Hamilton Fringe Finale
Hamilton Fringe has ended, but Radha Menon and Red Beti Theatre are launching a new production at their fundraiser July 31 at Theatre Aqaurius. Check out my interview with Menon in herizons magazine.
Raccacloon Credit: Hamilton Fringe
Raccacloon was the hidden of Hamilton Fringe Festival!
With a nod to the film, Ratatouille, Raccacloon revolves around on a young raccoon with dreams of becoming a clown. Set in Toronto, young Raccacloon leaves home and soon meets up with Fettuccini, a young restaurant worker searching for the father he never knew. Together the two unlikely friends set out to solve the mystery of who Fettuccini’s dad is, eventually travelling to Las Vegas and that’s when the fun really begins.
With several well placed musical numbers, three enthusiastic and engaging clowns as well as additional cast members who move seamlessly between playing Raccacloon’s parents and three brothers to various chefs and sundry humans, Raccacloon deserved the thunderous applause of the almost sold-out adult crowd at Saturday’s performance!
An entertaining look at what it takes to pursue your dreams while staying true to your identity whether that’s becoming a clown or finding your father.
Raccacloon was performed as part of York University’s playGround Festival in February 2025 winning Artistic Director’s Choice, Best Physical Comedy and Best Actor — Grey Baker who plays Raccacloon.
Playdough Productions is a student-led theatre collective based in Toronto focusing on themes of queer identity, often using elements of clown, puppetry, and mask. Bringing communities together by making them laugh, Playdough Productions produces comedy using what they like to call, pure whimsy.
Keep an eye out for their next production, Karl the Cat and the Junkyard Pack, a musical hand-puppet show about a cat who thinks he can run away from his problems — that is, until his junkyard friends help him learn how to incorporate adventure into everyday life — through song of course.
Andrea James Lui is The Pole Shebang Credit: Hamilton Fringe
The Hamilton Fringe definitely went out with a huge bang thanks to Andrea James Lui who performed The Pole Shebang to a sold out crowd! What a brilliant last show for the festival!
Lui, who started out in martial arts, became a film and theatre actor specializing in stage combat and sketch comedy. Then, one day she found the pole and started dancing. No, not stripping, pole dancing! And, the way Lui perfoms is an actual athletic feat that few — whether male or female — could match.
Mash all that talent and athleticism together and throw in a generous helping of audience participation and you get The Pole Shebang! One Pole. One Person. One Hour. An original, energetic look behind the scenes of the journey of a tomboy pole dancer as she is unexpectedly called up to the biggest stage in the country - a stage full of the most iconic, glamorous, and glittering pole dancers in the land!
And, did I mention Lui’s mother actively encouraged her daughter’s pole dancing, created handmade props for the show, staffed the merch counter and came to every one of her Hamilton Fringe performances?
If you missed Lui in Hamilton then be sure to catch her at London Fringe in London, ON, from August 13 to 17 on the Auburn Stage at The Grand Theatre, 471 Richmond St.
Paul Hutcheson in Call Me Hutch Credit: Instagram
Fringe veteran Paul Hutcheson was back with his fourth solo comedy at Hamilton Fringe. Known for his physical style of storytelling and stand-up, Hutcheson has performed across Canada to rave reviews and packed houses — and for very good reason!
The debonair comedian is also well grounded in reality. Hutcheson — who would make an amazing James Bond, yet could just as easily be the guy next door — takes audiences on side splitting journeys. From his high school days to his cringe worthy time working in a mental health facility — with no training! — to teaching high school and just trying to live life as a gay man in a hyperhomophobic society, Hucheson had everyone rolling in the aisles.
Writer, director and actor, Rikki Wright in Inpatient Impatient Credit: Hamilton Fringe
Inpatient Impatient is a brilliant play inspired by the lived experience of writer, director, and actor, Rikki Wright.
On July 27, 2024, Rikki Wright decided to ride a motorized scooter to the store to buy a cigar. He never made it back to his Oakville home and family that night. Instead, the actor, accountant, web designer and entrepreneur spent three months in hospital after being hit from behind by a car.
That time, shared between Hamilton General and Oakville Trafalgar hospitals, helped Wright understand exactly how the Ford government is decimating universal healthcare. Underfunding public healthcare, overworking nurses and other healthcare workers, overusing expensive agency nurses and creating a lack of continuity across the entire system is told through horrifically graphic images — yes, there’s deeply disturbing pictures of Wright’s injuries — and surprisingly touching stories interspersed with laugh-out-loud humour. The hour-long immersive experience brought the entire audience to its feet in a well-deserved standing ovation for Wright.
Back on his feet, but not back playing rugby yet, Wright is a gifted storyteller who is currently finishing his book detailing his adventures as a patient navigating Ford’s dystopian healthcare system filled with bureaucracy, red tape and the lunacy of health care policies.
