Wow - 40 years! The first festival my friends and I attended was in 1986 - Expo year. During the 1986 Vancouver Fringe Festival, there were around 60 plays staged in a variety of venues across the city, including small theaters, community centers, and other unconventional spaces. This year’s 2024 Vancouver Fringe Festival features over 70 different plays and performances.

The festival's ethos has always been to provide a platform for independent and experimental theatre with venues spread across various locations. In 1986 this included spaces like church basements, outdoor areas, and makeshift stages in unconventional venues, allowing for a diverse range of performances and audience experiences. I remember one play I attended was staged in an underground parking garage.

I loved the concept then, and still do, of experimental theatre and the use of these kinds of unconventional spaces - and apparently there will be some interesting venues this year including a parking lot and False Creek Ferries!

We’ll be gathering some Queer-centric film features here, and you can find all that’s on offer, of course, on the Fringe Festival website.

fringe festival website ⇢

Lip Service 3: Live In Concert

The vulvas go on a ‘Best-of’ tour, sharing witty, clitty songs and humour as the most famous band no one has ever heard of. Join them for a night of hilarious songs that are sure to bring a smile to your... lips.

Lip Service 3: Live In Concert is the third instalment of this duo’s journey towards empowerment and self-acceptance. They are older and wiser, but are they any closer to fame? When their world tour turns out to be yet another battle for the recognition they long for, these vulvas must choose whether or not to keep the dream alive.

Sun Sept 8 - 2pm
Mon Sept 9 - 5pm
Wed Sept 11 - 9:15pm
Fri Sept 13 - 10:20pm
Sat Sept 14 - 8:30pm
Sun Sept 15 - 3:15pm

ASL Interpretation - Sept 9, Sept 11
Described Performance by VocalEye - Sept 15

Venue is wheelchair accessible, no steps or ramps

Lip Service 3: Live In Concert
Vancouver Fringe - Performance Works
Tickets - $12 + fees
Age Rating: 18A

Tickets Available here - https://www.vancouverfringe.com/events/lip-service-3-live-in-concert/

The Real Black Swann: Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen

Kurkendaal Barrett Presentations

This is the true story of William Dorsey Swann , former Black American slave who became the Queen of Drag in Washington DC in the late 1800's . He was also the first queer activist on record in the US . See how Swann overcame racism and homophobia and paved the way for the Queer Community today . Not a lot of people know about Swann and this is a story that should be told.

Key Themes: Powerful, Queer, Historical

Tickets available here - https://www.vancouverfringe.com/events/the-real-black-swann-confessions-of-americas-first-black-drag-queen/

Venue: Performance Works

Genre: Story-telling
Duration: 55 mins
Price: $15
Ticket Fee: $3

Age Rating: PG
Content Warnings: Mature Language

Integration: “Creating Art from Life’s Chaos”

Jack Dawkins

I want to wander with you through the tangled mess of life and the art it births. We get to peel back the layers of an artist’s soul, where every scar tells a story, and every triumph feels hard-won.

This show does not shy away from the real stuff. We dive into the deep end of transformation—a wild ride from a retreat in Costa Rica to the heart-wrenching reality of saying goodbye to a beloved family member and a chance encounter in the vibrant chaos of New Orleans. These aren’t just stories; they’re the lifeblood of what it means to create when life itself is pulling you apart.

Art rarely comes from a place of ease. It’s born from sleepless nights, raw emotions, and the relentless drive to make something beautiful out of chaos. We’ll explore how life’s darkest moments can spark the brightest creative fires and how an artist's journey is a testament to persistence, patience, and pliability.

If you’re an artist, a seeker, or someone who lives for the unfiltered truths of life, come with me. Let’s walk this path together, finding meaning in the madness and beauty in the struggle. This is Integration. Welcome to the journey.

Purchase Tickets here - https://www.vancouverfringe.com/events/integration-creating-art-from-lifes-chaos/
Key Themes: Creative Struggle, Resilience, Personal Growth, Raw Emotion

Venue: The Revue Stage
Genre: Story-telling
Duration: 55 mins
Price: $12
Ticket Fee: $3

Age Rating: 14A
Sensory Advisories: Haze, Strobe Lights
Content Warnings: Mature Language

Follow instagram.com/jackdawkinsraps

The Law of Gravity

by Olivier Sylvestre, translated by Bobby Theodore

A play about queer masculinity and the feelings of being a queer teenager in a small town. The story follows two 14 year olds navigating gender, friendship, and adolescence in a community where they only have each other.

Dom has had a rough go of things so far. At fourteen, he has the hardened look of someone who’s had to fight for everything.

