Fringe Theatre: Unsafe, Uncensored, Unashamed At the end of the first of nine days at Edmonton’s inaugural Fringe, the Edmonton Journal observed two factors that made the festival such an instant success. Firstly, Fringe had “something for everybody”, including those who would take a risk on seeing a “patently amateur or unashamedly bad”, though affordable, show. The second was that Fringe was “offering Edmontonians the type of un-safe, experimental and challenging theatre that the established companies [were] not prepared to offer or dare not offer”. Foregoing posh locales, hefty prices, and established conventions and scripts, Fringe Theatre’s uncensored and experimental nature allowed a platform for queer artists and stories to connect with Edmonton audiences like never before. At Edmonton’s Fringe, 2SLGBTQ+ artists—from performers, playwrights, and producers to technicians, musicians, and designers—queered the way. Queer creatives were drawn to Edmonton’s Fringe because it allowed artists to express themselves without censorship and be appropriately compensated for their creative works. The following is only a small sample of the fabulous Fringe stagings that have challenged and delighted Edmonton audiences over the past four decades. 1980s: Edmonton Queer Legends Of the innumerable fearless queer performers, playwrights, and producers who graced Edmonton Fringe stages over its long history, three home-grown queer legends from Fringe’s first decade became internationally acclaimed trailblazers: Ronnie Burkett, Brad Fraser, and Darrin Hagen. These three queer Albertan artists and their works’ influence on theatre culture and audiences within Edmonton and worldwide cannot be overstated. Ronnie Burkett Queer art and artists were part of Edmonton’s Fringe since the very beginning. Alberta-born master puppeteer Ronnie Burkett debuted The Plight of Polly Pureheart as part of the original Fringe playbill in 1982, one of his early works in what would become an internationally acclaimed career. Burkett, who had been working in children’s theatre and creating for-television puppet specials, “kissed kids’ theatre goodbye and nudged his puppets onto the adult stage” at the Fringe. Although Pureheart was lacking in adult members of the audience to whom many of the “puns, political jokes, suggestive remark and allusions” were directed, Burkett still more than delivered at Edmonton’s first Fringe. Journal reviewers praised Burkett’s “razor-sharp and endlessly funny text”, “astonishing demonstrations of puppet characterization”, and “vocal assurance and variety that makes his show a must for a return visit.” While Pureheart was his only Fringe production, Burkett did return to the festival in 1987 to play Ilsa, “the vampy lead character in drag” in Ilsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp. The controversial “black satire about an encounter between Jim Keegstra and a couple of Nazis so proud of their crimes they won’t let him deny the holocaust” was an instant Canadian classic that became familiar to audiences in Edmonton and abroad over the next decade. After winning a federal grant to promote Canadian artists overseas in 1994, Ilsa drew the ire of then head of the Taxpayers Federation Jason Kenney as “government waste” on a “holiday” for artists. Kenney did not appreciate funding going to Fringe theatre, which he scathingly described as “boutique art designed to offend middle-class bourgeoisie sensibilities” and “in a different category altogether from what most Canadians would consider high culture.” Brad Fraser A second queer artist to become a Canadian theatre icon after early successes at Edmonton’s Fringe Festival was Brad Fraser of later Unidentified Human Remains (1989) fame. Fraser had been waiting tables at Chianti’s restaurant in Old Strathcona when he was inspired to write and produce Chainsaw Love, which appeared at the Fringe in 1986. The play, the story of “a family of cannibals in a post-apocalyptic future visited by vampires” featuring a “protagonist [that] wore a bondage mask and wielded a chainsaw”, was a play that Fraser said “really could only have existed at the Fringe”. For Fraser, the Fringe’s success was in part due to the “do-it-yourself”, “no-pressure” nature that “gave artists permission not to ask for permission”, but it also opened avenues for unconventional audiences for these productions: New audiences came out of the Fringe. Younger audiences in particular, people who might never have gone to an established theatre in Edmonton or Toronto or Montreal. The successes of alternative Fringe shows indicated to artistic directors that there may well be audiences and voices they were overlooking, like queer, First Nations or women's voices. We now hear people urging for more diversity in the theatre. I think much of that began with the Fringe. Fraser returned to Edmonton Fringe in 1988 with the “[c]omic, chilling, poignant” Return