The Vancouver Fringe Festival (Sept 6-16) is a fantastic annual showcase of independent theatre, easing the transition out of summer with comedy, drama, astonishing feats of burlesque and remarkably versatile one-man-performers.

This year there are a staggering 754 performances! Amazing! Overwhelming. Where to start? No worries- we will be bringing you reviews and performer Q&As throughout the festival, and to kick off two weeks of great original performance, here are some of the shows we will be lining up for. Look out for reviews of these (and more!) later this week.

Three More Sleepless Nights – Familiar relationships; unfamiliar spaces. A piece about ever changing human relationships, in dialogue with various apartments and houses in Vancouver. An intimate evening for a small audience, actors and audience will enter the performance space for the first time while bringing Churchill’s dynamic one-act play to life.

Fishbowl – Shockingly funny and equally moving,Fishbowl slyly reveals the connections between four wildly different “and outrageously hilarious” characters, all played by Mark Shyzer. Created and premiered at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre to great acclaim (Toronto 2009), then a festival favourite on tour, and Audience Choice Award winner (New York 2010).

Chlamydia dell’Arte: A Sex-Ed Burlesque – You’ve never taken a sex-ed class like this one! Learn about safe sex, STDs, sexual orientation, menstruation, and much, much more through striptease, comedy, songs, dance, and all the parts of a traditional burlesque show.

Peter ‘n Chris Explore Their Bodies – They’ve saved the world. They’ve been murdered in a motel. Now Vancouver Pick of the Fringe comedy duo Peter ‘n Chris are going to explore their bodies. Chris’ Body. Peter ‘n Chris are going inside Chris, in a brand new show from the critically acclaimed, Toronto SketchFest Audience Choice winning comedy duo.

What are you excited to see? Tweet it at us or share on our Facebook Wall!