The Vancouver International Fringe Festival is pleased to announce the lineup for the newest addition to the Festival, the Encore Series. Featuring five internationally celebrated Fringe favourites, the Encore Series gives Vancouver audiences a second chance to see some of the most popular shows in the Festival’s history. The 2007 Encore Series shows are:
Charles Ross: One-Man STAR WARS Trilogy, Granville Island Stage: September 8 & 9 at 2 p.m.; September 6 & 8 at 7 p.m.; September 7 at 9 p.m.
“A wild amusement park ride…my first impulse was to get in line and go again.” – Chicago Daily Herald
Following a five-month off-Broadway run, sold-out performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a critically acclaimed five-week tour of the UK and triumphant West End debut at London’s Garrick Theatre, Canadian actor Charles Ross returns to Vancouver with One Man Star Wars Triology, the show in which he single-handedly plays all the characters, sings the music, flies the ships, fights the battles and condenses the plots of the original Star Wars Trilogy in just sixty hilarious minutes.
Second City Theatricals: The Pajamamen in Versus vs. Versus, Kay Meek: September 6 at 9 p.m.; September 8 at 7 p.m., Granville Island Stage: September 7, 9, 13, 14 &15 at 7 p.m.
“The Pajamamen…virtually paralyze the audience with laughter.” – The Globe and Mail
The Pajama Men are Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez, two long-time friends whose comedy has been taking the sketch world by storm with their intriguing characters and innovative form. Armed with nothing more than their wits and their jam-jams, The Pajama Men will return to Vancouver with their newest show. The Pajama Men were short-listed for both The Perrier Newcomer Award and The Double Act Award at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They’ve also received honors at Just for Laughs (Best of Fest & Talk of the Fest – 2003), The Montreal Fringe Festival (Best Comedy – 2003) and the Vancouver Fringe Festival (Pick of the Fringe - 2005, 2006 & Critics’ Choice – 2003).
TJ Dawe: Maxim and Cosmo, Kay Meek: September 7 at 7 p.m.; September 9 at 9 p.m., Granville Island Stage: September 6, 8, 12, 14 & 15 at 9 p.m.
“A completely engaging performer who makes an instant connection with his audience” – CBC
All-time Fringe favourite TJ Dawe (Tired Clichés, Labrador, the Slipknot) presents Maxim and Cosmo. Referring to gender-barometric magazines Maxim and Cosmo, Dawe’s newest show is a 90 minute high-speed, high-energy comedic monologue that explores sex, gender roles and stereotypes.
Kahlil Ashanti: Basic Training, Kay Meek: September 9 at 7 p.m.; September 8 at 9 p.m., Granville Island Stage: September 15 & 16 at 2 p.m.; September 12 at 7 p.m.; September 9, 13 at 9 p.m.
“A razor edged roller coaster of a show that will leave you breathless with its energy, dumbstruck at its drama and touched by the very human heart beating as its core.” – Metro
Kahlil Ashanti’s 60 minute drama-comedy Basic Training, is his newly reworked version of the 2004 Fringe sensation Father’s Day on its way to Broadway and feature film status. Basic Training is the true story of Ashanti’s escape from a childhood of severe mental and physical abuse. Twenty four hours before leaving for the U.S. Air Force to put his childhood behind him, his mother reveals a secret that forces Ashanti to question his very existence. Mayhem ensues as we meet 23 of the most charismatic, flamboyant and militant characters imaginable, each leading Ashanti one step closer to finding the answers he so desperately needs to understand his past.
Barry Smith: Jesus in Montana, Kay Meek: September 6 at 7 p.m.; September 7 at 9:15 p.m.
“Five stars! A devastatingly significant work… a scintillating sense of humour, a magnificent turn of phrase and a way with a punch line that is jaw-dropping You must see Jesus in Montana.” - Montreal Gazette
Colorado humourist Barry Smith’s monologue, Jesus in Montana, tells the true story of his surreal journey into the depths of a bizarre religious cult and his desperate quest for God’s truth in the early 1990s. The disillusioned dishwasher believed his sophistication, wisdom and hallucinogenic drug use helped him to overcome his Southern fundamentalist upbringing – until he discovers Jesus has returned and is living in Montana. Incorporating home movies, graphs, numerology, biblical passages and photographs of the alleged Messiah in Missoula, Smith takes the audience with him as he travels to find and accept an 80-year-old pedophile as his lord and saviour.
The Encore Series will be held at the Granville Island Stage with select performances at West Vancouver’s Kay Meek Centre. Tickets are $16 - $18. Voted Vancouver’s Best Arts Festival five year’s in a row by Georgia Straight readers, the Vancouver International Fringe Festival consistently delivers an eclectic mix of theatrical offerings. Over 550 performances by more than 80 different groups for 11 days make the Fringe Vancouver’s most diverse source of entertainment. The 23rd annual festival runs from September 6 – 16 on Granville Island. -- www.theatrebc.org
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