Greetings Fringers!

I’ve been coming to Edmonton for many years now. I have family here, and it’s been wonderful to get to know them all, having grown up so far away. So I’ve been probably visiting Edmonton on an occasional basis since the mid-1980s.

And then, of course, there was the Fringe…

As an actor, it was only one short step from visiting Edmonton, to thinking about bringing a show to the Fringe. My Dad was most enthusiastic about the idea: after all, he had never seen me acting on stage, EVER, even though by that time I had been performing professionally for 15 years. And so it was, that in 1999 we dipped our theatrical toe into the waters of the Canadian Fringe, with a production of “Educating Rita”, which played at the Varscona Theatre. At that time, of course, it wasn’t a BYOV.

The next year we were touring a production of “Romeo and Juliet’ through the UK, Vancouver and Florida, and so weren’t able to get to Edmonton, but the following year we came with “The Lover”. This time we did a bit of a Fringe circuit: Thunder Bay, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Vancouver, Cowichan…even Athabasca. All went well. It was the first time I’d ever had to appear nude on stage, but in the event it wasn’t half as stressful as I might have imagined. Box Office was good, and we were able to fund the next year’s production.

2002 saw us perform “Mysterious Mr Love”, which also did the circuit, adding Winnipeg to the list. Again, great reviews. Finally, in 2003 we performed the somewhat racey show “The Roundel”, based on Schnitzler’s “La Ronde”. Again we did the circuit, and again we did well.

Then, for a number of reasons, we stopped. We still came to Canada, but not to the Fringes. Instead we brought a number of productions to Winnipeg, and even did a special Tsunami Benefit performance of David Belke’s “Bless You, Billy Wilder” here in Edmonton. It’s all been a lot of fun. And now…here we are again.

But how Edmonton has changed over the years! Of course it has. In 20 years you’d expect it to change. But what has really amazed me are the changes which have taken place during the past 6 years since our last Fringe outing.

For a start….traffic. The only time I really do any great amount of driving in Edmonton is when performing at the Fringe. Six years ago, one might get caught in a traffic jam occasionally, but now….   It’s like England! Too many cars, too many roads, and traffic queues are the norm! And of course, with the volume of traffic going up, the on-road courtesy and calm goes down. Driving in Edmonton is now more like driving in Vancouver: it’s dog eat dog out there! And spit out the bones afterwards!

The area where we stay for the Fringe is Riverbend, out to the East. And it is here that I have really noticed the changes. It seems there is just unrestricted growth going on out here. Every time I come back, there’s another Mall, another development, as the Prairie is rapidly engulfed with faceless clapboard developments. I was driving through it the other day: an entire “community” which simply wasn’t there this time last year, and I was thinking: “This reminds me of something”. Then I realised: It’s Sim City!! Remember that old computer game? Endless expansion and “growth”,:build roads, add Transit, build Mall, traffic increases, upgrade roads, wait for disaster…. And all of it is same-ness and lacking in character.

You can’t fabricate a community just by building a Mall. Thank goodness for the older areas. Give me Strathcona any day!

A la prochaine!

FERNANDO

Tags: Edmonton, Fringe Festival, International, Old Strathcona, travel

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Edmonton, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.