The artists of The Toronto Fringe Festival 2023:
Jonathan Wilson! Ryan Russell! Sky Gilbert! Adam Proulx! Bruce Dow! Thomas Gough! and many more !
23 Jun 2023

by Drew Rowsome - (photos courtesy of publicist, producers and the Fringe)

Pride has barely begun and it is already time to gear up for The Toronto Fringe Festival. As always, with 100 different productions being mounted, the number of choices is overwhelming. In a vain attempt to narrow down my choices, I perused the catalogue and press releases, and even spoke to a few of the artists.

First up was Jonathan Wilson (Gay For Pay with Blake and Clay, My Night with Reg, The Normal Heart) who is starring in a whopping two percent of the 2023 Fringe's offerings. Wilson and Daniel Krolik (Gay For Pay with Blake and Clay, Box 4901, We Say Such Terrible Things) return in Blake & Clay's Gay Agenda after parlaying last year's hit outing into a sold out run at Crow's Theatre and Dora nominations. Wilson will also star opposite homegrown and hot porn star Ryan Russell in Inside, written and directed by Sky Gilbert (Kink Observed, Who's Afraid of Titus?, Shakespeare's Criminal, I Cook, He Does the Dishes, Sad Old Faggot, It's All Tru, The Terrible Parents, To Myself at 28, My Dinner with Casey Donovan, A Few Brittle Leaves, Dancing Queen, Hackerlove, The Situationists), where he plays a stalker who wants Russell 'inside' him. Wilson is as irrepressible offstage as he is irresistible onstage so his answers to my questions are presented here verbatim.  

Drew Rowsome: After the despair of the pandemic, you’ve come out swinging as the poster child of the Fringe with two shows. Jonathan Wilson is back, is live theatre? 

Jonathan Wilson: Yes! Nothing like it. Not even close. 

Gay for Pay with Blake & Clay was a huge success and award winning. Is Blake & Clay’s Gay Agenda a sequel? Responding to audience demand? A franchise being born? A cash-in? A . . .? 

Jonathan Wilson: It is a total cash grab in the way only independent Canadian theatre can be: we are really hoping to break even. Daniel Krolik and Curtis Campbell wrote a brilliant play for our first “seminar,” so a next instalment for Blake and Clay was hoped for. And they have delivered. And they are both smart and adorable and basically my support animals at this point . Please do not pet them. 

Obviously Blake and Clay have infinite wisdom to impart. Having now given straight actors the tools to play gay, what will audiences learn from Blake & Clay’s Gay Agenda? 

Jonathan Wilson: We will be revealing, for the first time, the long rumoured about gay agenda. A handy set of rules and principles for all of us to live by, with some shocking insider information. And also we will be doing some very stupid gags. 

How does Gay Agenda top, the hilarity and heart of Gay for Pay? Without providing spoilers, what sacred cows are slaughtered this time? 

Jonathan Wilson: We are all vers tops and all the sacred cows will be slaughtered. Starting with Elsie. Bitch knows what she did. 

Theatrical collaborations by gay men—I’m thinking of Robbins/Sondheim/Bernstein/Laurents and Fierstein/Herman/Laurents/Carr—have produced legendary theatre, but also legendary backstage drama. What is the juiciest backstage drama from Wilson/Krolik/Campbell? 

Jonathan Wilson: First we check in with each other emotionally, then we hug, then we eat snacks and then we go into a room and do silly voices. It’s very drama free aside from the fact that they both want me desperately. It’s sad really. 

What are the advantages or drawbacks to being part of the Fringe? 

Jonathan Wilson: No drawbacks that I can think of. It’s always very bare bones by necessity and that is it’s joy as well as it’s challenge (as long as you embrace that).  The advantage is a real time development of scripts and ideas. It’s all theory until we have an audience. 

How did you come to be involved with Inside? Had you worked with Sky Gilbert before? What is working with yet another theatrical legend like? 

