2025 Fringe Festival:
Get out and see some art!
Horse Girls and other important story recommendations in the lineup
By Mai DaSilva and Faith Langston
June 12, 2025
For the last 35 years, the St-Ambrose Montreal Fringe Festival has given Montreal artists opportunities to produce their plays, music, drag, dance, clown, among many other performance art forms! Whether you’re interested in puppetry, improv, contemporary dance, or dark pre-teen comedies, you’ll always find something within the Montreal Fringe Festival that fits your niche.
Horse Girls by Jenny Rachel Weiner, directed by Caitlin Hawes at Mainline Theatre, is an example of those “dark pre-teen comedies,” following a group of girls known as “the Lady Jean Ladies,” as they discover the looming fates of their beloved horses and try to create their perfect solution.
Whether you’re interested in puppetry, improv, contemporary dance, or dark pre-teen comedies, you’ll always find something within the Montreal Fringe Festival that fits your niche.
Stereotypically, the energy exuded by a horse girl is distinct. Anyone who has ever had the privilege of being around one knows that they are animal-loving, forces to be reckoned with, loyal, and largely misunderstood. I found the performers did an excellent job capturing this energy while each being their own unique characters. They have elements of this stereotype, while also exploring the nuances of their respective Lady Jean Lady.
Walking into the Mainline theatre to see these young adult performers precisely embody the energy of these geeky horse tweens as if they’re possessed by the spirits of the nearest 12-year-old is a real treat. With performances from various Montreal musical theatre actors, seeing a lot of them in a straight play felt like a change of pace, but it was a pace they seemed to change with ease. Casey Marie Ecker made an incredibly convincing, passionate tween having a strong sense of juvenile urgency as if they were going to explode in anticipation, while Erin Yardley-Jones and Alyssa Mirarchi warmed the audience’s hearts as a dorky sister duo.
Maya Lewis did an excellent job expressing the complexities of her character, portraying Ashleigh, the leader of the Lady Jean Ladies. The viewers get the impression that Ashleigh may have some personal troubles very early into the play through Lewis’ expressions, and as the play progresses, the clarity of those troubles gets amplified by the beautifully emotional performance. To enter the mind of this troubled child is a difficult task, but one Maya Lewis succeeded at with flying colours.
‘Walking into the Mainline theatre to see these young adult performers precisely embody the energy of these geeky horse tweens as if they’re possessed by the spirits of the nearest 12-year-old is a real treat.’
Without spoiling the story, Horse Girls tackles some pretty serious topics, creating an interesting contrast between the 12-year-olds’ emotions and the reality of the world around them. Caitlin Hawes’ direction helped lead that precise balance, and successfully created the “out of control” sensation without becoming a ridicule of the situation. The strong directing choices are one of the reasons this show thrives.
As the fringe festival continues to roar for a few more days, Horse Girls is one worth catching. In case you’re undecided on your last shows for the season, I’ll share what my upcoming fringe week looks like:
Countercurrents by Alice Shuang Wu and MBC Productions, at Studio Multimédia du Conservatoire. A Chinese-Canadian tragicomedy that delves into the world of family and politics, and how the two interact with each other.
To Pieces, by Lumi Mitton presented by Who Me? Theatre at Mission Santa Cruz. To Pieces is a sapphic story of chance, old lovers, and sharing pieces of ourselves with others. Queer stories produced by queer teams are always a special kind of collaboration; the love and community in the environment is always visible by the audience.
Do Actors Dream of Psycho Pigs? by Little Bird Productions at Mainline Theatre. Written by a team of playwrights, including Aaron Delaney, Amelia Campbell-Reidhead, Naomi Hoedemaker-Purvis, Jess Halpern, Noah Deskin and Charlie Cash, Do Actors Dream of Psycho Pigs? is a comedy murder mystery following a fringe production team on their opening night. When a murder occurs, they call in a detective for help. The catch? The detective is not a part of the production, is completely unscripted, and solves the case in front of an audience in real time.
