Reviews to help you through the hit-or-miss loveliness that is the Calgary Fringe Festival

Trans Canada '69

Posted by Kathleen Renne in Fast Forward Fringe Blog

TransCanada '69, Ironwood, Sunday, 7:00
 
My first reaction to this show was, "Why is this part of the Fringe?"  I mean, there's no doubt guitarist Colin Godbout is good.  Really good.  He certainly has mastered his instrument.  The only thing is, it feels like a show you could see at the Ironwood any weekend of the year.  

There is no narrative storyline linking the songs together.  That's kind of what I was expecting, to give the show a more theatrical feel.  For that reason, I would skip it and see something else instead, unless you just want to chill out in-between running from Fringe show to Fringe show.  

Godbout plays music by Joni Mitchell, Fiona Boyd, Oscar Peterson, Leonard Cohen, and several others.  To be frank, I hardly recognized any of the songs.  For the most part, they were all  mellow and laid-back... the kind that sap energy from me.  I would have liked some more familiar tunes and ones that would get me pumped for more Fringing, not sleeping.


-Kathleen Renne


more in Theatre     |     posted Aug 4th, 2009 at 9:45am     

Comments: 2

colin wrote:

Indeed, there is a narrative linking the songs together. At the beginning of the narrative we are out east, travelling north, then south, and finally, west. At the end of the narrative these four directions are shown to be analogous to energies within the soul, and, as such, are integrated in a holistic notion of humanity, a pluralistic idea of personality, a unified consciousness. This narrative is further expressed in ten album covers spread around the stage, the last of which integrates the previous nine.

The most familiar tunes of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell are in my show. If there are some songs you did not recognize consider the experience educational. Of course education, like exercise, can sap energy intially, but will leave one revitalized.

on Aug 6th, 2009 at 1:03am Report Abuse

colin wrote:

Come to think of it, the narrative is also manifest in the show's poster image of song titles radiating in cardinal points from the soundhole of a guitar filled with a peace symbol.

While Kathleen was scribbling her notes (flogging me with uncommon sense) the rest of the Sunday night audience (including my billeting hosts) certainly enjoyed the show, applauding after guitar solos and after songs, and singing along to familiar songs. In fact Calgary audiences have been the most enthusiastic and participatory so far in my fringe tour. Way to go Calgary!

on Aug 6th, 2009 at 9:03am Report Abuse


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