Hot off covering Festival TransAmériques, Intermission is back reviewing Montreal theatre at this year’s FringeMTL, featuring 105 shows in more than 25 venues.
Mostly selected by lottery, the festival’s productions span several genres, with scripts primarily in untranslated French or English.
Critics Liuba de Arma and Megan Hunt will write a total of 10 capsule reviews — responses that will appear below as they come in, with new entries added to the top of the post for ease of navigation.
Existential Lingerie (Petit Campus, English)
by Liuba de Armas
In her latest one-woman cabaret-style musical comedy, Montreal singer, comedian, and storyteller Lou Laurence wants to get some things off her chest, figuratively speaking. The story follows Laurence’s musings over the course of a week as she contends with endless rejections; the eternal quest for a bra that fits; an irresistible offer of a full-time permanent salaried position at Big Bad Bedfellows, the fictional AI company where she gigs to make rent; a lukewarm first date with Carl, a patient but milquetoast executive senior associate data systems analyst; and the latter’s question: “Is this the life you’d always imagined?”
It isn’t. But it’s a work in progress. Laurence takes stock of her life, from her childhood dream of being a singer-actor-dancer-novelist to the reality of exploitation and social isolation in the capitalist grind. The singer exudes charm, punctuating her story with punchy musical numbers featuring such refrains as “you can’t fuck a man who doesn’t read fiction,” and “please don’t Google me while I pee.” Existential Lingerie ultimately offers an optimistic outlook: life is hard, but we can keep going.
The show features an Emotional Labour Discount whereby patrons can enjoy 20 per cent off the $19 ticket price on the condition that they bring the artist a handwritten love letter, which need not be addressed to Laurence. On paper, this might seem an eccentric indulgence. From Laurence, it’s par for the course in a performance that insists — with neither cynicism nor sentimentality — on the vital power of love.
Therapy Fund (Ctrllab, English)
by Megan Hunt
Without props or other performers to aid her, Merry Ross proves with her solo show Therapy Fund that you don’t need a lot to pull off a successful Fringe show — just a story you feel compelled to tell, and maybe a little bit of ABBA. Situated somewhere between stand-up comedy and autobiography, the 45-minute show is structured as a series of anecdotes from Ross’ family life from her youth to middle age, including hilarious impressions of her grandmother offering her a cigarette at 13 and her teenage daughter getting kicked out of prom for attempting to smuggle in alcohol.
The world of Therapy Fund feels rich and easy to visualize thanks to Ross’ knack for storytelling and scene-setting. One moment she’s a young mother dancing in the kitchen with her family and the next we’ve been transported years ahead in time, and she’s embarrassing her children by being naked in a hot tub at a backyard party. All of it flows seamlessly.
Despite the show’s strengths, however, I was left wanting more, especially when it comes to exploring the theme of mental health. Ross mentions numerous times that she attended therapy to prepare for motherhood and address her intergenerational trauma but she never clarifies what this trauma is or what these sessions looked like — nor does she connect her therapeutic journey back to her own career as a California-based drama therapist. I get the impression she glosses over these details to keep the show lighthearted, but it left me wondering where we could’ve gone if she had dug a little deeper and left room for discomfort.
FringeMTL runs in Montreal until June 21. More information is available here.
Liuba de Armas and Megan Hunt are covering FringeMTL as part of Page Turn, a professional development network for emerging arts writers, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and administered by Neworld Theatre.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
WRITTEN BY
Liuba de Armas
Liuba de Armas is a working-class arts writer and curator based in Montreal, with roots in Ciudad Nuclear, Cienfuegos, Cuba. She holds a Master’s degree in art history from McGill University and has curated exhibitions at Latitude 53, MSVU Art Gallery, Hermes Gallery, and the Khyber Centre for the Arts. She is one of two co-editors of Beyond the Gallery: An Anthology of Visual Encounters (Laberinto Press, 2021) and is a member of Neworld Theatre’s Page Turn program (2025-27).
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WRITTEN BY
Megan Hunt
Megan Hunt is a Montreal-based writer, editor and dramaturge. Her work has been featured in outlets such as This Magazine, Culture Days and IN Magazine, as well as festivals including the Women’s Work Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She is one of the writers selected for the first cohort of Page Turn, a program facilitated by Neworld Theatre to support emerging voices in criticism and arts writing.
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