—These words are from an email sent to Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School by Chris Fickel, an aide who has been known to coach Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School football games with Mayor Rob Ford. According to the Star, the email offered McLuhan $10,000 of funding from the mayor’s foundation. Fickel’s involvement is an apparent breach of the very same rules against the use of City staff for private purposes that Ford has been rapped for breaking before. Coincidentally or not, the offer comes just as parents from Don Bosco are discussing whether scandal-prone Ford should continue coaching the team.

Giant pandas arrived from China at Pearson International Airport to much fanfare today at about 10:50 a.m. The welcoming committee for Er Shun (female) and Da Mao (male), the first pandas the Toronto Zoo has hosted since 1985, included Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mayor Rob Ford, and Zhang Junsai (China’s ambassador to Canada), among other dignitaries.

After Harper officially signed for the package—the pandas arrived on the “FedEx Panda Express” plane, with a specially trained flight crew—the prime minister and the China ambassador each said a few words about the significance of the pandas’ arrival in Canada. “Congratulations, Stephen Harper, for fulfilling the panda dream of the Canadian people, which couldn’t have come true without your personal commitment,” said Junsai.

Er Shun and Da Mao are being taken directly to the Toronto Zoo, where they will be quarantined for 30 days as zoo keepers monitor the bears’ health. The zoo’s panda exhibit is scheduled to open sometime in May, where the animals will remain for five years, in the hopes that the pair will breed and produce an adorable panda cub. It’s expected that sometime in 2018 the two will be moved to the Calgary Zoo for another five years. The Toronto Zoo predicts the pandas will attract an extra 300,000 visitors this year, with a 10 per cent boost to memberships.

The zoo is hoping that the boost in visitors, along with a $3 increase in admission price beginning in May, will help offset the price of its panda visitors. The Star reports that the zoo’s costs will run to $8 million for a newly renovated habitat, as well as $3 million each year in expenses.

Torontoist was on the scene as the pandas arrived at Pearson this morning and emerged from the plane in crates. Check out the photo gallery above for giant-sized cuteness and an absurd amount of fanfare.

Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson of the comedy duo Peter n’ Chris.

The Winter Beach Show (with Peter n’ Chris and Friends)
Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West)
March 20, 9:30 p.m.
$10

By the end of last weekend another Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival had come and gone, with more than 50 comedians and sketch troupes from across North America making Toronto a funnier place to be. Among the highlights was Vancouver-based comedy duo Peter n’ Chris, two real-life friends named Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson who have been dominating Fringe Festivals everywhere they go with Best of the Fest and Audience Choice awards.

Although SketchFest is over, Carlone and Wilson have decided to round up some of their funniest friends to put on one last sketch show while they’re all still in Toronto. Wednesday night, Carlone and Wilson will share the Comedy Bar stage with Ashley Comeau, Devon Hyland, Sam Mullins, Colin Munch, and Connor Thompson for the Winter Beach Show. The show will include live sketches, songs, and physical comedy from all seven performers, including at least three short sketches from Peter n’ Chris.

After that performance, Carlone will return to his home in Vancouver, while Wilson remains in Toronto, where he recently moved. It’s quite the separation for the comedy duo that met at the University of Victoria’s acting school in 2005 and has been performing together ever since. But according to the two comedians, this isn’t the end for Peter n’ Chris. They still have goals for the future, including one day performing at the massive Edinburgh Fringe Festival, landing their own TV show, and continuing their annual summer tours of the North American Fringe Festivals.

Toronto will be one of those summer Fringe stops this year, and if you missed their latest show at Sketchfest, you’ll be able to catch it again in July. It’s called Peter n’ Chris Explore Their Bodies, wherein Peter and Chris venture inside Wilson’s body, Magic School Bus–style, to overcome his hypochondria and Carlone’s daddy issues. And we recommend that you make a point of going: the very physical, narrative-driven performance, which includes references to everything from Game of Thrones to The Hunger Games, is a worthy follow-up to last year’s Fringe hit Peter n’ Chris and the Mystery of the Hungry Heart Motel (which can be viewed in full here).

Unlike most sketch troupes, which usually perform a number of short, unrelated sketches during each show, Peter n’ Chris opt to create one full-length performance that follows the same narrative from start to finish. “There are still some sketch elements to it. Every scene has a little game going on that could make it stand alone, but we just wove it into a whole story. So if you’re not liking that particularly game or that scene, that’s fine, because we’re still building the story. And if you don’t like the story, well, you don’t like Peter n’ Chris,” deadpans Carlone.

“That’s okay, not everybody can. But I always take offence,” says Wilson.

When they can’t be in the same city, they spend a lot of time on Skype to stay in touch and even rehearse their material. “We actually used Skype when we were both in Vancouver anyway, because we live at opposite ends of the city and we’re lazy,” jokes Wilson. “Because then you can just hang up and you’re at home—you don’t have to travel back.”

Carlone seems equally convinced that being divided between Vancouver and Toronto won’t hinder their progress. “Most of the work we do happens on our big summer tour, so that’s when we do most of our writing and rehearsing for our shows,” he says.

This is actually good news for Toronto’s comedy scene—not only will we continue to get our regular dose of Peter n’ Chris at the annual Sketchfest and Fringe Festival, but now we can expect to see Wilson popping up in Toronto comedy venues on a more regular basis.

Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna
The Grand Chapiteau, Port Lands (Cherry and Commissioners streets)
Selected dates until November 4
$58.50–$158.50

Cirque du Soleil’s iconic yellow-and-blue big top popped up in the Port Lands last week for its annual circus extravaganza, and this year’s show, directed by Diane Paulus, is somewhat influenced by the Bard. The storyline that loosely runs through Amaluna takes elements from Shakespeare’s The Tempest: on an island, a young woman named Miranda (Iuliia Mykhailova) meets a young man who has been shipwrecked (Edouard Doye, whose character is peculiarly named Romeo instead of Ferdinand), and the two must overcome countless obstacles to be together. Like the original play, those include the intrusions of Miranda’s fiendish pet lizard-creature Cali, portrayed here with delightful, slithery creepiness by Viktor Kee, a master juggler to boot.

The whole production includes a twist, however: instead of the magician Prospero, it’s Miranda’s mother, Prospera (Julie Andrea McInnes), who conjures up the storm that brings a gaggle of shirtless, ripped sailors to their shores (thanks, mom!). On top of that, the supporting cast includes a number of goddesses, Amazons, and valkyries that make this the most female-centric Cirque show ever—apparently, the cast is about 70 per cent female, including all six members of its rock-inspired band, so prepare to get your She-Ra on.

But when it comes to any Cirque show, let’s face it—the storyline is only a vague notion meant to complement astounding feats of physical prowess and acrobatic skill. To this end, Amaluna will drop your jaw. During the opening scene—an elaborate coming-of-age ceremony for Miranda—the Moon Goddess appears wrapped around a hoop that slowly descends from the ceiling, while singing a haunting musical number. Soon after, when the young lovers finally find each other, Mykhailova’s Miranda displays her contortionist skills as she slips in and out of a glass water bowl, twisting herself into a pretzel while balancing herself on one hand at the edge.

One of the most memorable scenes was during the second act, and brought a hush to the entire audience: relying heavily on the use of her feet, the Balance Goddess delicately lifts a series of giant wooden rib-looking objects and balances them into a perfect mobile structure several metres long. Her performance is elevated by the fact that each slow breath is amplified throughout the room, accentuating the remarkable, meditative effort that goes into each movement. When it was all over, and she collapsed the structure by removing a tiny piece at one end, the audience let its collective breath go, and burst into appreciative, relieved applause.

Weaving in and out of the main plot is a side-story involving two clowns named Jeeves and Deeda, the servants of the young lovers, who meet and quickly begin a sweet, floundering romance of their own. Despite a cute scene in which Deeda gives birth to a collection of football-shaped, clown-nosed (and in some cases moustachioed) babies, there were times when these characters overstayed their welcome, and we wished the show would return to its central plot.

However, if aerial acrobatics, tightrope walking, and unicycles are your thing—and why wouldn’t they be?—Cirque du Soleil is the best ticket in town, hands down. Amaluna’s costumes alone, designed by Mérédith Caron, are unmatched anywhere else: during the dance of the Peacock Goddess, her ultra-feminine white tulle-and-lace dress sparkles exquisitely, covered in thousands of crystals. The Amazon women, meanwhile, are badass in red-and-black leotards and leather boots, and armed with bows and arrows. Whether or not you follow the show’s Shakespeare connection, Amaluna will leave you marvelling, much like The Tempest’s Miranda, “How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in’t.”

Photo by {a href=”https://secure.flickr.com/photos/by_pui/7518021256/”}PLTam{/a} from the {a href=”http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/”}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

We’ve reviewed more than 50 shows at the Toronto Fringe Festival in its first nine days, and seen plenty of good theatre, comedy, and performance art. We’ve given good reviews, bad reviews (including a zero-star rating), and middling ones. But only a select few show have earned our highest rating: a full five stars, or a nearly perfect 4.5 stars. We’ve gathered those together here, in our own “Best of the Fringe” picks to date. Not surprisingly, it corresponds pretty closely to the Fringe’s own Patron’s Picks and Best of the Fringe holdover series, announced last night to a capacity crowd at the Fringe Tent. But there are a few hidden gems, too, and we encourage you all to go out there and check them out, particularly those you might not get to see again soon.

Happy Fringing!

The No Bull$#!% History of Canada
The House of Style

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 5:15 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 1 p.m.

VENUE:
Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson Avenue)

Canadian history has a reputation for being dull, but The No Bull$#!% History of Canada, a one-man show by Montreal’s Kyle Allatt, is anything but. As it turns out, our nation’s history is hilarious. Allatt makes our first Prime Minister into Begbie from Trainspotting, and explains that the famous Battle of the Plains of Abraham actually took a little over fifteen minutes. He also proves that a disrespect for democratic process is a core Canadian value—one of our first Parliaments exploited a legal loophole to avoid an election altogether—and that sixth Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper was possibly the biggest jackwad ever. All of these facts, which are completely accurate, are delivered in a mixture of deadpan lecturing and ridiculously over-the-top character work. Our history may be filled with drunks, opium addicts, and lunatics, but this play still makes you proud to be Canadian.

