Performer wigs out

Call it shear lunacy. Winnipeg's Talia Pura took a bald step to bring authenticity to her fringe play Demons of the Mind. Since her unhinged character appears with a shaved head, Pura bravely took a razor to her own previously lush brunette mane a few days before the show opened.

"I felt like I was going to my execution. It has the weirdest feeling," Pura said after Friday's performance. "This is just amazing. Showering is an interesting experience."

Pura wrote the play, about a woman whose post-partum depression escalates to outright psychosis. And she gives a hair-raising aerial acrobatic performance on silks and a hoop as well, while acting opposite co-star Harry Nelken at Onstage at the Playhouse (Venue 4), until July 26. It's not the first time she's taken a bare approach at fringe. Her past productions include a nude turn in Confessions of an Art School Model in 2001. But don't expect to see her naked head outside the theatre -- she plans to keep a lid on it, as a blond, brunette or redhead, depending on her mood.

"I bought four wigs before I did it."

Don't steal the Hussy!

ImproVision has earned a name as the company that always builds an over-the-top advertising prop to hype its show. Onstage guy George McRobb and his behind-the-scenes partner, Audra Lesosky -- both veterans of the ad industry in non-fringe life -- say whatever they construct, they weigh or chain it down in front of Fringe Central, and it inevitably gets vandalized or stolen.

Last year, their elaborate robot with dryer-hose arms vanished by Day 3. ("All is forgiven -- he can come home if he's out there!" cries McRobb).

The duo is philosophical about the annual loss. "That's the risk you take when you create something to attract attention," says Lesosky.

"We kind of kiss everything goodbye when we put it out," says McRobb. "This year we took pictures."

ImproVision also seeks out pre-show music to fit its theme, but McRobb says it was tough this year. "When you start Googling things like 'loose women,' the company IT department starts to wonder."

-- Alison Mayes