Paris Fringe 2026
The Gregorian Calendar
Comedy Carton Paris
Genre: Absurd Theatre, Clown, Devised
Venue: Le Peloton Studio
Festival: Paris Fringe
Low Down
Review
Mmmahh…Mmmahh…Mmmahh…begins the show! An intriguing character enters from the audience chanting while slowly walking to the stage area. Wearing a makeshift toga from a sheet (of course!) a pair of crocs and a leather mask perched on his head, he holds out his arms. Taking the position like a statue of a person from Roman times he peers at us chanting… Mmmahh…
The Gregorian Calendar is one of the very first shows presented by the recreated international Paris Fringe festival running September 9-13, 2026, after an absence of several years. Artistic Director of the Paris Fringe, Jasper Foley introduced the special Gala evening to an enthusiastic full house on Tuesday September 9 presenting five minute previews of about a dozen of the Paris Fringe shows held at the Fondation des États-Unis, Cité Universitaire, Paris, France. Shows run at three different venues in Paris from September 10 to 13.
Back to the show! The curious ground floor store front theatre space with windows onto the street provides an opportunity for a very creative entrance by the other character in this duo! No spoilers, but their apparent belief in what they are doing immediately develops complicity with the audience in a unique way! At this point the duo call out random words that gel into themes, such as news, politics, diseases, etc. Who are these characters and what are they doing? The audience goes with the flow – trying to understand and following directions, if given…
What unfolds over one hour is a deliciously absurdist clownesque take on life with a soupçon of buffon for good measure. Noah Plasse and Andrew Turowski play these two characters with an appropriate air of uncertainty and an invisible undercurrent of ideas – expressed with minimum words and by physical action. Their characters differ slightly with Noah being more assertive and ‘serious’ with Andrew seeming more naive. These qualities are refreshingly played with subtlety a lot of the time, allowing the audience to see their reactions to each other and the audience. This creates a wonderful rapport between the duo and the audience who is willing to go on their journey to discover (we find out part way through) whether people are unified or not in their beliefs and what this means for society.
Plasse and Turowski use opposite leaning strategies very well, when they move from the initial bad stuff in society (verbally and physically) to the good stuff, inviting the audience to contribute to the lists. The most stark observations about society – us – is in the last section when everything in between the two opposites are mentioned. Wow, what a fascinating change of thought process. Although we were laughing at the wonderful absurdist silliness up to this point, after hearing the final list I suddenly felt how dull and boring our own everyday conversations and aspirations sound. Plasse and Turowski have hit on something rather deep – whether they planned it or not, we shall never know!
Suddenly these two characters and performers wearing roughly tied bedsheets, hair bands and brightly coloured crocs create their own world and in their own idiosyncratic way show us what to value in our lives. Theatre is entertaining and this spontaneous performance of a devised show is also enlightening – it’s the best kind of theatre – and true spirit of the fringe!
