Paris Fringe Announces Full Schedule, Thru May 29

The first edition of Paris Fringe, a festival of international theatre in English, takes place from Monday, May 23 to Sunday, May 29, 2016 in Paris, France. The festival features both international work and France-based companies, and artists are travelling to Paris for the festival from Belgium, Canada, the UK and the USA. English is the main language for performances and other events. The programme includes dramatic plays, stand-up comedy, musicals, immersive theatre, improvisation and solo shows, representing a wide range of theatrical styles, with a focus on innovative approaches to theatre and an emphasis on contemporary themes.

Shows are scheduled every evening throughout the festival week as well as afternoon performances over the weekend, with workshops and events open to the public. Click here to download festival programme. The 16 following companies and their shows have been selected out of almost one hundred applications:

New- "New Musical Comedy" (France/Germany) -Improvised musical comedy; Bruno Banon- "Luv" (France)-Absurdist and traditional Broadway comedy about friendship; Flabbergast - "Tatterdemalion" (UK) -One-man show featuring puppetry, physical comedy and mime; Petar Miloshevski- "AMOUR" (UK) -Post-dramatic solo theatre - poetic, tragic, physical and visual; Bric à Brac- "Ash" (UK) -Devised musical comedy on a life-long love affair with smoking; Leeds Studio- "9 Lives" (UK) -One-man show on the theme of being a refugee; Two Tongue- "Twisted and Tongue Tied" (France/UK) -Cabaret and dark comedy on gender equality; Comedy French Fried- "French Fried" (France/USA) -Stand-up comedy - multiple acts; Sarah Tullamore - "London - Paris - Roam!" (France/UK) -One-woman musical show; Oortocht -"iplay" (Belgium) -Interactive street performance with music; Broadway au Carré- "Seasons" (France/USA) -Prize-winning musical on the theme of love; Apuka Theatre- "Encore" (Canada/France) -Improvised, interactive site-specific drama; Peter Vickers - "Gonzo" (UK/France) -Dark comedy on friendship and betrayal; Jennifer Cole - "Quasar Blues" (International) - Re-enactment; Bremner Sings - "33 Kabaret"(USA) - One-man musical show; Mutinerie Collective- "Superdiscount" (France) -Bilingual, physical ensemble theatre exploring consumer society.

Paris Fringe is organised in partnership with the theatre Les Feux de la Rampe where many of the shows will be performed, and which will host a public Opening Ceremony on Monday, May 23 from 17.00 to 18.30, staged by Eric Bouvron, who has been nominated for the Molières 2016 awards. This inaugural ceremony will provide audiences with a glimpse of the variety of companies that will be showcased during the week, with artists and acts taking the stage. Other partners include Théâtre Trévise , where a special FIEALD in franglais night will be held on Sunday, May 29, and Theatre in Paris a cultural tourism startup which provides multilingual surtitling on augmented reality glasses. Paris Fringe takes place in traditional theatres and alternative venues in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.

In addition to the main festival programme, Starling Arts, a 50-strong choir from the UK, will sing in the neighbourhood, Paris-based spoken word artists will perform their works in a laundrette including poet Victoria Cyr and an open mic poetry session, the Althea Theatre Company from the UK will play in a café, and two theatre companies, Oorthocht from Belgium and Apuka from Canada, will surprise the public with impromptu improvised theatre sessions. Alongside the shows, audiences and theatre professionals will interact and exchange at open platform discussions on contemporary questions related to theatre, and at a series of workshops held at Basement Productions in the 9th on improvisation, devising theatre, immersive theatre and musical theatre. Paris Fringe is organized by a team of international theatre makers based in France, led by artistic directors Dom Douglas and Reka Polonyi.

"Paris Fringe is a theatre festival about bringing people together," notes Polonyi, "with artists coming from around the world, it is an occasion for a diverse group of local and international writers, directors, performers and choreographers to learn from each other and share new ways of working." The concept of Fringe, a globally recognized type of theatre festival, had its beginnings in Edinburgh in the late 1940s. Throughout the twentieth century, the format developed into a carnival of arts and performance before inspiring others around the world. "There are now fringe festivals in major cities such as New York, Sydney, Amsterdam and Prague," says Douglas, "but Paris had yet to establish a festival of its own."

For more information, visit the Paris Fringe website and follow on Twitter and Facebook

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