For 10 days in June, the Ottawa Fringe Festival will take the nation’s capital by storm. Audiences can take in a piece of a celebration that is fast becoming one of the biggest annual arts events in the region. See ottawafringe.com for show times and prices.
PHONE WHORE
by Cameryn Moore (solo performer)
(Boston, MA)
Truth and taboo collide in this intimate visit with a phone-sex operator. Listen closely: she may change your views on sex forever. Between 30 and 40 percent of the calls Cameryn Moore gets are looking for some version of the Big Black Cock. In the industry, that’s the name for it: BBC. It’s gay interracial porn, basically, and it’s very prevalent, so of course, one of the four calls she “takes” during the show deals with the BBC.
ACTIONABLE
by Bob Wiseman
Presented by Lake Michigan Soda
(Toronto, ON)
Actionable is about lawsuits and songwriting in the career of Bob Wiseman (formerly of the Hidden Cameras and Blue Rodeo). One story is about a Canadian lawyer associated with homophobes, white supremacists and members of the KKK.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF HARLEQUIN
Troupe de la Lune
(Ottawa, ON)
A Harlequin romance parody in which the unconventional characters attempt to find love and happiness. One of the characters, Fernando, falls in love with Lance, the Harlequin hero, and must learn to accept himself in the decidedly odd Harlequin world.
SIX: AT HOME
Zopyra Theatre
(Ottawa, ON)
Six eight-minute theatre bits based on forgotten residents and events of Ottawa’s past, each set in a different room of Laurier House. One of the pieces explores the use of the word “gay” in archived editions of the Ottawa Citizen. In another piece, Sarah Waisvisz uses wartime love letters as a basis for her piece about the love between two women.
EDGE
Written on Water Theatre
(Windsor, ON)
In this play from a new gay playwright, three storylines converge before a flood hits a fantastical version of Windsor, Ontario. A gender-bending experience results, whereby actors play multiple characters of varying genders, tweaking familiar roles and relationships.
PURELY CABARET
Esby Kabarett Productions
(Vancouver, BC)
As the name implies, it’s a cabaret show featuring music from the saucy, fun, wild and politically tumultuous Weimar Republic. Two of the songs deal with lesbian relationships.
BURLESQUE UNZIPPED
Prairie Fire
(Toronto, ON)
The multitalented Prairie Fire (Sharon Nowlan) returns to the Fringe Festival circuit with a brand new work: a one-woman show-and-tell variety hour. Come out to see all that is revealed as she peels off the layers of what was, and is, burlesque. By provocative gay director Paul Hutcheson — creator and star of last year’s Best in Venue gay hit On Second Thought.
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