The Other Three Sisters
Nobody’s Business Theatre

The cast of The Other Three Sisters. Photo by Greg Wong.

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 9:45 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 7 p.m.
**Sunday, July 15, 6:45 p.m.

VENUE:
St. Vladimir’s Theatre (620 Spadina Avenue)

“You never really leave the house in which you grew up” is the mantra that drives this new show from writer/director Johnnie Walker, about three sisters and their futile attempts to escape their family home in Etobicoke. Jamie Arfin is wonderfully self-involved as failed actress Gillian, and Alexandra Parravano grates perfectly as histrionic little sibling Kris. A beleaguered Morgan Norwich struggles to keep things together as the responsible Jordana.

The Etobicoke home becomes a sort of Sartrean limbo, holding the characters in stasis despite the fact that they’d all like to leave (and despite the fact that they face no obstacles to doing so). Slowly, details of the characters’ histories are revealed. These are touching, and, surprisingly, they include a paranormal twist. Walker’s script deftly explores complicated familial love-hate relationships and the desire to escape one’s past. The excellent cast—which also includes Julian De Zotti as the trio’s clumsily charming brother, Rowan—makes it a show well worth catching.

Of Mice and Morro and Jasp
Up Your Nose and In Your Toes Productions

Photo by Alex Nirta.

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 5:15 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 11:30 p.m.

VENUE:
Tarragon Theatre Mainspace (30 Bridgman Avenue)

Morro and Jasp are the the current rock stars of their field, as evidenced by the screams and cheers as the lights started to dim, before the duo had appeared onstage.

Their tweaking of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a brilliantly simple vehicle for their Joey and Auguste style of performance, with Morro (Heather Marie Annis) playing a version of the dimwitted Lennie, and Jasp’s (Amy Lee) know-it-all persona easily taking on the role of George. When it turns out that Morro hasn’t read the whole story, Jasp is given further license to place her younger sister in all sorts of humiliating situations to “advance the plot,” though the two both have hilarious crow (and other things) to eat, and get to play up how clowns are mistreated by society (a concept the two have explored before).

The show closed with a last surprise, this time for the performers themselves: a contingent from the Toronto Alliance For the Performing Arts came onstage to present Lee and Annis with their Outstanding Performance Dora award in a belated ceremony. The night did end in copious tears—neither of laughter nor the tragic variety, but of surprise and gratitude from Lee and Annis themselves.

Antigone
Soup Can Theatre

Photo by Scarlet O'Neill.

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 5:15 p.m.
Sunday, July 15, 7 p.m.

VENUE:
Randolph Theatre (736 Bathurst Street)

Soup Can Theatre has never shied away from ambitious projects, and they continue to push the oft limiting boundaries of the Fringe with their new staging of Sophocles’ classic political drama. The production is designed to court comparisons to the G20 and Toronto’s recent run-in with civil disobedience, though the modernized twist is subtle enough not to distract from a series of powerful emotional performances and elegant choreography. Cydney Penner’s Antigone rails against her iron-fisted father Creon (Thomas Gough) from the confines of an ad-hoc detention centre, surrounded by militant police who are all too quick with a baton. Also worth noting is Chloe Payne, who gleefully imbues her role as a simple messenger with all the blame-dodging and finger-pointing that seems too familiar in the wake of Toronto’s walled-off summit. Familiarizing yourself with the story beforehand never hurts when classics are involved, but if you do you won’t regret catching this expertly staged tragedy.

Release the Stars: The Ballad of Randy and Evi Quaid
God is in the Dairy

Photo courtesy of God is in the Dairy.

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 8 p.m.

VENUE:
SIX20SEVEN Gallery (627 Queen Street West)

Release the Stars: The Ballad of Randy and Evi Quaid may be the template for all Fringe plays from now on. It manages to pack a ton of information and two parallel plots into 60 minutes without ever feeling rushed or jumbled, and has moments of both gut-busting hilarity and heartbreaking tenderness.

The main plot is a dramatization of veteran character actor Randy Quaid’s escape from American justice, along with his artist wife, Evi, and subsequent application for refugee status in Canada. Daniel Krolik’s version of Quaid is quiet, self-effacing, and downright loveable, while Amanda Barker’s Evi is bombastic, paranoid, and occasionally vicious, but also smart, caring, and unflinchingly loyal. The side plot centres on the relationship between two adult siblings, a brother and sister, one of whom is critically ill. The two stories collide in an unexpected plot twist, but both hinge on the theme of how we stick by the ones we love when the shit hits the fan. Smartly written and brilliantly executed, Release the Stars may be the one must-watch play at this year’s Fringe.

Bad Connections?
Paul Cosentino

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 4 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 10:30 p.m.

VENUE:
St. Vlad’s Theatre (620 Spadina Avenue)

The phrase tour-de-force comes to mind. Paul Cosentino effortlessly disappears into the roles of nine different New Yorkers, running the gamut from a pregnant black woman to an excitable four-year-old boy. The transformations are positively astonishing; Cosentino brings all of these characters to life with tremendous subtlety and depth. Michael Levesque’s script, written specially for Cosentino, also deserves commendation for first bombarding the audience with this group of seemingly disparate personalities before slowly tying all of the loose ends together masterfully. The show’s pacing never loses steam, even as it balances moments of uproarious humor with a vulnerability that Cosentino sometimes achieves in what are essentially conversations with himself. For any budding actors out there seeking additional education on a budget, look no further.

