Storefront Fringe Festival — Kingston Theatre Alliance

Sarah Emtage is a poet, playwright, sculptor, and library technician in Kingston. She is the author of the radio play The Sound Castle (2020) and its two-part sequel, Jabberwocky and The Listeners (2022), which were produced for the Shortwave Theatre Festival. Shannon Kingston is a Kingston-born playwright currently studying children’s media at Centennial College. Her radio play Garden Of Edith (2022) was produced for the Shortwave Festival, and her previous […]

A one woman, one robot, one act show set on a space station, R.E.D. is the frugal producer’s dream show. But the cracks start to show almost immediately.

Shrimp cocktail.
Top 40 hits of the 1990’s.
The shady dealings of the 1%.
An unhinged rendition of I am The Greatest Star.

All of these elements and more can be found in Gone, presented by Toronto-based writer and performer Amber Mackereth. A romp in the anxieties of the global citizen, this work is unlike anything else playing at the Kingston Fringe.

Never Swim Alone is a Canadian classic that just needs a little more reinvention than what the script calls for. My understanding of the work is that it’s meant to be a critique of the ways in which men have been socialized, yet the play as it stands does not offer anything more than making toxic masculinity known.

Too Much Information Improvised was a part of the 2022 Kingston Fringe, produced by the Kick & Push Festival. It is performed by two real life exes, Paddy MacDonald and Steph Haller. The allure of the work is the fact that they used to be in a romantic relationship with one another, so the expectation is that maybe there is fighting, and lots of tension. It was a lovely surprise that there was not, like none at all, unless the performance called for it.

While the show is clearly intended for a younger audience, there is an undeniable charm in Anne Marie Mortensen’s writing and the performances from the teenage actors. 

PAPILLON uses the unexpected to create new meaning and keep things feeling fresh. In a world filled with unpredictability, it can feel like at times the only constant is change itself. Exploring this concept onstage can lead to different forms of improvisation, which tests performers and adds to the live-ness of a performance. For PAPILLON, a high-powered, experimental movement piece that was presented at the Storefront Fringe Festival and supported […]

Charismatic and captivating to a fault, Mark Cassidy and Hume Baugh provide an escapist nostalgia trip accompanied and magnified by a veritable smorgasbord of 70s hits. Allistonian Brockvillian Dionysian sports a jigsaw puzzle of a story that isn’t so much a cohesive narrative, but rather a man flicking through periods of his childhood as he quite literally takes a trip down memory lane to the motel that shaped him into the person he is today. Allistonian Brockvillian Dionysian is Presented by Threshold Theatre and Theatre Kingston Storefront Fringe Festival, supported in part by the Kick and Push Festival. This love letter to the playgrounds of wonder that were the local hotel and motel serves as the bittersweet farewell to a childhood that lives on in memory. 

BFFs is a new 45-minute mini-musical by Bad Dress Productions that follows the reunion of 2 university friends in their university city of Montreal (they both went to McGill) after years of “adulting”, consequently not being able to see another for quite a long time. They are, however, superbly happy to see one another when they both arrive at the small Airbnb they rented for the weekend. And, judging by the contents of the luggage each character brings, the audience is able to discern what these characters might be like.

If you’re in search for a scary story to tell, looking at real life events may be a good place to start. Tyler Mathews is a Kingston playwright who stumbled upon the story of American serial killer Albert Fish (or The Boogeyman as he was sometimes known), and latched onto the story due to his interest in exploring the darkest human impulses.

There’s something so cathartic about watching a play about revenge—maybe it’s something to do with how we want to believe the world is just, and that evil actions have consequences.

In Tabia Lau’s new Pride and Prejudice-inspired play, there are two possible endings. And after seeing it once, you’re going to want to watch it again