Fans flock to fringe for first five days of festivities

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This article was published 20/07/2016 (3377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 2016 edition of the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival is ostensibly celebrating another successful opening weekend with a total of 60 sellout shows and 36,949 tickets sold to 573 performances the first five days of the fest.

While the Exchange District-centred fest was a buzz of activity on the weekend, ticket sales were actually down from 2015, when nearly 42,000 tickets were purchased and 67 shows were sold out over the same five-day period. This year’s figures are comparable to the 2014 festival opening weekend totals.

The diminished number may be attributed to the reduction in the number of shows, 169 this year compared to 181 in 2015. This year, there were also 13 fewer companies bringing shows. Still another factor was the thundershowers that may have compelled audiences to keep their distance in the first few days of the festival.

Chuck McEwen, the fringe’s executive producer, remains positive, though.

“The weather can make it a bit awkward,” McEwen says, pointing to the wet, cool weather on opening day and showers Saturday and Sunday. “Typically, we expect at least one day of rain, and we’ve already had more than that this year. But we’re very much looking forward to the second half of the festival.”

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Still another factor was the number of cancelled shows this year, including Thom Pain, The Pillowman, Eastport and Jason, compared to zero show cancellations in 2015.

But even cancellations of some performances doesn’t mean the show is kaput.

Actor Patrick Hercamp is vacating the final three performances of his fast-forward Shakespeare show Half Hour Hamlet at Venue 4, Onstage at Pantages. But Hercamp’s fellow actor John D. Huston is stepping “once more into the breach” (to quote Henry V) to perform the shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the venue, though he will also be performing his own show, Shakespeare’s Histories: Ten Epic Plays at a Breakneck Pace at Venue 29 on those same days.

A number of fringe performers, including Penny Ashton, Sydney Hayduk, Lee White and Toby Hughes have also been stepping in to replace injured writer-performer Fraz Wiest, off due to a bicycle accident, at the Venue 9 show 2-Hander.

“That’s kind of what the fringe is all about,” says McEwen.

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The L.A.-based company Sound & Fury, which performs Sherlock Holmes at Venue 24, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Their Saturday performance has been cancelled, but for the last show of their run Friday, they’ll be joined by departed member Shelby Bond (The Beguiling Buffoonery of Jim Chiminey at Venue 26) for a rare reunion since he left a number of years ago.

“I plan to not remember any of my lines and probably just urinate myself,” Bond says.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @FreepKing

Randall King
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In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.

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