Dirty Butterfly
Bound 2 Create Theatre

Photo by Joe Bucci.

PERFORMANCES:
Saturday, July 14, 9:45 p.m.
Sunday, July 15, 12:30 p.m.

VENUE:
Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson Avenue)

A harrowing examination of how domestic abuse can affect a community, Bound 2 Create’s production of a new play by British playwright Debbie Tucker Green goes right for the gut. Joanna (Lauren Brotman) is a woman who endures daily abuse at the hands of her partner, never seen by us, and presumably rarely seen by her neighbours, Jason (Kaleb Alexander) and Amelia (Cherissa Richards). Jason has become obsessed with listening at the paper thin wall, in a mixture of guilt, attraction, and sympathy; Amelia does her best to ignore it all, in a decaying attempt at self-preservation. The first half of the play ratchets up the tension, as the couple interacts with a Joanna they seem to imagine, at her best and worst; and just when it seems unbearable, it switches to a real life interaction between the two women. The script is pervasive and mesmerizing, and all three actors are affecting, but it’s Richards who stands out as a woman we initially resent for her seeming callousness, and later come to realize is having her life torn apart by her perceived inability to prevent the brutality that’s ruining all their lives.

The Little Mermaid
Sisters of Salome

Photo by Brian Lin.

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 11 p.m.
Saturday, July 15, 5:45 p.m.

VENUE:
Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse (79 St. George Street)

At first glance, a bellydance version of The Little Mermaid seems like an odd idea. Why would anyone want try to sexy up a classic children’s story? After watching five minutes of the Sisters of Salome’s reinterpretation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, the question becomes “Why didn’t anyone think of this before?” Lead dancer Sarah Skinner, who plays the lovelorn fish-woman, does a wonderful job of conveying emotions using her body and face. There are no words in the entire production, yet the plot is remarkably easy to follow, and it almost goes without saying that the dancing is fantastic.

With Love and a Major Organ
QuestionMark-Exclamation Theatre

Julia Lederer and Martha Ross. Photo by Peter Bevan.

PERFORMANCES:
Saturday, July 14, 4:30 p.m.
**Sunday, July 15, 7:30 p.m.

VENUE:
Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson Avenue)

This delightfully absurd story about a “boy with a paper heart, conceived by two broken-hearted people,” who ends up running away with the (literal) heart of a fanciful girl he shares several subway stops with each morning is poetic, playful, and wholly original. Playwright Julia Lederer, as the passionate subway rider who gives her heart away, has many of the best lines in the endlessly quotable show: quotes like “Just plant flowers in my gut” and “I’m just spouting leftover words, like sour milk” will embed themselves in your head. Her fellow players—Robin Archer as the heart stealer who learns to feel with the purloined organ, and Martha Ross as the boy’s lonely and internet advice–taking mother—give equally memorable performances. But it’s Lederer’s lyrical flights of fancy that are the revelation here. All of the show’s advance tickets have already sold out, but this one’s worth lining up for hours to see—trust us.

[ZED.TO] ByoLogyc: Where You Become New
The Mission Business

Graphic by Trevor Haldenby.

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 15, 7:30 p.m.

VENUE:
The Annex Wreckroom (794 Bathurst Street)

ByoLogyc is not your standard Fringe show. It’s not even a show by most conventional definitions. Instead, it is the opening salvo in a wide-scale interactive-narrative adventure set to run over the next eight months as parts of several arts festivals, as well as through social media. Sound complicated? It is, but it’s also crafted with obvious talent and energy, and if you’re willing to match even a fraction of said energy it promises to be a very fulfilling experience.

The events that make up ZED.TO will follow an apocalypse-level event in Toronto, with ByoLogyc setting the stage. This takes the form of a launch party for the titular biotech company‘s new designer drug, populated by the corporate senior staff and a team of new interns (i.e., the audience). The interactive, mobile format is similar to a murder mystery, where the audience members must collect what information and office gossip they can between speeches and team-building exercises. The ZED.TO team prove themselves to be capable innovators in this intricate scenario, though sharing information with your fellow interns is crucial. The party’s climax is only the beginning, setting things up for big events to come.

If you’re willing to take the plunge, we highly recommend taking a look at the extensive online material beforehand, and even signing up for the VIP Internship Program. Don’t be overwhelmed—just grab a drink, keep your ears open, and hang out next to someone chatty.

Tony Ho’s Sad People
Tony Ho

Photo courtesy of Tony Ho.

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 13, 11:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 1:45 p.m.

VENUE:
The Robert Gill Theatre (214 College Street)

A collection of sketches and monologues from local black-comedy kings Tony Ho and assorted friends, Sad People is equal parts hilarious and disturbing. Featuring everything from terrible paintings brought to life to a father-son reunion ruined by temporal disturbance, Sad People mocks the frailty of the human condition and will leave you alternately laughing and squirming, in the best way possible.

The Wakowski Brothers
Aim For The Tangent Theatre

Derek Scott, Lorretta Bailey and Duff MacDonald. Photo by Kent Nolan.

