All posts by Mike Anderson

Mike was that kid who walked into the high school stage crew booth, saw the lighting board, and went ooooooooooooh. Now that he’s (mostly) all grown up, Mike keeps his foot in the door as a community-theatre producer, stage manager and administrator. In the audience, he’s a tremendous sucker for satire and parody, for improvisational and sketch-driven comedy, for farce and pantomime, and for cabaret of all types. His happiest Toronto theatrical memory is (re) Birth: E. E. Cummings in Song.

Fringe for Free! Toronto Fringe ticket giveaways for shows playing on Monday, June 8th.

It’s here! It’s here! It’s here, here, here, here here! At Mooney on Theatre, we like to spread the love during Fringe and invite our readers to participate in contests for a pair of FREE Fringe tickets to different shows every day of the festival. So enter a contest and Fringe for Free!  Here are the FIVE shows that are we are giving away tickets for on Monday, July 8th, 2013.

Today’s shows are:

Fort Isabel – To be entered into the draw for a pair of tickets to the 11:00 PM show at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson Ave.), please send an email to contests@mooneyontheatre.com with the subject line “Fort Isabel contest” by 7pm on Sunday, July 7th, 2013.

Assassinating Thomson – To be entered into the draw for a pair of tickets to the 10:30 PM show at St. Vladimir’s Theatre (620 Spadina Ave.), please send an email to contests@mooneyontheatre.com with the subject line “Thomson contest” by 7pm on Sunday, July 7th, 2013.

Tomes – To be entered into the draw for a pair of tickets to the 6:30 PM show at St. Vladimir’s Theatre (620 Spadina Ave.), please send an email to contests@mooneyontheatre.com with the subject line “Tomes contest” by 7pm on Sunday, July 7th, 2013.

Liza Live! – To be entered into the draw for a pair of tickets to the 3:15 PM show at the Annex Theatre (730 Bathurst St.), please send an email to contests@mooneyontheatre.com with the subject line “Liza Live! contest” by 7pm on Sunday, July 7th, 2013.

Death Married My Daughter –  To be entered into the draw for two free treatments at the 1:00 PM show at the Tarragon Main Space (30 Bridgman Ave.), please send an email to contests@mooneyontheatre.com with the subject line “Death Married contest” by 7pm on Sunday, July 7th, 2013.

Below the jump: more more information on all of these shows, and our full contest rules.

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Jesus Freaks (Theatre Poisons Everything Theatre Company) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review

jesus freaksIn Jesus Freaks, the crisis in the Vatican finally reaches boiling point. The church is facing financial disaster, with less than a year before it goes completely bankrupt. What can be done to save it?

The answer: stage a Second Coming. Not the Second Coming, but a Second Coming. Get some theatre-school dropout to dress up as Jesus, wave his hands around and bless some stuff; you know, reinvigorate the faithful, do a few magic tricks, smile for the cameras. That’ll fix things, right?

Right?

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The Hatter (Spired Productions) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review

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hatterDear Andrew Wade (Writer, Performer, Tea Sommelier),

I liked The Hatter. Really, I did. Your Fringe tea party, which plays at the Tarragon, hits the right notes: it never takes itself too seriously; it shows a clear mastery of the style and text; and it flatters you as a performer, allowing you to play to your obvious and considerable strengths.

And you had us eating out of the palm of your hand, man. We wanted to love you! We did love you! You’ve crafted a fascinating, frantic, engaging character who can draw our attention by simply being in the space, and you should be very, very proud of that.

But having done this, why do you insist on making him jump through hoops?

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The Hystericon (Good Old Neon) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review

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hystericonI was worried about The Hystericon, which is playing in the Fringe Festival at Theatre Passe Muraille. These themes–madness, the dark history of psychiatry, medical sexism–are so well-trodden that, as a reviewer, I basically roll my eyes when I happen across them. “Oh, look. Another newly-minted theatre-school graduate who thinks they can improve upon Marat/Sade. How adorable.”

I tell you this because the ladies who inhabit The Hystericon blew my mind. They’ve taken a genre positively filled with hoary old tropes and predictable dullness, and they’ve somehow cobbled together a fresh, innovative, interesting and utterly worthwhile play.

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The Final Trick of a Shoddy Magician (Act 3.6.1 Productions) 2013 Fringe Review

shoddymagicianThe Final Trick of a Shoddy Magician (playing the Annex Theatre as part of the Fringe Festival) gets so, so much right. There’s an outstanding show–and an outstanding performance–at the core of this piece.

But by aiming to be something bigger and better, and by completely missing that target, the product ends up being less than the sum of its parts.

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