The Fringe

There are so many things to do at the Fringe Festival, trying to relate it all threatens the coherency of a single entry. But I'll try anyway...coherency is an overrated ideal.

On St. Laurent the street food vendors stretched out like the ocean. Maria and I tried Jamaican patties, churros, fresh lemonade, Schwartz's sandwiches, chicken burritos, mango on a stick, and crepes with banana and nutella. But what we really wanted was to see some shows, preferably for free. So, we dropped in on a band from Austin playing in the Parc des Transameriques. We thought they were great...that is, until they stopped tuning up....

What we didn't anticipate was that the Parc des Transameriques would be the scene of something even less savory: The Cultural Gargantuan.

First off, we were tricked into going. I mean, they were offering free pancakes! Who can say no to free pancakes? In retrospect, I should have glanced at their pedigree. Had the pancakes been delicious as fluffy little maple clouds they still wouldn't have excused the display of rampantly poor theatre we endured for them. Unfortunately, the pancakes were so gritty and undercooked that they just added to our feeling of being swindled. I won't belabor the point: the "Cultural Gargantuan" was a vehicle for the production of "Fear of a Fat Planet" in which large, over-exposed women threw themselves around a stage and made out while eating bacon. We left after about 10 minutes.


In fact, if there's anyone wondering what the Fringe Festival in Montréal is all about, I think this poster kind of sums it up:


Got a run in your favorite pair of fishnet stockings? Well, sister, you're just going to have to wait until after the Fringe to replace them. Everyone's sold out.

We did catch a good show the next day, though: My Origami Motorcycle. The tale of one woman's motorcycle adventure across Canada to find her muse. Kind of a metaphor for Maria's life...except in her motorcycle adventure, when the bugs hit you, it doesn't hurt.