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Review of The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore by Kim Fu
Review by Katie Zdybel
In the opening pages of Kim Fu’s sophomore novel, The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, a newly-arrived flock of pre-teen girls gather ceremoniously on the dock to sing the camp anthem: “And I shall love my sisters/for-eve-er-more.” Continue reading “Like a chorus of girls singing a camp anthem across a deep, black lake”– A Review of Kim Fu’s The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore
Review by Sara Mang
Photo by Tom Cochrane
What is it about Writers at Woody Point that brings people back every year to a remote village on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? Continue reading The Joy of Woody Point – PRISM reviews Writers at Woody Point
Review of There There by Tommy Orange
Review by Cody Caetano
No need to worry if you haven’t read the dust jacket, because I got the unblinking one sentence pitch of Cheyenne writer Tommy Orange’s There There to hitch the most disinterested readers: twelve exhausted Native folks reeling from one cross-cultural massacre come home to powwow at the Big Oakland Powwow, inside a big metal dome. Continue reading Power of the Powwow: A Review of Tommy Orange’s There There
Reviews of “Redemption” and “Big Sister”
Reviewed by Laura Anne Harris
Photos by Vancouver Fringe
“Redemption” by playwright James Walter Charleston is a solo show performed by Jim Sea. The piece focuses on three main characters: a prisoner who has been convicted of sexual assault, a southern lawyer who puts prisoners into reform therapy programs, and a therapist who works with prisoners to reform their behaviour. Continue reading “Shows so Fringe-y they deserve their own categories” – PRISM reviews the 2018 Vancouver Fringe
Review of “Ruby Rocket Returns!” and “Fake Ghost Tours”
Reviewed by Peter Takach
Photos by Vancouver Fringe
A rainy Sunday in Vancouver lends itself to noir. As we skulked under the steel girders of Granville Bridge, I found myself ascribing tropes to my fellow theatregoers as we walked past converted warehouses. Over there walks our hero alone, the private eye in her overcoat, lighting a covert cigarette. Here, a pair of femme fatales with their red umbrellas. Walking along by the docks, you can almost see the ghosts of longshoreman past. But what was once a foggy place of corrugated tin factories is now a cobblestoned island of upscale markets, touristy boutiques, and luckily for me, theatre venues, home this month to the Vancouver Fringe Festival, where I took in two comedic shows.
Continue reading “Gumshoes and ghosts” – PRISM reviews the 2018 Vancouver Fringe
Review of “Weirdo”
Review by Liam Siemens
Photo by Robbie T
How do you make a magic show for the twenty-first century? In the tenth century, it was about grifting small coin from a few unsuspecting traders. In the nineteenth century, Robert-Houdin formalized it, founding a magic theatre, and performing tricks that Louie Bonaparte would later contract for political ends. In the twentieth century, magic gained visibility and grew weirder: Harry Houdini would survive public burial, magicians would establish their own club (called The Magic Circle), Criss Angel would gothify it and take it to television. So what about now? Continue reading “Weirdo is magic for the twenty-first century”– PRISM reviews the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival
Review of “Banned in the USA” and “Unscriptured”
Review by Laura Anne Harris
Photos by Vancouver Fringe
As soon as I entered the space of Gerard Harris’ “Banned in the USA”, I was immediately disarmed by the charm of the performer improvising a tune on the piano. The show didn’t start traditionally with lights down or music swelling, rather, Harris (no relation!) began with some light chit chat as we waited for the show to officially start. Continue reading “Fringe is the truest, rawest and most intimate form of theatre” – PRISM reviews the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival
Review of “Dear Elizabeth”
Review by Issie Patterson
Photo by Wunderdog Theatre
Sarah Ruhl’s carefully-crafted and poignant “Dear Elizabeth” is an intimate piece for any audience with even a passing appreciation for poetry. Directed by Shelby Bushell, the show is constructed around a back-and-forth of real letters read aloud by Alexis Kellum-Creer as the witty, self-deprecating Elizabeth Bishop and Anthony Santiago as the sometimes arrogant, often intoxicatingly enthusiastic Robert Lowell.
Continue reading “Dear Elizabeth starts deliberately slow, gathering momentum for a powerful finish” – PRISM reviews the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival