In the News

Do you want fries with that Fringe?

December 2, 2009
Edmonton Journal
By Liz Nicholls

EDMONTON — It’s official. The upcoming 2010 Fringe, the 29^th annual edition of Edmonton’s famous summer theatre bash, has shows, chosen by public lottery Monday afternoon, and a name, not chosen by public lottery.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s all gravy!

Actually, that is the name: It’s All Gravy! Which explains the Swanson’s TV dinner slides decorating the TransAlta Arts Barns lobby Monday afternoon, as well as a certain prevailing air of bafflement. "C’mon, it’ll grow on you," says Fringe Theatre Adventures executive director Julian Mayne.

Grow on you? Hmmm, actually that would be gravy. It reminds one of the Montreal T-shirts (size X-large) with "Body By Poutine" plastered on the front.

OK, Fringe compatriots, I’m working with this new and perplexing moniker on your behalf, in preparation for the event, which runs Aug. 12 to 2, 2010. Naturally, the TV dinner image has a certain counterintuitive originality-unto-perversity as applied to a live theatre festival that’s all about not being TV. All Gravy, meaning all sauce no meat? An enigmatic choice for a festival that prides itself on arriving, by random chance, at theatrical heft. Gravy: The stuff floating on top of the main course that’s bad for you? No, in entertainment metaphor-speak, that would be movies. Gravy: Brown and fatty (great, I’ve seen that show, didn’t like it).

Ah, try Gravy: savoury and hard to make. Marginally better. But It’s All Gravy! implies that now all the substantive work has been done, theatrically speaking, it’s time in Year 29 to coast, to revel in the cheesy decorative impulse, the empty calories. Worse and worse. OK, lottery host Amy Shostak was dressed like a ’50s gal: ’50s, gravy, Red Scare. Dead end.

I’ll have to get back to you on this one, people. Meantime, know that 374 groups (up from 296 last year) applied for the coveted 116 official Fringe slots (BYOV shows to come later), divided according to strict ration among international, national and local representation. Five international and three national groups won a cross-country lottery, to get slots in Fringes across the country. A few perennial faves (Chris Gibbs, Gordon’s Big Bald Head, Ghostwriter Theatre) crossed the aural radar as the names got picked, but not many. Oddly, there seemed to be a disproportionate number of groups from Brooklyn (I counted five on the waiting list, then started fantasizing about gravy in the New York boroughs). A local company called No Snow Cones Productions has two slots; Mediocre At Best is on the waiting list, along with Jumbled Pork Productions.

View complete list of lottery winners and those on the waiting list