Originally Published: 2008-07-06

For the 20th year, Toronto’s Fringe theatre free-for-all is taking over the Annex neighbourhood with 135 shows from Toronto and the rest of the world in more than 25 venues, including playgrounds and parking lots. Here’s a sampling of eight noteworthy and intriguing shows, starting with four from Italian artists.

• Jerry Ciccoritti, a co-founder of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, directs Every Girl Wants A Skirt Like Frida’s by Paula Rivera. It’s the story of Honoria, a Mexican woman living in Canada who is obsessed with Frida Kahlo.

•Stand-up comic Raffaella Diana has written her first play, A Girl Named Ralph, about an Italian-Canadian family that runs a bakery in Montreal. Directed by Tanisha Taitt, it stars Candi Zell, Monica Nunes, Sidonie Wybourne, Robert Bellissimo and the playwright herself.

•Melissa D’Agostino writes and performs in Lupe: Undone, about a Latina immigrant with a hot crush on Toronto theatre impresario David Mirvish. Performed in Honest Ed’s Alleyway, the show is directed and dramaturged by Adam Lazarus (Boxhead) and choreographed by Monica Dottor (The Russian Play).

•Nicolina Lanni co-wrote Einstein’s Wife with Julia Course. The show was inspired by a famous quotation from feminist author Virginia Woolf, who questioned what would have happened if Shakespeare had had a wonderfully gifted sister. This quirky comedy stars Lanni, Course and Brooke Erica Isaacs as a minor league pitcher, an x-ray crystallographer and an aspiring astronaut.

•Ladylike by veteran playwright Sky Gilbert was invited to be part of the “Fringe Benefits” series, whose revenue helps support the festival, after a sold-out workshop performance in Hamilton. Ladylike stars Nina Arsenault and Wes Berger in a script about a smart, sexy transsexual that questions what it really means to be “masculine” or “feminine.”

•Acclaimed Canadian playwright Dave Carley is making his directorial debut with a production of his play Taking Liberties, a drama about civil liberties under threat. It follows five ordinary people who face tough decisions about such complicated issues as censorship and media freedom. The dynamite cast includes David Fox, Karen Knox, Richard Lee, Michael Rubenfeld and Dixie Seatle. Carley is the author of last year’s Fringe hit Conservatives in Love.

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