PERFORMANCES:
Sunday, July 15, 4:30 p.m.

VENUE:
St. Vlad’s Theatre (620 Spadina Avenue)

As Jimmy Wakowski will tell you, vaudeville “is serious business, it’s not Shakespeare.” He’s not kidding. Using the framework of a one-night reunion of brothers Jimmy and Conrad, eight years after their last show—with perhaps a surprise appearance from performing partner, and Jimmy’s old flame, Caitlyn Rose—the comedy eventually takes a backseat to a story of surprising depth. As they rehash all of their history together, the familiar cracks start to re-appear and soon they are struggling to keep this special night afloat.

The jokes come fast and furious, tapping into an incredibly silly place that lurks within everyone, waiting desperately for that perfect pun. It’s not surprising then that many of the songs are quite funny, but there is a tenderness to a few numbers, especially those featuring the sweet voice of Lorretta Bailey, that lend the show its heart. There is great chemistry between Derek Scott and Duff MacDonald and though Scott does not have the greatest pipes, he more than makes up for it with a performance that slowly peels back the layers on a very sad clown.

MAHMOUD
Pandemic Theatre

Tara Grammy. Photo by Dan Epstein.

PERFORMANCES:
Saturday, July 14, 8:45 p.m.
**Sunday, July 15, 9:15 p.m.

VENUE:
Tarragon Theatre Extra Space (30 Bridgman Avenue)

Tara Grammy knocks it out of the park in this one-woman play in which she acts as a trio of seemingly unconnected characters. Grammy steps effortlessly between personas, from the talkative Iranian taxi driver Mahmoud, to the flamboyant Spaniard Alejandro, to a histrionic teenage version of herself. Amidst uproarious laughter, the characters slowly steer themselves into each other’s paths, coming upon a few personal insights along the way. Grammy uses each character as a window through which to view Iranian culture, as well as to explore her own sense of connection to her past. Even if you’re not up for some superb character acting, the show is worth catching for the reenactment of the moving conversation between Grammy and Mahmoud that served as the show’s inspiration.

The Ballad of Herbie Cox
Sum of Its Parts Company

Victoria Chua and Roland Cox. Detail of a photo courtesy of >Sum of Its Parts Company.

PERFORMANCES:
Saturday, July 14, 12:30 p.m.

VENUE:
Randolph Theatre (736 Bathurst Street)

This is the weirdest, most multi-faceted show we’ve seen so far this festival—and at the Fringe, that’s saying something. Husband and wife artistic duo Victoria Chua and Roland Cox relate the personal histories of their extended families, including Chinese relatives whose feet were bound as children, a boy rejected by his father and sent to Australia, a brother addicted to street drugs, and much more. All of these stories are accompanied by performance: dance (and some pretty remarkable dance at that), piano, beatboxing, puppetry, and so on. The array of talents here is dizzying, and while the connection between the performances and the stories isn’t always immediately apparent, it’s such a personal display (which, by the way, includes some nudity) that knowing how it all fits together isn’t really essential to our appreciation. There’s also a special guest appearance at the end of the show—if the guest is in the mood.

Peter n’ Chris and the Mystery of the Hungry Heart Motel
Peter n’ Chris

Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson. Detail of a photo courtesy of Peter n' Chris.

PERFORMANCES:
Saturday, July 14, 8 p.m.

VENUE:
George Ignatieff Theatre (15 Devonshire Place)

Peter n’ Chris (Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson) have crafted an uproariously funny show that blends a Hardy Boys–style mystery plot with classic horror-movie tropes, and throws in a genuinely touching bromance for good measure. In this impressively physical show, the Vancouver-based comedy duo elicits joyful laughter from start to finish. They use inventive choreography, perfect facial expressions, and seemingly off-the-cuff remarks that show how in-tune the two are with each other, and with their material. As Peter n’ Chris unravel the mystery of a creepy motel, minimal lighting and music complement their sound effects (most of which come out of their own mouths) seamlessly. They deftly portray a host of characters—including the scene-spoiling narrator, the unaccommodating motel manager, and a nostalgic elderly couple—with quick changes in voice and posture.

It’s not surprising that Peter n’ Chris have already won accolades for this show at previous festivals across North America. Much like the Hungry Heart Motel’s doomed guests, we would like to check in and never leave (though preferably for less murder-y reasons).

Sarah Magni's solo (and PWYC) Alleyplay, Stamped: A Story about Daniel, who Happens to have Autism, plays twice daily at the southmost tent at the Visual Fringe. Photo by Corbin Smith/Torontoist.

We’ve got a few new reviews of Toronto Fringe Festival shows today—and they’re all positive.

The Ballad of Herbie Cox
Sum of Its Parts Company

Victoria Chua and Roland Cox. Detail of a photo courtesy of >Sum of Its Parts Company.

PERFORMANCES:
Friday, July 6, 3:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 7, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 8, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, July 11, 5:45 p.m.
Thursday, July 12, 3:30 p.m.
Friday, July 13, Noon
Saturday, July 14, 12:30 p.m.

