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Dave Carley

PEEK AT THE FRINGE NOW theatre critics Jon Kaplan and Glenn Sumi offer a preview of this year’s festival with readings and onstage performances from Disco Pigs, Miss April Day’s School For Burgeoning Young Strippers, Conservatives In Love, Mardi Bra 3: Milk’n It!, Shiksas Sit Shiva and The Lesson. Free. Today (Thursday, June 28), 7 pm. NOW Lounge, 189 Church. 416-364-1301. Rating: NNNNN


WHAT IS CONSERVATIVES IN LOVE ABOUT?

It’s a story about a group of youngish Conservatives attending a reception at the AGO and they drink and hit on each other. It’s a sex farce, of course, as any sex involving consenting conservatives is bound to be farcical.

WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE PLAY COME FROM?

I’ve long been fascinated by the discussion of the value of art, which people always put into economic terms. Hence the location. But the plot trigger came from a letter to the editor I read from a woman who had fallen asleep on the subway and when the train lurched she fell against the man next to her, leaving a lipstick mark on his collar. She wrote the letter because she wanted the woman who might be married to the man to know that the lipstick was an accident.

WHAT WILL YOU BE PRESENTING AT THE PEEK?

The cast performs the first scene of the play, set on the subway.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT HAVING A PLAY IN THE FRINGE?

There’s much less pressure mounting the show. The audience comes with the expectation that they have to use their imaginations and that things are going to happen that are a bit out of the ordinary.

WORST THING?

The run is short, only 11 shows. If word-of-mouth is going to happen, it has to happen quickly.

BEST PLACE TO GRAB A DRINK AT the FRINGE?

The beer tent, of course. Everybody ends up there and it’s a chance to find out what the buzz is.

FAVOURITE TORONTO THEATRE ARTIST?

I guess I can’t say my cast. But I do have to say Sue Miner, the director. She’s absolutely the best, simply wonderful to work with.

FAVOURITE BOOK ABOUT POLITICAL ANIMALS?

When Freedoms Collide. It’s about 15 years old, but I still go back to it. And Garrison Keillor’s Homegrown Democrats.

HOW WILL YOU DECOMPRESS AFTER THE FRINGE?

There’s no time to decompress. We’re already in rehearsals on a Romeo And Juliet remake at the Rose Theatre in Brampton. But on closing night of the Fringe? Certainly I’ll be going out and getting drunk.

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