First Fringe Festival experience

I've always been a bit weary of the Fringe Festivals... I'm not a big theater fan to start with and not a big gambler either. You have to be both to immerse yourself happily in the strange world of the Fringe.

So I was a bit surprised when Lara offered me an evening at the Vancouver Fringe Festival as part of my birthday present. Smart girl, she also asked me to pick the venue... Yikes! I therefore dutifully picked up a recent copy of The West Ender, a free weekly about events and stories in the West End. In it I found a few previews for Fringe shows, including Saltwater. This is the play we went to see last night.

The storyline was quite original. Two sets of twins, brother who end up lost at sea and transformed into fishes and conjoined sisters who can separate under water and therefore grow quite fond of spending time swimming. So much that their mom (same mom for both sets of twins) has them practice choreographies in the hope of cashing in on these unusual girls. Add to this a narrative by a tall Glad man (all in white, hair included) and talking guppies... Yes. Original. But good as well, the characters were touching and complex, and the storyline, a little bit confusing at the beginning, unraveled as the story was told and connected the dots very efficiently.

Pleasantly surprised!