dating Dracula. Like any variety show kind of show the sketches are hit and miss. Unfortunately, for me, they were a lot more in the miss category.

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