Prime your fringein’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/07/2017 (3337 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Gear up, lovers of weird and wonderful theatre.

The Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival kicks off its 30th year Wednesday, July 19. And while it’s always fun to just plunge straight into this massive pool of theatrical offerings (189 shows this year in 31 venues for a total of some 1,600 performances!), a little planning and forethought will never steer you wrong.

So, as a precursor to this year’s record-setting fest, here are a few tips.

The stilt-walkers in Old Market Square are not role models. Wear sensible shoes.

The festival is not as centralized as it once was. Expanding well beyond its original locations around the Exchange District, there are essentially five areas to navigate:

1. The Exchange (encompassing the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Pantages Playhouse Theatre, Rachel Browne Theatre, the Planetarium Auditorium and the outdoor fringe headquarters at Old Market Square)

2. The Forks (encompassing the Kids Venue at Manitoba Theatre for Young People, which doubles as Venue 21 for more adult fare, in addition to MTYP’s Richardson Hall).

3. Ellice Avenue and Sherbrook Street, which includes two venues at the West End Cultural Centre and the Dramatic Arts Centre (formerly Cinema 3), across the street from the WECC.

4. The Gas Station Arts Centre in Osborne Village — this year, your one-stop shop for local comedy troupes Hot Thespian Action, Outside Joke, Hunks and DnD Improv.

5. The Portage Strip includes two University of Winnipeg venues (Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall and the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film), as well as two venues in Portage Place: the Prairie Theatre Exchange mainstage and PTE’s Colin Jackson Studio.

Beyond those centres, be aware of a couple of outlier locations: Dalnavert Museum (Venue 20) at 61 Carlton St. is the site of spooky show Tales of the Macabre. At Fools and Horses Coffee (Venue 19) at 379 Broadway, Winnipeg actor Cory Wojcik goes behind the counter to première his own play, Joe Job.

The program isn’t always correct.

Available at all Manitoba liquor stores, the $5 program is accessible but not always right. For example, there are 190 shows listed, but that doesn’t account for shows cancelled at the last minute. This year, a heartbreaking early casualty is B-Movie Bash at Venue 7, a Mystery Science Theatre-style improvised show involving a bad movie and a horror host named Macabra (a.k.a. L.A. comedian Ingrid Garner). Alas, all those shows have been cancelled.

Titles also change between when the program is printed and the show opens, a case in point being Burning Man Who Sold the World at Venue 2 (MTC Up the Alley), which is now titled The Man Who Sold the World, in what one assumes is a more Bowie-fan-friendly rebranding. To check for changes, log onto program updates at www.winnipegfringe.com/program-updates.

No money? No problem.

The cash-strapped can still enjoy free entertainment at Old Market Square. All day and well into the night, you can generally see live bands (including the Dirty Catfish Brass Band and the charmingly named Bloody Historians) and seasoned street performers.

If you have a bit of money to spare, some companies offer discounts on their shows. In the program, they’re the shows highlighted in yellow.

You can bring the kids. But you can’t bring them everywhere.

The Kids Fringe is this year headquartered in the Red River College courtyard beside Old Market Square, open noon to 3 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 6 p.m. on weekends.

But when taking kids to plays, please note the four audience classifications. “Kid-friendly” and “General” are safe bets. “Parental Guidance” is up for discussion. “Mature” is decidedly not.

Read the reviews.

The Winnipeg Free Press will have 16 reviewers traversing the fest to help you unearth treasures and hopefully warn you away from some of the inevitable turkeys. All their reviews will be online at www.winnipegfreepress.com by the evening of Sunday, July 23.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing

Randall King
Writer

Randall King writes about film for the Winnipeg Free Press.