of the Bride, a story of haunted houses, monsters, a secret past and uncertain futures. In 1992, Fraser would make a third Fringe debut in collaboration with Darrin Hagen of Guys in Disguise and Andy Northrup on Outrageous, a musical adaptation of the critically acclaimed 1977 film of the same name which told “the intersecting tales of a troubled gay hairdresser en route to drag-queen stardom and a schizophrenic waif he befriends”. The Fringe version showcased the “promising beginning” of a musical, featuring the first act of a workshop for a future production. Darrin Hagen Of the festival’s local legends, none have written or produced more plays for the Edmonton Fringe than drag artiste, writer, composer, and queer icon Darrin Hagen. Since debuting the Flashback-famous drag troupe at the Fringe under the Guys In Disguise banner in 1987, Hagen has contributed over 50 pieces across Fringe’s first four decades, honing his rich range of talents into an award-winning career as a queer writer, performer, actor, playwright, producer, director, musician, and mentor. While drag performances would soon become a Fringe staple, the art was relatively unknown to the average Edmontonian when Guys In Disguise debuted Delusions of Grandeur. Drag was even more uncommon on the street than on stage in 1987, and the Guys were not sure that the Fringe would receive them as well as at Flashback. Hagen recalled the experience: Our virgin Fringe year…was the most terrifying experience of my life. Who knew then whether Edmonton Fringees would take to drag queens? …It opened my eyes to the potential of drag. Being in drag in public was the day everything changed. , In 1996, Hagen debuted his talents as playwright with The Edmonton Queen: Not a Riverboat Story at the Edmonton Fringe. The autobiographical work about “A prairie fairy [who] bursts from below the Bible belt and crash lands into the Domain of Drag,” as the Fringe program reads, began earlier that year as a short story for the Loud ‘N Queer Cabaret. A few short months later, The Edmonton Queen became a 45-minute Fringe performance that quickly snowballed into a cross-country favourite and a book of the same name. The Edmonton Queen, starring the stunning redhead Gloria Hole, would return to the Fringe as a full-length, “gloriously outrageous”, “unmissable” and “strange, exotic first-hand account of transformation” in 2001. The play marked Hagen’s first, though certainly not last, attempt to record Edmonton’s queer and drag histories and bring them to life on stage. The Edmonton Queen returned to the Fringe stage for the last time in 2009, with a new ending Hagen describes as “rewritten for me by the real world,” and a new subtitle: The Edmonton Queen: The Final Voyage. After numerous rewrites over twelve years, the latest and last version memorialised and honoured the queens who had since passed on, including Hagen’s drag mother and mentor Lulu LaRude. “They left behind the memories,” Hagen explained, “so why not leave behind a body of work glorifying them?” 1990s: Queer Themes & BYOVs The first decade of Edmonton Fringe had made space for queer art and artists, but the early nineties also saw queer spaces making room for Fringe audiences. The “Bring-Your-Own -Venue” premise introduced to Fringe in 1992 brought audiences into studios and nightclubs frequented by Edmonton’s 2SLGBTQ+ community. Audiences encountering queer hopes, fears, and stories, perhaps for the first time, did so within the community itself. These encounters not only brought audiences but also created new allies. That Place Upstairs, a 100+ seat cabaret-style performance space and dance studio, opened on Whyte Avenue in 1992. The following year, the seats were removed and replaced with sod and overhanging leaves for an unforgettable performance of Robin Fulford’s Steel Kiss, based on the true story of the murder of a gay man by four teens in Toronto’s High Park in 1985. A reviewer sets the scene: Steel Kiss opens with an appalling act of violence. In a rite that looks awfully like celebration, a man is beaten to death before your very eyes. And what is even more disturbing, maybe, is that you are yourself sitting on the grass in the soft moist gloom of the park where it happened. The “fear and loathing” driving the play is the answer to the unasked question of the cause of this violent act, the same forces that propel violence against queer people, women, and racial minorities alike. Steel Kiss holds up a mirror to “a continuum of violence in society” encouraged, according to Fulford, by “right-wing hate mongers, family life, TV,” or in short, “of life… here and now.” Another Fringe venue significant to Edmonton’s 2SLGBTQ+ community was Rebar, a Whyte Avenue nightclub that inherited Flashback’s inclusive reputation as well as its extensive record collection. Year after year, Rebar would warmly receive the Guys In Disguise, who