VENUE:
Randolph Theatre (736 Bathurst Street)

This is the weirdest, most multi-faceted show we’ve seen so far this festival—and at the Fringe, that’s saying something. Husband and wife artistic duo Victoria Chua and Roland Cox relate the personal histories of their extended families, including Chinese relatives whose feet were bound as children, a boy rejected by his father and sent to Australia, a brother addicted to street drugs, and much more. All of these stories are accompanied by performance: dance (and some pretty remarkable dance at that), piano, beatboxing, puppetry, and so on. The array of talents here is dizzying, and while the connection between the performances and the stories isn’t always immediately apparent, it’s such a personal display (which, by the way, includes some nudity) that knowing how it all fits together isn’t really essential to our appreciation. There’s also a special guest appearance at the end of the show—if the guest is in the mood.

Peter n’ Chris and the Mystery of the Hungry Heart Motel
Peter n’ Chris

Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson. Detail of a photo courtesy of Peter n' Chris.

PERFORMANCES:
Wednesday, July 4, 7 p.m.
Friday, July 6, 3 p.m.
Sunday, July 8, 5:45 p.m.
Monday, July 9, 10 p.m.
Wednesday, July 11, 11:30 p.m.
Friday, July 13, 2:45 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 8 p.m.

VENUE:
George Ignatieff Theatre (15 Devonshire Place)

Peter n’ Chris (Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson) have crafted an uproariously funny show that blends a Hardy Boys–style mystery plot with classic horror-movie tropes, and throws in a genuinely touching bromance for good measure. In this impressively physical show, the Vancouver-based comedy duo elicits joyful laughter from start to finish. They use inventive choreography, perfect facial expressions, and seemingly off-the-cuff remarks that show how in-tune the two are with each other, and with their material. As Peter n’ Chris unravel the mystery of a creepy motel, minimal lighting and music complement their sound effects (most of which come out of their own mouths) seamlessly. They deftly portray a host of characters—including the scene-spoiling narrator, the unaccommodating motel manager, and a nostalgic elderly couple—with quick changes in voice and posture.

It’s not surprising that Peter n’ Chris have already won accolades for this show at previous festivals across North America. Much like the Hungry Heart Motel’s doomed guests, we would like to check in and never leave (though preferably for less murder-y reasons).

Dina: The Burlapped Crusader
Footpath Productions

Photo courtesy of Footpath Productions.

PERFORMANCES:
Thursday, July 5, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 7, 2:15 p.m.
Sunday, July 8, 7:30 p.m.
Monday, July 9. 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday, July 11, 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 12, 7 p.m.
Friday, July 13, 11:30 p.m.

VENUE:
Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue)

Dina (Claire Acott) is a precocious bundle of energy, bounding around stage with a playful laugh, as if all she wanted in the world was for you to like her. As it turns out, she has escaped to a remote barn in a Mennonite community where she has not had any human contact for a week. Which might explain why she has fashioned inanimate objects—like a coat rack and a balloon—to stand in for the people she has left behind in the bustling world of Toronto.

By encouraging those in the audience to leave their phones on and send Dina text messages during the show, Acott creates an infectious camaraderie with the audience. The overall effect is that of a children’s story that deals with very grown-up themes, like alienation, and technology’s effect on the modern world. The message may be slight in the end, but the charming delivery will have you laughing almost in spite of yourself. Bonus points to Acott for sending out personalized text messages from Dina hours after the show.

Toronto may be covered from head to toe in rainbows for Pride Week, but a series of short videos just released by Pride Toronto and Google+ proves that black and white can get the message across just as well. Each of the beautifully shot one- to two-minute videos profiles a member of Toronto’s LGBT community, including a drag queen, a gay man who spent decades in the Canadian Forces, a femme lesbian, an older couple who took part in the very first pride march in 1972, and a gay teen who just came out to his dad days before the video was shot.

Google+—a new corporate sponsor this year for Pride Toronto—funded the videos, and award-winning L.A.-based documentary director Jeff Feuerzeig (best known for The Devil and Daniel Johnston) was recruited to shoot them. “Toronto’s always been on the leading edge of gay rights and gay activism,” says Feuerzeig. “It wasn’t that hard to network to find interesting and unique stories under the different categories of LGBTQ.”

Feuerzeig found his stars through a combination of casting calls, word of mouth, and hanging out in the right place at the right time. For instance, he met Jonathan, a drag queen whom we see transform into Judy (inspired by Judy Garland, of course), by hanging out at the well-known gay club Goodhandy’s, on Church Street.

Jonathan/Judy’s video is an example of the positivity that shines through in this series. As Jonathan is shown making his transformation in front of a mirror, he talks with ease about the moment he realized he was different: “I started thinking that I might not be like other boys when I was about 13,” he says in the video. “There was a scene in Terminator where Arnold Schwarzenegger was naked, and I was like, that looks interesting!”

Even the video series’ opening and closing music reflects a playful, queer-positive vibe—the song is a cover of the quirky 1926 tune “I’ve Never Seen a Straight Banana,” recorded by gay musician Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields.

“There’s so much focus on negativity with reality TV in everybody’s face all the time, and I think what’s interesting about the films is they have really positive stories—and we didn’t spin them that way, they just turned out that way,” says Feuerzeig. “People are clearly much more open and accepting in 2012, whether it’s their children, or their husband, or their dad coming out as gay.”

To watch the entire video series, visit Pride Toronto’s YouTube page.