Fred has just moved to Not-The-City, a new place to try to disappear. But he didn’t expect to actually make friends. He just hopes he’s accepted for how he looks.

When Dom and Fred meet on a hill overlooking a bridge that connects Not-The-City to The City, a place where anyone can be anything they want, the two find a refuge in one another and make a pact: they’ll cross the bridge at the end of the school year. They’ll be free. What could happen by then? Who will they be? And will the bridge even let them cross?

Key Themes: Coming-of-Age, Queer, Friendship

Vancouver at the beginning of September: https://www.vancouverfringe.com/events/the-law-of-gravity/

Event Info
Venue: The NEST
Genre: Thoughtful
Duration: 50 mins
Price: $15
Ticket Fee: $3
Age Rating: 14A
Content Warnings: Mature Language, Suicide
Follow @iuvenis.productions

seaMAN

2 Sleepy RatGuys

YARGH! Join the saltiest sea captain ever on a "30min scenic boat tour"
This queer nautical comedy is like the deranged love child of Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse and Gilligan's Island.

...The spray of sea salt, the creak of the boards, a flash of lightning, and BOOM! Captain Sea MAN has arrived!

This show is a whirlwind of revenge-fueled sea-venture combining outrageous physical comedy with a few dark twists and turns.

Alternately played by two actors, it's a one-man-show by two featuring the saltiest sailor to ever set sail on the several seas. Prepare yourself for a hilarious on-stage scenic boat tour that promises fishing, the ocean breeze ... and SO much more.

seaMAN is a sweet & salty theatrical concoction that is as stupid as it is smart.

About the Artists:
2 Sleepy RatGuysis the cross-country collaboration of queer theatre-makers Amica Hunter (they/them) based in Portland, OR, & Bruce Ryan Costella (he/they) from Orlando, FL. The two met while touring separate solo shows on the Fringe theater festival circuit, and formed an instant friendship. With a combined 30 years of experience touring original work on the fringe, and a mutual admiration for each other's work, they decided to team up. Bruce’s skill for nuanced clever text easily melds with Amica’s physical comedy training and bizarre humor to create absurd, campy, dark, and comedic theatrical babies (shows) like nothing you've seen before!

Key Themes: Comedy, Queer, Ridiculous, Clown, Nautical

Tickets can be purchased here - https://www.vancouverfringe.com/events/seaman/

Venue: Ballet BC
Genre: Comedy, Silly
Duration: 60 mins
Price: $15
Ticket Fee: $3

Age Rating: 14A
Sensory Advisories: Loud Noises, Abrupt Sound or lighting cues
Content Warnings: Mature Language, Suicide, Sexual Content, Audience Participation

God’s a Drag

Jessica Lemes da Silva

God’s A Drag explores the art of drag performance as an expression of spiritual ritual. Neveah, a young queer woman in a small BC town meets Luz, a genderqueer pastor who starts a drag prayer hour in the town's church. This little piece of heaven, a place where Neveah affirms her queerness and spirituality, doesn't last long as protestors show up. After some unexpected consequences — and guided by two queer saints — Neveah goes on a journey of self-discovery to become who she was always meant to be. With a sprinkle of drag as prayerful worship, this story celebrates what it is to be unapologetically queer and holy.

Key Themes: A Queer Coming-of-Age Drag Spiritual

Tickets available here - https://www.vancouverfringe.com/events/gods-a-drag/

Venue: Waterfront Theatre
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 65 mins
Price: $15
Ticket Fee: $3

Age Rating: 14A
Sensory Advisories: Haze
Content Warnings: Mature Language

2 Queens. 2 Bars. 55 Years.

Incomplete Productions

Two monologues: "I Miss the War" by Matthew Baldwin and "Oh!" by David John Phillips.

1967. London, England. Sodomy decriminalized! Sort of.
Jack, aging tailor to the chorus boys of the West End, remembers the liberating terrors of the Blitz.

2022. Toronto, Canada. Kinky puppies frolic.
Matt, a service bottom with failing knees, remembers the liberating terrors of the Plague.

Recalling hankies and Polari, busbies and chaps, rent boys and faeries, tea rooms and back rooms, love and death, they each bring the past to the present and celebrate the future. Together, a hundred years of queer history in 55 minutes.

Key Themes: Queer. Erotic. Nostalgic. Hopeful.

Tickets available here - https://www.vancouverfringe.com/events/2-queens-2-bars-55-years/

Venue: The NEST
Genre: Other
Duration: 55 mins
Price: $15
Ticket Fee: $3

Age Rating: 18A
Content Warnings: Mature Language, Sexual Content, Nudity
Follow www.DavidJohnPhillips.net