had stepped out from Flashback’s drag scene and into the Fringe less than a decade prior. When Rebar opened in 1993, the Guys were already a regular feature of the Fringe Parade and stages. With the addition of Christopher Peterson, who graced the front page of the Edmonton Journal as Lucille Ball, everything went supernova. That year, the Guys welcomed audiences to the Rebar stage with “the self-titled (and self-explanatory)” Guys In Disguise. As Darrin Hagen recalls: ...the show piled happy audiences into the smelly bar and overdosed them all on glamour, gams, guffaws, and gorgeousity. The line-ups stretched all the way down the block. Between the comedic and campy Guys In Disguise, and the unflinching realism of works like Steel Kiss, the 1990s showcased a wide range of queer artists and contemporary stories at Edmonton’s Fringe. Issues from aging to AIDS brought Edmonton audiences a sense of the challenges and the charms of queer life. Lesbian playwrights Jackie Crossland and Nora D. Randall brought House of Agnes: More Lesbian Stories to the Fringe in 1992, which the Edmonton Journal named Critics Choice for its “wit and (dare we say it?) sweetness” in its portrayal of “a couple of lesbians who share accommodations, not a lesbian couple” in their 50s. That same year, anxieties in the age of AIDS were met with humour in Gerald Osborne’s The Great Canadian Condom Caper. This outdoor play featured “The Safe Crusader and his sidekick, Sonny the Manchild Wonder, [who] teach Raggedy Ann and Andy all about safer sex.” The 1990s also saw Fringe plays that dealt with complex challenges involved in navigating personal identity and relationships. Miss Chatelaine (1995) by gay playwright Damien Atkins dealt with the story of “a young man who is not worrying about coming out. What he is worried about is the fact that he has no idea what to do next.” David Hamilton’s FTM (1997) told the story of a young trans adult, Timothy, navigating the first year of transitioning from female to male; at the same time, Timothy’s mother experiences her own identity changes due to breast cancer. 21st Century: Mentors, Tours, and Troupes Fringe entered its vintage shortly after entering the 21st century, and the variety of queer artists and stories continued to grow and diversify as Edmonton celebrated long-time fan favourites and attracted new talent both locally and from afar. Veteran Fringe sensations mentored and produced up-and-coming talent, Edmonton success stories would build one-off experiments into tours and troupes, and artists from Alberta and abroad would continue to address contemporary concerns in stagings as diverse as the queer community itself. Guys UnDisguised and Edmonton Originals In 2002, Fringe’s twentieth anniversary, queer playwright Nathan Cuckow debuted his first play, STANDupHOMO, “an explosive, multimedia one man/many characters experience” in which Cuckow used stand-up comedy to literally “stand up” for himself and other queer Mormons. “It’s the idea of telling a universal story of someone standing up for themselves,” according to Cuckow, “out of the closet of pressure from religion and parents where sexuality is repressed, to say Hello. This is who I am.” STANDupHOMO, which began as a 10-minute monologue at Edmonton’s Loud ‘N Queer theatre festival, was also the first production of Guys UnDisguised, an initiative by Edmonton’s own Guys In Disguise to mentor and present works by emerging queer artists. The return of STANDupHOMO to Edmonton at The Roost in 2005 and “the imminence of gay marriage” in Alberta seemed to “ensure the show [was] just as topical as in 2002, maybe more.” Guys UnDisguised continued to introduce new talent and voices to the Edmonton Fringe as producers and mentors. Queer playwright Nick Green debuted at the Fringe in 2008 with Coffee Dad, Chicken Mom and the Fabulous Buddha BOI about a family who, “if they’re lucky… may actually be able to live together, or better yet, with themselves,” and teamed up with Guys In Disguise on 2 Queens & A Joker, a play involving the rivalry between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots and the messenger travelling between them. Berend McKenzie, another queer playwright who collaborated with Guys UnDisguised, debuted at Fringe with Get Off the Cross, Mary (2006), a puppet show about the filming of a gay disco version of The Passion where “a series of heavenly interruptions derail the filming”. Hagen recalls: “It elicited shocked and amused reviews from some, and howls of outrage from others.” McKenzie also premiered NGGRFG (2009) at the Fringe, “A revealing and hilarious one-man tour-du-force about a queer black kid negotiating the bewildering minefield of straight white Canada.” After touring with enormous success at Edmonton and Vancouver Fringe, McKenzie brought the play, titled after “the two slurs that plagued his childhood” in rural Alberta, to schools around