Three Hamilton Fringe must-sees

If you're lucky you can catch Wheel and Turn, It's a Live Mixedtape and Raging Gracefully all on the same night at the beautiful Westdale Theatre in Hamilton.

Nadia L. Hohn Credit: Hamilton Fringe Festival

Nadia L. Hohn is the playwright of Wheel and Turn a must-see production that’s part of this year’s Hamilton Fringe Festival. Nadia as Aya, Kevin heronJones as Jalen/Miguel/ M.E, Journalist and Olivia Carter as Miss Lou, have created the chemistry to transport audiences between decades, countries and two women’s inevitable intersecting journeys.

Aya, an elementary teacher, sets out to discover who she really is and what she’s capable of accomplishing when she runs smack dab into – or, should I say, mi buck up pan – the life of Jamaica’s foremost folklorist, actress, poet, singer, comedienne, radio and television personality known as the Queen of Jamaican Theatre and Mother of Jamaican Culture, Miss Lou.

Wheel and Turn is a Jamaican Patois phrase meaning to adjust, rethink an approach, or to try again. And, that’s something both Aya and Miss Lou have had to do throughout their lives.

Olivia Carter has the presence, elegance and voice that brings Miss Lou to life in a play that illustrates that despite time and distance, women’s lives and their determination often send them down unexpected paths setting them squarely where they need to be at that time in history but also in places and on mediums where future generations can learn from their knowledge and accomplishments.

Wheel and Turn is the ultimate thank you to a brilliant woman who lived her life with meaning and self-determination.

*On July 23, Nadia, Kevin and Olivia are holding a meet and greet book signing at A Different Drummer Books, 513 Locust St. in Burlington, from 5 to 6:30 pm. All three authors will be selling their books and be available for book signings. Be sure to look for Nadia’s picture book, A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice, the research of which led to this wonderful play becoming a reality.

Buy tickets for Wheel and Turn here.

Left to right: Messy (Kitoko Mai), Eye-Sha (Aisha Barrow), Tarek Funk and Onglish (Brett Klassen) Credit: Hamilton Fringe Festival

It’s a Live Mixtape, is brilliant! Friday night saw DJ/producer, Onglish (Brett Klassen), and singer/songwriter, Eye-Sha (Aisha Barrow) sharing the stage at the Westdale Theatre creating the atmosphere that a delusional love is on the air.

Onglish played brilliant live mixtape that not only called out what’s wrong with Hamilton – think sewage in the canal and gentrification destroying affordability – but somewhat ironically, was also a love letter to the Ambitious City.

Eye-Sha blew the audience away with her amazing voice and original lyrics performing a dance-y Electro-Mandé-Soul set.

And, if the incredible music can’t keep your attention or if you just want to chill and drift away, there’s always the psychedelic imagery projected behind them that works particularly well with tunes Onglish claims are great for reading to.

Also, part of the mix – but unable to be there Friday – are rappers Messy (Kitoko Mai) and Tarek Funk who bring charged political raps about disability and futurism.

It’s a Live Mixtape is one of those unexpected gems that you often find at Hamilton’s Fringe Festival, so make sure you get tickets before they’re all gone!

*Be prepared for some swearing as well as some distinctly anti-capitalist ideas.

Buy tickets for It’s a Live Mixtape here.

Big Chick Energy Credit: Hamilton Fringe Festival

Of course, you have to see, Raging Gracefully, because Big Chick Energy are a perennial favourite of mine at Hamilton Fringe. This time, Alicia Carrick, Emily Decloux, Sam Sexton, Jo Anne Tacorda and Taryn Crankshaw (understudy) tackle the myth that women have to have it all figured out by 40. Thank goodness The Chicks did not get that memo!

Big Chick Energy is an all-woman comedy troupe offering audiences an uplifting experience – however, they don’t shy away from a good fart joke or a few hefty bathroom jokes either!

Their take on life, and a world that seems to be run by men who have perfected weaponized incompetence, tackles the tough issues through silly and satirical sketches filtered, of course, through an effervescent feminist lens.

Big Chick Energy invites you to come along as they stumble headfirst into the graceful mess of becoming while balancing societal expectations and sanity in a world that feels like it’s spiraling.

Told in their signature blend of sketch comedy, song and projected sketches, the Chicks take on the many “eras” of womanhood: chasing confidence, losing it, rebuilding it, and holding on to relationships as everything else shifts.

Raging Gracefully is a celebration of taking up space, even if you’re still figuring out how to stand in it. The Chicks invite you to rage against the machine together — and, of course, gracefully!

Buy tickets for Raging Gracefully here.

And, if your as lucky as I was, you can catch all three Westdale performances on the same night! Happy Fringing!

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