Vampires, Grease and a clown teaching sex-ed: how 3 troupes are queering this year's Montreal Fringe

The summer season is upon us, and that means the next four months will see a number of Canadian locales transforming into temporary backdrops for Fringe: the series of annual theatre festivals committed to mounting uncensored, cutting-edge work for local communities. According to the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals' mandate, all festivals must select theatre troupes by random draw, offer affordable tickets and foreswear any influence on the subject matter of the plays.

While you might think such a loose vetting process would lead to an eclectic, disordered array of work, this year's St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival actually has something of a through-line: a whole slew of productions are setting out to upend traditional, patriarchal narratives by spotlighting female-centric and queer stories. I spoke with the creative teams behind three of the most buzzed-about shows to find out how they're using parody and personal experience to present the stories they want to see.

The other Carmilla

Carmilla, billed as "a queer vampire burlesque saga," is an adaptation of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Victorian novella of the same name (which also served as the inspiration for the wildly popular Canadian web series). Pointed Cap Playhouse's Sly Feiticeira and Stella Kulagowski were intrigued at how the work gives agency to female characters and predates Bram Stoker's better-known Dracula by 26 years.

They saw the Gothic text as the ideal source material to infuse with elements of burlesque (at last year's Toronto Fringe they produced a sold-out burlesque take on Aristophanes' Lysistrata). "A vampire tale lends itself perfectly to burlesque with its inherent sensuality and focus on transformation," Feiticeira and Saint tell me. "Our biggest struggle was walking a fine line between camp and authentic storytelling, and we ultimately believe we are offering audiences a truly unique experience with this adaptation."

Greasy Lightnin'

Queering a classic isn't always so simple. Glam Gam Productions' Greasy: A Lesbian Love Story rewrites the lyrics of Sandy and Danny's young love to satirize the way the family musical perpetuates gender stereotypes and reinforces the idea that women should change themselves for men.

Watch the trailer (NSFW):

Michael McCarthy, founder of Glam Gam (the troupe behind last year's Peter Pansexual, the highest-grossing show in the history of Montreal Fringe), admits that his team experienced numerous setbacks in adapting something as universally beloved as Grease: "Creating a parody that was simultaneously funny and addressed issues such as misogyny, heteronormativity, mental health and consent was quite challenging." Yet after last year's enormously successful run, Glam Gam has come to recognize that Montreal Fringe audiences crave raunchiness, smuttiness and campiness — and that's exactly what Glam Gam is prepared to deliver to them.

A different sexpert

Another show to tackle problematic conventions of sex and gender through the prism of coarse comedy is Maximaliste Productions' Is That How Clowns Have Sex?: A One-Woman, Queer Clown Sex-Ed Show, or ITCH(e)S for short. The solo endeavour is built from two-time Spirit of the Fringe award-winner Fiona Clark's personal experiences as a trained sexual health educator. After witnessing a clown show and developing a jester alter ego, Clark decided to fuse her professional background with this newfound identity.

The show consists of Clark teaching sex-ed as her clown alter ego in order to challenge the idea of the "sexpert" and poke fun at the lies people tell when they talk about their sex lives. It additionally aims to bring queer voices into the public health conversation, says Clark, something that is typically lacking and which she believes will resonate with audiences as she spends the summer touring the show in Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver, as well as an ongoing series of sex Q&A videos on Facebook.

Each theatre troupe couldn't imagine premiering their visions via any other platform than Fringe, a space where artists can test out new modes of queer expression in front of indulging audiences. "The Montreal Fringe Festival is our favourite platform to mount our shows as it brings together a community of artists," says Glam Gam's McCarthy — a sentiment echoed by Pointed Cap Playhouse, whose members believe Fringe's DIY vibe makes it the ideal avenue through which to bring Carmilla to life. The best thing about Fringe is that it not only allows but encourages artists to be vulnerable, Maximaliste's Clark tells me. It builds a community where people will continue to support you even as you fall flat on your face.