Vancouver, opening discussions about racism, homophobia, and bullying. While many queer artists took their first steps into theatre at the Fringe, the festival also welcomed back those who had gone on to delight audiences abroad. After winning Best New Musical at the New York Fringe Festival and playing off-Broadway for three months, BASH’d! A Gay Rap Opera (2006) by Edmonton playwrights Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow returned home to Edmonton for Fringe in 2010 and again in 2017. The 2010 program called Edmontonians to “come and see the Edmonton success story with its ORIGINAL CAST!” The play, performed entirely in rap, follows the love story of T-Bag and Feminem with “both humour, and tenderness”, until the comic and campy lyrics take a dark turn as the two face bigotry and hatred. Cuckow and Craddock were inspired by a rash of gay bashings in the wake of Ralph Klein’s vitriolic and militaristic language against gay marriage prior to its legalization in Alberta in 2005. According to Craddock, "That kind of language gives tacit permission to take that fight into the streets.” In addition to an Edmonton Pride Award in 2007, BASH’d! received an international Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) media award in 2008. From Serious to Saucy Over the 2000s and 2010s, queer creatives would continue to push boundaries at Edmonton’s Fringe with a range of topics and taboos. Dramas with grains of historical truth continued to inspire Fringe playwrights, such as NYC-based Susan Jeremy’s She Was a Great Dad (2018), a play based on the life of Billy Tipton that “tells the story of Johnny Swinton, a jazz musician in the 1950s with a wife and son and a secret – he’s a woman.” Local Edmonton history also appeared in the Fringe spotlight with Darrin Hagen’s Witchhunt at the Strand (2015), based on the true 1942 persecution of gay men in Edmonton’s theatre scene. The play weaves together “a tapestry of interrogations, testimony, and backstage drama” on the police raid that “rounded up and charged a dozen high-profile men, shattering their lives.” Other plays were provocative in different ways, as their teasers implied. Edmonton playwright Gerald Osborne brought to the Fringe offerings such as Adam Butterfly (2006), in which the protagonist’s “love life sucks so he’s sworn off sex forever… that is until 80’s porn star Johnny Allcock escapes from his VCR to offer some X-rated pointers on how to snag a man”, or Meat Farce (2008), a “bitter suite of queer ‘n’ quirky vignettes about love, loneliness, and male genitalia… Warning: May contain saucy dialogue, frank sexual situations, and nuts.” Is That How Clowns Have Sex? A One-Woman Queer Sex-Ed Show (2018) by Maximaliste Productions is a hilarious insight into a woman’s navigation of “sexual education, her own sexual education, her own sexuality and dental dams.” Canada’s premiere all-male burlesque troupe from Toronto, BoylesqueTO, arrived at Edmonton Fringe in 2015 with Oh Manada!, returning with Mo’ Manada (2017), A Briefs History of Time (2018), and Oh Manada: A Northern Touch (2019). Queer artists came from across Canada and the world for a chance to perform at Edmonton’s Fringe thanks to audiences who were prepared to be both challenged and entertained. Ironically, the Fringe was a safe space because it was un-safe in the kinds of theatre it allowed. The experience was queer in every sense of the word. 2015-2019: Queer Albertan Artists As Fringe neared its 40th anniversary, queer artists from Edmonton and across Alberta continued to illustrate the changes and challenges of contemporary queer and trans life on the Fringe stage with honesty, gravity, and humour, as they had since 1982. In the changing political landscape of federal protections for sexual orientation in 1998, the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005, and protections for gender identity and expression in 2015, the Fringe remained a valuable, uncensored and unapologetic mode of expression for both actors and audiences who sought to continue to question and challenge the status quo. The Edmonton Fringe showcased emerging talent and new expressions of familiar themes, such as navigating identity and relationships, confronting fear and bigotry, and living authentically. My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend (2016) by genderqueer playwright Jamie Price introduces three nerdy friends sorting out their lives: “Sage isn’t sure about her boyfriend. Decker isn’t sure about monogamy. Tricia isn’t sure about their gender. One thing they’re all sure of is each other.” Jessica Pigeau’s autobiographical play (Ab)Normal (2016) is a “celebration of the strange”, in which Pigeau presents an “exceedingly honest” self-portrait, including “everything from her Grande Prairie roots to how autism colours her observations” as well as her exploration of sexuality. In addition to individual