/// Re-ply \\\
Parliament Street between Wellesley and Gerrard
June 8–17
FREE

A series of mostly unmarked art installations has gone up in Regent Park and St. James Town, scattered variously near Parliament Street between Wellesley and Gerrard. Part of Luminato, they are the work of street artist Dan Bergeron, a.k.a., Fauxreel, who famously created those stunning two-storey-tall wheatpasted images of local residents that were stuck to the sides of buildings back in 2008.

This year, as Luminato’s artist-in-residence, Bergeron repurposes Toronto’s ubiquitous brightly coloured condo-ad boards to create /// Re-ply \\\. Many of his installations can be interacted with by the community: in the middle of a grassy field at Winchester Park, next to the Hugh Garner Housing Co-operative, one piece called House of Condo Ad Cards uses those plywood ad boards to form a 15.5-foot-tall, 10-foot-wide triangular house of cards—though to the kids living in the adjacent housing co-op, the sculpture makes for a very novel new jungle gym, as they climb in and out of the various sections on each level of this giant pyramid.

At the far north end of the park, a second installation uses the same materials to create another sculpture that doubles as a jungle gym. This one, called Toronto Housing Price Index, looks suspiciously like a staircase. In fact, it uses stacked and hacked-up condo-ad boards to recreate a bar graph—specifically, the Toronto Real Estate Board’s graph [PDF] showing the average prices of a Toronto house between 1966 ($21,360) and now (nearly half a million dollars).

For Bergeron’s /// Re-ply \\\, the artist also spent three months working with Grade 4 to 8 students in five different elementary schools in Regent Park, St. James Town, and Parkdale to “explore themes of location and transformation.” The result of that collaboration can be seen in the window of an abandoned storefront (which, according to one resident passing by, used to be a Mr. Sub) on the northwest corner of Parliament and Gerrard, where students of Winchester Public School have created self-portraits inspired by Bergeron’s distinctive street-art style.

Walking on and around Parliament Street, you might unexpectedly run into a number of Bergeron’s condo ad–inspired installations, a series of 3D sculptures that provides a contrast to his more common 2D work. Bergeron is a long-time proponent of community interaction and discussion about the ways art can shape a community, so if you’re hoping he’ll shed some more light on his newest work, the artist will be part of a Luminato Illuminations lunchtime discussion this Thursday, June 14, with architect Donald Schmitt of Diamond Schmitt Architects.

Toronto Carretilla Initiative
Various times and locations (schedule)
FREE

Last Saturday at 3:30 p.m., there was one attraction at the Distillery District’s 1000 Tastes of Toronto multi-vendor food festival that stole the attention from all the other booths. It was the Toronto Carretilla Initiative, an installation created by Austrian artist Rainer Prohaska that combines visual art and food, moving to different locations in the city for the duration of the festival.

This mobile kitchen was inspired by a recent visit to Toronto, where Prohaska couldn’t help noticing the city’s abundance of hot dog vendors, and very little else in the way of street food. He decided to take on the challenge of creating a food-based initiative that would meet strict Toronto Public Health regulations, and allow the public to take part in the cooking of a meal to be enjoyed by many.

On Saturday, before the afternoon shift began, 10 bright orange Loblaws shopping carts—eight set-up as cooking stations, two as hand-washing stations—had already been strategically placed so that a dozen (pre-registered) festival-goers and six Luminato chefs could prepare the day’s meal: a simple Italian potato soup. The carts were decked out with various combinations of corrugated roofs, wooden planks for countertops, and clamps and zip ties holding everything together. This is the sculptural aspect of the event: depending on the recipe, which changes each day, the carts will be brought together in a different way.

When asked why they’d signed up as volunteer chefs for the project, most of the festival-goers gave similar responses: “We just decided to sign up because it sounded fun,” said Leigh Krekoski, there with his brother Brent, who was visiting from Vancouver. “We knew we’d be cooking, and there was some sort of sculptural thing, but we weren’t quite sure exactly what it was.” There was also, of course, the promise of free food; not just for the volunteer chefs, but for anyone lucky enough to be wandering by when the soup was hot and ready.

After about 40 minutes and several hundred chopped up potatoes, carrots, celery roots, and onions (and the addition of rosemary, pepper, and olive oil), the alluring scent was in the air and the line started forming, eventually feeding more than 100 hungry festival-goers. Apparently, the $5 offerings from some of Toronto’s most buzzed-about restaurants at 1000 Tastes of Toronto couldn’t compete with free potato soup cooked in a collection of shopping carts.

Photos by Laura Godfrey/Torontoist.

Banachek (centre) performs one of his baffling mindtricks on a couple of unsuspecting audience volunteers.

The Alpha Project—Banachek
Fleck Dance Theatre (207 Queens Quay West)
June 8–9, 8 p.m.; June 10, 2 p.m.
$35–$45

For someone who makes his living performing feats of mentalism (telepathy, psychokinesis, hypnotism, seances, and dermaoptics, a.k.a. “the magic of sensing without sight”), British-born performer Banachek’s entire backstory is pretty unique. And given that the audience at last night’s opening night show was not short on skeptics—a handful of whom we spoke to during intermission, or casually eavesdropped on, and a number of whom were volunteers on the stage itself—it is the highest praise to say the entire audience left looking absolutely baffled, but also delighted.