At Petit Campus, Admiring Librarians, created by Raquel Maestre, presents an introspective look into her life experiences. She shares her lived experiences as a trans person, as well as other themes of childhood and past lives. This solo comedy show feels under the radar, but in a time where trans voices are silenced, stories such as these should be celebrated.
Each year, as Fringe season rolls around, it allows us to see glimpses of lives on display, as well as hard work from all over Montreal. It acts as a reminder that even when funding is pulled, and the struggle is real, the love and spirit of independent theatre are alive and thriving. Make sure to get out there and see some art!
Mai DaSilva
* * * * *
More shows to consider, by Faith Langston:
The Routine
On Wednesday, June 4, at the Mission Santa Cruz, Joylyn Secunda captured her audience with her physical comedy, The Routine. The crowd was under her spell, and for good reason. They watched her skillful rendition of everyday activities, such as the daily grind in an office, turn into good fun. Things got even better. Thanks to a secret portal in her office, Secunda’s life is transformed into blissful domesticity.
Secunda is a Vancouver-based multidisciplinary artist, whose credentials include mime training with Cirque du Soleil’s Dean Evans and a mentorship under Crystal Pite has performed at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre and corporeal mime at Théâtre Omnibus. She grew up in a performing arts family and has collaborated with her parents, David Secunda (director) and Linda Arkelian (choreographer), on her solo shows. They toured their critically acclaimed solo show, The Moaning Yoni, across Canada.
Awarded a Canada Council grant, The Routine evolved as a collaborative piece between Secunda and her father. It played at the Fringe (Vancouver, 2024) and at the Adelaide Fringe (Australia, 2025). Given Secunda’s background, it is not surprising that The Routine was nothing less than a triumph of communication
The Wasteland – A Ritual in Five Acts
These fragments I have shored against my ruins.
– T.S. Eliot
What would inspire a visual artist to memorize The Wasteland? Gavin Sewell tells us that during a dark time, struggling with glaucoma and depression, he found comfort and guidance in T.S. Eliot’s seminal work: “There was this eerie sense that the world was breaking down, and nobody wanted to admit it. This poem gave me language for the dislocation I felt as a teenager in a dying mill town. Now, with the climate in crisis and fascism rising, The Wasteland feels prophetic.”
The Wasteland – A Ritual in Five Acts – Image: courtesy of Gavin Sewell
Hardly an easy work to follow, Eliot’s poem is both complex and fragmented. It is composed of five sections with shifting voices and many religious allusions. Critics have seen it as a reflection of the grim aftermath of World War I, with its subsequent disillusionment and spiritual emptiness.
How to bring a poem written in 1922 to life in today’s visual world? Gavin Sewell, a multidisciplinary artist who makes collages, wall sculptures and paintings, is up to the task. He brings to life Eliot’s images with artifacts and religious relics. Puppets animate the ladies’ light-hearted gossip, which starts off the poem, a skull and ‘a handful of dust’ in a jar gives life to the pervasive free free-floating anxiety. At one point during the heartfelt recitation, we are presented with a head on a stick reminiscent of a tattered coat upon a stick in Sailing to Byzantium (Yeats).
Like Eliot, whose poem ends with hope of renewal, Sewell also ends on a somewhat optimistic note. “We can’t restore what was,” says Sewell, “but we can begin again with ecstasy and with what remains.”
Images: courtesy of the St-Ambrose Montreal Fringe Festival, unless indicated otherwise
Other articles by Mai DaSilva
Other articles by Faith Langston
Other recent reviews and articles
Mai DaSilva is an up-and-coming multidisciplinary artist based outside Montreal. She has performed in various plays and independently produced several of her scripts. Currently a theatre student at John Abbott College, Mai is ecstatic to delve deeper into the world of Montreal theatre.
Faith Langston is a Concordia graduate with a long-standing interest in theatre. For the last ten years, she has worked as a literacy tutor with the Jamaican Association.
There are no comments
Add yours