queer playwrights, home-grown Edmontonian queer theatre troupes emerged at the Fringe, sometimes out of skits and sketches meant to be one-off experiments. For example, (Un)Known Stories (2015) by the In Arms queer theatre ensemble offered several short snapshots of queer lives for audiences “into the queer, feminist, radical idea that everyone should be equal” to “learn about love, regret, loss and fear”. Tiny Bear Jaws, a sketch troupe created by Elena Eli Belyea and Sydney Campbell, “drawing from their experiences of growing up gay, hot, and short in Edmonton”, produced Gender? I Hardly Know Them (2019). This queer comedy featured “dad jokes, first dates, and catcalls” in a “joyfully provocative premiere that will leave you breathless, whatever your pronouns.” Another local play that inspired a troupe to form was MAN UP by Gregory Caswell, which premiered in 2015 and returned as MAN UP! has Daddy Issues in 2017. The “Sinfully FLAWLESS, gender-f*cking and insatiable” first play about “four men [who] bravely rise to new heights and master the dark art of dancing in heels” inspired Caswell to turn the show into a company. After selling out and being held over at the Fringe Festival, the group toured the province, including at the Calgary and Jasper Pride Festivals, International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics 2016 Championships, and La Cité Francophone. In an interview for Edify’s Top 40 under 40, Caswell elaborates on the four pillars the company stands for: “to broaden the definition of masculinity, to strengthen the expression of sexuality, to be vulnerable and to be authentic.” Conclusion: Four Fabulous Decades of Fringe The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival has been a home for queer and trans artists and audiences for over 40 years. Queer drag performances, satirical comedies, and poignant historical dramas have kept audiences coming back year after year. The best avant-garde plays, created and produced by queer artists and embraced by Edmonton’s diverse audiences—queer, trans, straight, and everyone in between—cement the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival’s reputation as one of the biggest, boldest, and best Fringe Theatre festivals in the world. Edmonton’s International Fringe Theatre Festival has a role in speaking to and showcasing the diversity and complexities of contemporary queer and trans lives to make and hold space open for thought, dialogue, and re-imagining better futures. For that, we say, BRAVO! A Very Queer Fringe Timeline Ronnie Burkett: The Plight of Polly Pureheart (1982), as Ilsa in Ilsa Queen of the Nazi Love Camp (1987) Brad Fraser: Chainsaw Love (1986), Return of the Bride (1988), Outrageous (1992) Darrin Hagen: Guys in Disguise (1987), Outrageous (1992), Transvestite Television (1995), The Edmonton Queen: Not a Riverboat Story (1996), Tornado Magnet (1997), Tranny, Get Your Gun (1998), PileDriver! (1999), Li’l Orphan Tranny (2000), Tranne of Green Gables (2002), La Duchesse de Langeais (2004), Bitchslap! (2005), Planes, Trans and Automobiles (2006), The Neo-Nancies: Hitler’s Kickline (2006), 2 Queens and a Joker (2008), Guys in Disguise Classic 2: The Sequin (2009), Triple Platinum (2009), Girls! Girls! Girls! …Well, Not Really (2013), Witchhunt at the Strand (2015), Typhoon Judy (2015), Klondykes (2016) Win Wills: Gertrude Stein and a Companion (1988) Jackie Crossland & Nora D. Randall: House of Agness: More Lesbian Stories (1992) Gerald Osborne: The Great Canadian Condom Caper (1992), Adam Butterfly (2000), Meat Farce (2008) Andy Northrup: Outrageous (1992) Robin Fulford & Ron Jenkins: Steel Kiss (1993) Christopher Peterson: Transvestite Television (1995), EYECONS (1996), Typhoon Judy (2015) Damien Atkins & Stephen Heatly: Miss Chatelaine (1995) David Hamilton: FTM (1997) James Ross (Twiggy): Place Commercial Here…Drag Show (2001) Nathan Cuckow: STANDupHOMO (2002), BASH’d! A Gay Rap Musical (2010) Trevor Schmidt: Bitchslap! (2005), 2 Queens and a Joker (2008), Klondykes (2016) Dan Clancy: The Timekeepers (2006) Berend McKenzie: Get Off the Cross Mary (2006), NGGRFG (2009) Nick Green: Coffee Dad, Chicken Mom and the Fabulous Buddha BOI (2008) Chris Craddock: BASH’d! A Gay Rap Musical (2010) Kimberly Dark: Dykeopolis: Queer Tales and Travels for Our Time! (2013) Izad Etemadi: Borderland (2015) Boylesque TO: Oh Manada! (2015), Mo’ Manada! (2017), A Briefs History of Time (2018), Oh Manada: Northern Touch (2019) Gregory Caswell: Man Up (2015), MAN UP! Has Daddy Issues (2017) Matt Ayache, Ashleigh Hicks, Liam Salmon and Marco Visconti: (Un)Known Stories (2015) Jamie Price: My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend (2016) Jessica Pigeau: (Ab)Normal (2016) Fiona Clark: Is That How Clowns Have Sex? A One-Woman Queer Sex Ed Show (2018) Susan Jeremy: She Was a Great Dad (2018) Elena Eli Belyea and Sydney Campbell: Gender? I Hardly Know Them