BY Gord McLaughlin
eye weekly, July 1, 2004

Skin is in and clowns are out, but the Fringe being the Fringe, one-person shows are as plentiful as ever this year. Productions are chosen by lottery, which naturally yields a mixed bag of genres and a wide range of quality among the record 126 productions being presented through July 11. Determining what to see takes some educated guessing and a good sense of your own theatrical turn-ons.

SEX AND DRUGS

For example, if you like the idea of being playfully seduced by 1890s Parisian floozies, you may want to catch A Night at the Moulin Rouge. The 45-minute story, about a young woman who dreams of becoming a courtesan, promises interactive titillation and "a wicked madame."

However, if the promo line "Broadway meets Tony 'N Tina's Wedding" is a turn-off, you can try Simple. Celibate. Sober. Writer/performer Soo Garay plays a stripper named Shawnya, who peels away her fears, deficiencies and clothes in a "brutally comic" journey of self-discovery, directed by popular actor Nigel Shawn Williams.

Then there's Yukon or Bust, the real-life story written and performed by Morgan Toombs, about a northern girl who conquers Canada with her burlesque act. We can't say whether these "inside tales from 'the biz'" ring true onstage, but we can report that the accompanying press photo is this year's sexiest.

In Flavour of the Week, writer/ performer Alix Sobler keeps her clothes on but bares her soul, playing a young woman who examines her love life while waiting for the results of her STD tests. The show has gained four-star reviews at festivals across Canada for Sobler's tightrope-walk comedy and honest drama. New York-based Sobler also appears in Kentucky Waterfall, with her partner, Jason Neufeld.

A new play called The Reefer Man fills what's becoming the Fringe's annual pot slot. "It came out of my desire to create an intelligent comedy with a pro-marijuana theme," says overachieving co-writer Russell Bennett, who fittingly earned degrees in biology and law before settling on acting. (If the cops crash the show, he can administer his own drug test and defend himself in court.) His documentary Stoned was a Hot Docs nominee for Best Political Documentary in 1999.