THREE ONE PERSON SHOWS FROM MONTREAL FRINGE 2015

LUST AND MARRIAGE

ELEANOR OBRIEN has a lot of <em>chutzpah </em>to challenge Frank Sinatras paean to Love And Marriage which “go together like a horse and carriage… Ya can`t have one without the other”… by substituting Lust for Love.

Then again, she, on her side, has none other than G. Bernard Shaw, who proclaimed that “Marriage is the most licentious of human institutions… that is the secret of its popularity.”

She has clear elocution and brisk stage movement as she relates her attempts to walk the talk of polyandry. Along the way are adventures with intellectual soul mates before she finally marries a real stud.  But being guided by the popular sexual advice columns of Dan Savage does not fully prepare her for polyandry.

She has had the advantage of having TJ DAWE, the all time Fringe monologist as a dramaturge and her own sense of humour gives this show a crowd pleasing snap and wit.

But yet… and yet… the constant pursuit of achieving enhanced orgasms as the goal of life and relationship make one wonder, as did Peggy Lee “Is that all there is?”

Continues at Montreal Improv on June 15,16,19,21

THE INVENTOR OF ALL THINGS

jem rolls, the lower case writer and performer returns with a somewhat different show than his fans are used to. Again, the rapid fire delivery, the opposition to hypocrisy and the clever wit that have vestiges of Voltaire, Shaw and Twain are present. But he has omitted his usual potpourri of wide ranging observational snipes to tell the story of one eccentric genius,

To this he has added snippets of some 30s and40s background  music (such as The Andrews Sisters) as he relates the times and tribulations of  LEO SZILARD, the rolly polly Hungarian born nuclear physicist largely forgotten today.

Szilard was the first to think of a controlled nuclear fission, making atomic bombs possible, which even Ernest Rutherford, the McGill father of nuclear physics, felt was not possible.

jem rolls factals of Szilards other activities in cancer, biology and politics (mostly to prevent the Nazis from getting the bomb first) is enlightening and amusing. This is my kinda show… important subject in a rollicking funny vehicle.

Continues at MAI on June 17,18,19,20

 GIMPEL THE FOOL

HOWARD RYPP, the Winnipeg born Israeli director and actor incarnates Nobel prize authors Isaac B. Singer`s  character Gimpel, in this adaptation of the short story.

(It was translated from the Yiddish by Lachine born Nobel prize author Saul Bellow)

Gimpel is a trusting, accepting baker in shtetl laden East Europe who patiently rationalizes being fooled by others around him.  Poignant Klezmer background music adds to the atmosphere.

A hit in both Edinburgh and Winnipeg and understandably so.

Continues at MAI on June 15,16, 17.