Fringe Fridays!

I switched my half-day Friday from next week to today so I could Fringe this afternoon as the festival ends this Sunday and I'd only made use of one of my 5 passes to date.

My original plan was to go to Nathan Phillips Square for lunch to check out the street food demonstration being staged by some of the city's best chef's today but I ended up making a last-minute lunch date with a friend downtown to talk about my career issues. We went to Thai Island in the TD Centre where I got the green curry chicken which I've soooo missed since moving midtown for work. We would have seen each other this Sunday anyway since I had gotten in touch with his wife about questions on a role I'm interested in at her company, but I wanted him as a sounding board as he's probably one of the most resourceful and savvy guys I know. And he did not disappoint. So, thanks again, G!!

After lunch, I made my way over to the Tarragon Theatre to catch Rumpleforeskin at 2:15pm. I wasn't at all interested in seeing it until I read the Fringe review in Eye Weekly on my subway ride down to lunch. As per the program, it's a "loving adaptation of an old fairy tale for the enjoyment of the young at heart." And I'm so glad I did because it was funny, witty and clever with references to Conrad Black's legendary verbosity, the Bloc Quebecois, Ontario and Saskatchewan among others that labelled it Made in Canada.

I stayed for Expiry Dating which followed it at 4pm. I had wanted to see this since it had gotten a lot of buzz as the winner of this year's Toronto Fringe New Play Contest. This was about a couple who meet and get married shortly after when they find out one of them only has 6 months to live. They played to a full house and it was good, although the acting was probably better in Rumpleforeskin.

I saw Wedding Belles last Friday and it was...lacking: the plot was sufficient but the acting was uneven, which I found rather distracting.

The plan is to see at least one more show tomorrow so that I hit breakeven on my pass...