Jonathan Wilson: It’s so great! Look at us still going. I am very proud to say we are fucking survivors! Sky is an icon and a good old school shit disturber. We have known each other for over 30 years but we have never worked together before. We saw each other last year at Patricia Wilson’s poetry reading night at the Black Eagle. It was such a great room of artists of all queer generations and I said to Sky, "We should really work together . . . before we’re dead." And he called me on it. And here we are. 

Why is Ryan Russell billed as a “Canadian sex symbol” and you are just a “seasoned performer?”

Jonathan Wilson: That was a simple mistake in the editing. Apologies for any confusion. It’s the other way around. 

Both you and Russell have a large body of acting work but in slightly different mediums. What was it like meshing your acting styles and methods? 

Jonathan Wilson: We are navigating our way through Sky’s twisted wonderful story together and live theatre is always a very intimate relationship. 

Has he inspired you to collaborate on his OnlyFans or Spa Excess live gigs?  

Jonathan Wilson: No. But we are doing a two hander. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 

Blake and Clay impart tangible wisdom to their audiences, what will audiences learn from Inside?

Jonathan Wilson: That’s for Sky to say. Or not. I am happy to be an actor and very much inside this story. And theatre doesn't always have to be about lessons. 

Your Fringe experience is going to be like performing in reparatory, how do you keep the two roles separate and fresh? Do you ever get the two roles confused? 

Jonathan Wilson: No confusion as they are both so very different. I just need to keep hydrated and learn my lines.

What would Blake and Clay have to say after experiencing Inside? 

Jonathan Wilson: They would be very smiley and supportive in person and then completely trash us behind our backs. It’s a long cherished queer tradition.

One queer legend that Black and Clay would never dare trash (for fear of being Tippi Hedrened) is Fringe darling Adam Proulx who, along with his puppets, graces 2023's Fringe with a remount of his hit The Family Crow: A Murder Mystery. "The Toronto Fringe was my first ever Fringe in 2014," says Proulx (The Family Crow, The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy, Spencer Stays Inside, Avenue Q), "and despite touring the Fringe circuit all around North America, this is my first time back since. It's one of my favourite festivals and I'm so excited to bring The Family Crow back home." 

For those of us lucky enough to have already experienced The Family Crow, Proulx notes that there have been some modifications for this run. "We have some fairly large venues in our future with this show, so since our run with Eldritch Theatre at The Red Sandcastle Theatre last Halloween season, we have been working to build its scale a bit. All while maintaining that low-fi charm that makes the show so special.. The puppet is upgraded, the touring set is jazzed up, I got some new false eyelashes . . . you know, the usual." 

Proulx's excitement is infectious. "I think it will be great," he says.  "And the Factory Mainspace is a perfect venue to see this new version. I'm so excited to bring The Family Crow home to Toronto before it flies off to Winnipeg, Edmonton, The Puppets Up Festival, the new What The Festival, and beyond this year." Catch it while you can.

Two other queer artists who help define independent theatre and the Fringe—playwright Steven Elliott Jackson (The Garden of Alla, The Seat Next to the King, Threesome, Real Life Superhero) and actor Thomas Gough (A Christmas Carol, The Crucible, Bent, Donors)—are teaming up for The Will of a Woman." With The Will Of A Woman, I get to write what I love, stories about lesser known history and people fighting to be heard and seen," says Jackson. "And try my hand at something I’ve always wanted to do and have never done, immersive theatre. It was a wonderful challenge to create this world within the confines of Spadina House and explore more Canadian history, a focus of mine for the past few years. Some find limitations in history and set playing spaces, but I love them because I get to push those boundaries to offer stories we need to hear."