The thing is (spoiler alert) Banachek makes no bones about the fact that though he’s been practicing this art for most of his life, none of it is real. If his story itself is to be believed, when he was a teenager the entertainer spent four years being studied by scientists at Washington University. Throughout this ongoing study, which was funded by a half-million-dollar grant, Banachek managed to convince the men he had genuine psychic abilities. “But everything we had done was a trick. We had fooled the scientists,” he explains during his show.

This knowledge didn’t hinder our enjoyment of the performance; not in the least. In the first half of the show, Banachek invites two volunteers onto the stage; each of them is asked to look at the back cover of a paperback book held up by Banachek, and to choose a random word from that book. And lo and behold, he is able to guess first the individual letters, then the entire words they were thinking of (“China” and “colour,” in case you’re comparing notes from a subsequent performance).

Now, a skeptic would assume that perhaps these volunteers were fakes, planted in the audience before the show. But one of Banachek’s assets is that throughout the two-hour performance, he gives a high number of audience members the chance to see him perform up close—and as luck would have it, one of those volunteers was us. After we approached the stage and dutifully tugged at and knocked on the metal blindfold he prepared to put on—over the layers of duct tape also covering his eyes—we entered the audience to select three objects at random from complete strangers. And then, with us holding each object over his head, he guessed exactly what each one was with alarming specificity (for example, not only that we were holding plastic sunglasses, but blue and yellow plastic sunglasses). Considering that we were standing close enough to check his ears for tiny microphones, this was impressive trickery indeed.

You can strain your neck and edge as far off your seat as you want, but there’s no question that Banachek is a master of his craft—there’s a reason he counts Penn & Teller, David Blaine, and Criss Angel among the acts he’s consulted for. Even after he tells you it’s not real, every trick is followed by a single question, rippling through the crowd: “How did he do that?” It may not be magic, but that’s okay—it’s still mystery, suspense, and high entertainment.

Heads up, Toronto—for the second time this week, concrete is falling from the Gardiner Expressway. Toronto Police told 680News this morning that concrete had fallen onto Lake Shore Boulevard, near Parkside Drive. No injuries were reported and the area hasn’t been closed off, but this is a repeat of a similar incident on Monday afternoon, when two westbound lanes on Lake Shore at Lower Jarvis were closed off for the same reason. After Monday’s incident, Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) proposed the City implement a road toll to help maintain the elevated roadway. [UPDATE: May 10, 3:45 P.M. And now we have some pictures of the damage, above.]

In a dark, small-ish room with exposed brick walls in the back of the Ossington, a buzzing crowd has already begun to form nearly an hour before the main event. One girl is wearing a white scientist’s smock with a pair of black goggles dangling around her neck. A young gentleman is looking dapper in a classy librarian-esque jacket and tie. Another guy is really pulling off a plaid pyjama set—the silk ones were too expensive, he says.

This last costume-wearer is Evan Munday, co-organizer of the monthly Geek Love screening series, which celebrated its first anniversary on Monday night with a repeat of the event that started it all: a Joss Whedon Singalong. Together with Emma Woolley, these two lovers of all things geek-related planned their first event in 2011, screening the 42-minute-long Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog followed by “Once More With Feeling,” the musical episode of Whedon’s best-loved TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Did we just ignite an internet firestorm of debate?)

“Joss Whedon’s musical episodes provide people with a more readily available way to appreciate [his work] as a group, in that you can sing along,” says Munday. “I think it would be annoying if you were to watch an episode and just recite all of the lines, but singing—that’s an acceptable thing, and these episodes are the perfect way to have audience participation.”

This may be shaping up to be a big year for Whedon: His mystery-shrouded horror movie The Cabin in the Woods (directed by Buffy co-writer Drew Goddard) hits theatres this April, while The Avengers arrives in May. But Whedon’s devoted fans are still just as interested in Buffy and Dr. Horrible, that little internet movie he created during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild strike with his talented band of brothers and his actor friends Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day.

Munday and Woolley have packed about 80 Whedon-heads into the bar’s back room, including one fan who says she has watched “Once More With Feeling” on all seven continents. Among nerds, Whedon is like a rock star—stories about sightings and near-sightings fly at Geek Love, and a fairly enthusiastic field of swaying hands is not out of place during Captain Hammer’s misguided, macho rendition of “Everyone’s a Hero” in Dr. Horrible’s final act.

Geek Love has been screening different shows every month since last March, from X-Files to Star Trek: The Next Generation to Freaks and Geeks. According to Woolley, the idea was born out of a simple desire to watch Whedon’s work with more people than would fit in her own apartment. They get a solid showing at the Ossington most months, but “Whedonfest gets more people who aren’t our friends,” she says.

By the time we make our way home, after both episodes have been screened twice by popular demand (Dr. Horrible’s re-watching included the full-length musical commentary), we’re not so sure Woolley’s last statement is true. Riding the subway eastbound, debating the merits of the old versus new series of Doctor Who with a guy wearing a T-shirt covered in nerdy movie spoilers, we have sung ourselves hoarse, and feel like we’ve just left a roomful of kindred spirits.