Talking, sentient birds are a staple of children’s entertainment, from Big Bird to Foghorn Leghorn to Aladdin’s Iago. Because we can teach some birds to speak, there’s always that added sense of wonderment: what if they had more to say? In Arthur J. Peabody, a new comedy from Amanda Dempsey-Laughlin now playing at the Virtual 2021 Toronto Fringe Festival, the titular talking bird (Desmond Baxter) tells his story of imprisonment and escape to a wide-eyed child.
The show is earnest and sweet, but the content is pitched to a younger audience, and the script could use some plucking.
Swallow This Skin by the Unhushed Theatre Collective, currently playing as part of this year’s Digital Fringe Festival, currently exists as an audio play. It details the life of the dancers at a run-down Toronto strip club in the few hours before they open for another night.
Stylized similarly to The Vagina Monologues, this audio play is peppered with provocative monologues that touch on topics from racial fetishization and sexuality to reproductive health and religion. When a former dancer returns to the stage and a customer lingers around after last call, this night spirals far from being an average night at the club.
From No Fixed Address Productions comes 