Playwright, director and actor, Devin Bateson, stars in Men Love Horsies — The Musical Credit: Instagram
Billed as, “just a man singing songs about horses,” Bateson’s show, Men Love Horsies — The Musical, was a brilliantly original must see show!
Built around men’s natural and undying love of horses, incorporating original music and lyrics along with simple, yet effective costume and voice changes, Bateson had the audience crying with laughter.
I know nothing about horses, yet loved every minute of this one-man show!
Bateson, a musician, comedian and media-artist, from Hamilton, ON, performed his solo show, The Midshipman’s Handbook, during Hamilton Fringe 2023 and at Toronto Sketchfest. Find out more here.
The Fortune Teller Credit: Hamilton Fringe
Just as a fortune teller is about to start a séance, her teenage niece bursts in declaring, "My mother says I have to live with you now." Almost immediately, the first-time client arrives with the goal of contacting his dead wife. Enter the niece's no-good boyfriend who somehow lets himself in and the mayhem begins.
This 60-minute play exploreing youth, love, the great beyond as well as the here and now, was a middling production compounded by the lack of any noticeable sparks between the actors or the actors and their audience.
I’m a fan of Ronald Weihs work as a playwright and director. In fact, I couldn’t say enough about his brilliant play, Langston Hughes vs. Joe McCarthy, starring Learie McNicolls as Hughes in the 2017 Hamilton Fringe production.
Despite having doubts about the plot of the play, I chose The Fortune Teller precisely because Weihs was directing it. Regrettably, it was not one of his better productions due to the material he had to work with.
In addition to writing plays, David Laing Dawson, a former psychiatrist who spent a decade as the Chief Psychiatrist at Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital and former Professor of Psychiatry at McMaster University, has written 7 novels and paints.
Despite a valiant effort by all involved, The Fortune Teller combined a predictable plot with an unconvincing backstory for the main character. Non of that was helped by the underwhelming acting and timing that was sometimes off.
For some reason, the names of the four actors were not listed in the program nor were they introduced at the end of the production and so must remain anonymous.
Comedian Dan Hurwitz in Limb Loss, Love Credit: Hamilton Fringe
Limb Loss, Love, at The Gasworks, is a personal comedic exploration of life as a disabled, mixed-race, light-skinned, patrilineally Jewish person.
Hurwitz, who lives in Seattle — the other side of the country from his nuclear family — delves into his various identities during his hour on stage including his day job at an organic co-op; playing basketball when you’re only five foot ten and circumcised; performing in Alaska; and dating.
At the opening night performance, Hurwitz did refer to his notes and eventually admitted to the audience that the show was a work in progress. The workshopped performance was an experience most audience members appeared to enjoy.
Red Beti Fundraiser:
Now, for something that has nothing to do with Hamilton Fringe Festival, but everything to do with amplifying the voices of marginalized women while decolonising theatre and the arts!
Red Beti Theatre is hosting their 5th Annual Fundraiser for their Decolonise Your Ears New Play Festival. The festival, held every fall, has developed some vital new voices and birthed rare stories from Indigenous, Black and racialised women.
This year’s fundraiser — being held in the spacious lobby of Theatre Aquarius on July 31 from 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm — will support the further development of Nbwaachaadaa Nokomis by Danielle Boissoneau.
“In my humble opinion Nbwaachaadaa Nokomis is a play that all Canadians should see. I promise that you will be entertained royally [at the fundraiser] by artists: Fareh Malik, January Rogers, Melissa Murray-Mutch, Gurpreet Chana and Danielle Boisson,” Radah Menon, Founding Artistic Director of Red Beti Theatre, told Small Change via email.
Those in attendance will also experience the short theatre spectacle, The Hanging, created and performed by Red Beti Theatre and Hamilton Aerial Group and directed by Melissa Murray-Mutch.
The Hanging is an immersive and interactive short spectacle based on verbatim text collected from Hamilton Rent Strike interviews and recordings at Landlord-Tenant Board hearings in 2018. The Hanging is also riddled with flights of fancy by playwright Radha S. Menon
Tickets are $20 each for early birds or $25 at the door. Each ticket includes a chance to win a trip for two to Puerto Vallarta provided you are present at the event.
To learn more about Radha Menon and Red Beti Theatre check out my interview with Radha in herizons spring 2025 edition — or simply click this link: The Goddess Within: Radha S. Menon on Feminist Transformations, Art, and Decolonization.
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article. With your financial support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
You can find more of my work in herizons, rabble.ca and on my Wix site. Follow me on Instagram, X @doreennicoll61, Bluesky @nicollneedschange and Facebook.