The Will of a Woman "tells the true story of Elizabeth Bethune Campbell who in the 1920s discovered that her mother's trust had fallen victim to money fraud. Elizbeth must face the challenge of standing up for her rights, becoming the first woman to defend herself before the Privy Council in England." Because it is immersive theatre in a non-theatrical setting, there are very limited tickets for each show, much like Gough's annual star turn in A Christmas Carol at The Campbell House which sells out well in advance every year. A chance to experience him, and Jackson's fleshing out of history's underdogs, up close in a lavish setting is beyond enticing. Fortunately I was offered a chance to observe one of the final dress rehearsals so will, thanks to the wonderful flexibility of the web, report back in this space. But it might be prudent to snag a ticket before then, before they are all gone.

As well as these four sure bets, there are a number of productions that have me salivating with anticipation. The press release from Elkabong Theatre reads "'Fatal Charade' is a term coined to describe the historical ancient Roman practice of carrying out death sentences by having the condemned persons act in a play wherein they, as their character, are killed, for real, as part of the plot. This play, Fatal Charade, set in ancient Rome, tells the story of a convict sentenced to perform a fatal charade and the slapdash theatre troupe who need this show to be a success. This dark comedy, follows the convict as he earnestly catches the 'acting bug,' and the theatre troupe that is throwing their heart and soul into the creation of this deadly play." Fatal Charade sounds like a comic gladiator Grand Guignol-esque  Fringe on steroids, but Elkabong Theatre's mandate is to "Tell dark moral tales. People are twisted, let's laugh at our humanity," which is admirable. And sounds like fun.

Frankenstein(esque) aims to compete with Proulx's crow using a six-foot-tall puppet. Presumably of Frankenstein's monster but I'm not sure how tall Mary Shelley was. Britney Spears drags a barista through a portal for a trip through the nine circles of Hell to do battle with the devil in Danielle Tea's Infernal Latte. No hint if we'll hear any of the pop princesses hits, but I'm sure that "Oops! . . . I Did It Again" is on a loop in at least one circle of Hell. Another "tuneful jaunt through this dazzling portal to hell" is promised by The Exorcist: An Operetta. Should be worth it just to see and hear vocalizing combined with green pea soup. Bruce Dow (Diana the Musical, Uncovered, Dr Silver, James and the Giant Peach, Sextet, Pig, Of a Monstrous Child: A Gaga Musical) and Charlotte Moore (Sunday in the Park with George, Spend Your Kids' Inheritance) star in The Man with the Golden Heart from Andrew Seok, the composer of Unravelled. That collaboration makes The Man with the Golden Heart sure to be golden.

But perhaps the most anticipated musical is An Incomplete List of All the Things I'm Going to Miss When the World is No Longer which is making its Canadian debut after sold out performances around the world. Described as "a cutting-edge, queer pop fantasia that takes a bold and thought-provoking look at death, life after death, and life amid the ongoing downfall of the human race. This electrifying and emotional journey is set against the sci-fi, futuristic backdrop of a global announcement of the exact time Earth—as we know it—will cease to exist." The cast of over 20 includes Louise Camilleri (Rock of Ages) but the real secret weapon is music director Chris Tsujiuchi (A Very Chris-tical Christmas Cabaret, Porchside Songs, The Rocky Horror Show, Unravelled, Parade, Box 4901, Onegin) who is the queer equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for musicals. 

But this is just a scratch, and an idiosyncratic one aligning with my particular tastes and small sphere of knowledge, across the vast expanse of the Fringe. Browse the catalogue and take a chance on what captures your imagination. Killing Time (a murder mystery musical set backstage at a game show)? Hermaproditis (a Greek goddex living outside the gender binary uses poetry, burlesque and drag to shake up Olympus)? June (a women's prison drama dealing with domestic violence)? Persephone and the Ghost Brother (no information but the promo photo is sizzling hot)? There is something for everyone. Fringe artists are dedicated, determined and full of surprises. Just waiting for a chance to dazzle, elucidate or entertain. And use their moment in the spotlight to launch themselves into the theatrical conversation and the audience into theatrical ecstasy.