INFERNO SONATA

Fringe veteran Jon Paterson gives a brilliantly intense performance as Victor in this Vancouver-based production of Daniel MacIvor's hilarious, sad and disturbing monologue. MacIvor keeps us on edge as he takes us inside the mind of a screwed-up loner who has a literal sh-- job at a company that vacuums out septic tanks.

Victor starts out entertaining us with quirky observations and mocking accounts of his lame therapy group. His ravings turn increasingly surreal -- sometimes going for mere shock value -- until you're not sure what's a nightmare and what he experienced. Like Guy Maddin in My Winnipeg, MacIvor is interested in finding the truth in lies and dreams. And like Maddin, he probes the connections between self and home.

The details of Victor's humiliation, frustration and desperate hopefulness make his pain touchingly recognizable. "I never had any camaraderie," he mourns. Like all of us, he craves connection, acceptance, and the fundamental comfort of a sane house. The word also refers to the theatre audience. House asks questions about theatre itself, and involves the audience in a way that prompted audible gasps and cries from the King's Head seats.

INFLATABLE BUDDHA: BIGGER THAN JESUS
Hammer & Tongue
Tom Hendry Theatre at the MTC Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 26

Good, cheeky fun makes for a too-short hour with the Oxford, U.K.-based Inflatable Buddha taking musical jabs at cats, capitalism, the blues and the "fat sex" that is the obsession of all women's magazines.

The sound needs a little tweak so that the audience can better hear all the lyrics while the band plays because the words, especially in this instance, are the point. Play along with some totally painless audience participation.

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS: STORIES TOLD AFTER THE FALL
Magic of One Productions
Aqua Books (Venue 21), to July 26

Now there is a lot of theatre at this year's fringe involving special lights and sound and some wonderful running around on the stage. Don't expect to see any of that here, though, because what this established Winnipeg trio performs is called story-telling. You know, the kind of thing people used to do before iPods and TVO. Still lost? Well, this is the place to come and see master story-weavers at work. From the moment Tom Roche, Mary Louise Chown and Kay Stone took the stage, I knew I was going to be thoroughly entertained. Maybe it was the live Celtic music that charmed me, or perhaps it was the age of the performers (over 20 and under 70) that caught my attention. But one thing's for certain, after Roche finished the opening yarn of this six-story set, I was hooked.

These global tales of sinning are timeless ones that you might find yourself re-telling the next day at work or to your kids. In fact bring your kids, and someone elderly that remembers life before television. This show is a treat for anyone old enough to sit through a 75-minute show and young enough to still enjoy juicy tales of lust, greed and wrath. Unplug your teenagers from their electronics and, trust me, you'll have something to talk about on the car ride home.

TOTEM FIGURES
Big Sandwich Productions
PTE Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 27

Raconteur extraordinaire TJ Dawe (The Slipknot, Labrador) spins a new tale about personal mythology and how we all create our own symbolic totem poles out of our heroes, whether they be writers, musicians or parents.

Much of his 90-minute Totem Figures monologue is taken up by the 33-year-old Dawe fast talking about himself and the VIPs worthy of the cover of his personal Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. He makes the case that we look for patterns in other people's lives that can be helpful in finding direction for our own epic journey.

Dawe could cut his Totem Figures down to size -- say, 60 minutes -- without sacrificing much impact. There's too much personal information, which is only useful if he hires you to be his official biographer.

His free-flowing delivery is flawless as he darts from subject to subject without a breath -- "I don't do segues," he says, in a moment of understatement. Among fringe performers, he rates top of the totem pole.

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ANTOINE FEVAL
Chris Gibbs
King's Head (Venue 14), to July 26

Fringe favourite Chris Gibbs returns in this hilarious sequel to again play his ancestor Barnaby Gibbs, the simpleton sidekick to a suspicious detective named Antoine Feval.

Barnaby is a doltish loser whose limited powers of deduction leave him blind to the fact Feval is the notorious cat burglar terrorizing London.

The 70-minute mystery spoof is all about this Victorian Clouseau, "a man of ample limitations." Not so with Gibbs the performer, whose appeal for his distinctive dry humour and deadpan delivery is limitless. His story is hardly gripping, but the telling is. He will matter-of-factly set a scene and mention an occasional table and then blithely toss off the line, "I don't know what it is the rest of the year."

His abilities as an ace improviser were never more on display than during a recent performance when he had to contend with a baby's cooing and a spectator who fainted on the way to the washroom. The former he gladly ad-libbed into his monologue, while the latter he respectively worked around to the appreciation of the sold-out house.

EVERY TIME I SEE YOUR PICTURE I CRY
www.danielbarrow.com
The Playhouse Studio (Venue 3), to July 27

Helen Keller's artistic yearnings, seedy encounters in men's toilets and a perverse garbage collector on a mission to create the world's most informative phone book unite in manual animation artist Daniel Barrow's provocative and poignant "magic lantern show."

Colourized and augmented with new drawings since its fringe debut in workshop form in 2006, the show has Winnipeg's Barrow manipulating hand-drawn images via overhead projector while he provides live narration. His soothing voice is sometimes at odds with graphic images onscreen, and the script is, at times, anything but gentle as Barrow spins a captivating tale of isolation.

His garbage collector is the ultimate outsider, picking through discarded scraps of other people's lives to glean intimate details for his life's work. It's an effort at making connections because, as in the case of a phone book, we're all in it together. As he works, the collector shares dry insights about the art school experience -- secretly criticizing others was the only skill he mastered -- along with a harrowing and curiously humorous account of a bullied child and daring commentary on anonymous sexual encounters.

Despite the title, Canadian singer Luba's title hit song makes only a cursory, mute appearance. Amy Linton composed music for the show.

And while his garbage collector admits to a lifelong urge to expose himself to public humiliation, performer Barrow is less enthusiastic about bathing in the limelight. At the end of his show, he remains seated, back to the audience, blushing at the applause.

He really should stand up and take a bow. Intricate and slyly powerful, this moving work of art is worthy of high praise.

IMPROVISION: FAST, LOOSE AND LOVELY
ImproVision
Planetarium Theatre (Venue 10), to July 27

Their reputation clearly preceded them. On opening night, veteran local improv duo Alan MacKenzie and George McRobb performed to a healthy crowd at Venue 10. It also happened to be their 100th fringe show.

By my estimate, 100 shows with this pair translates to at least a million total laughs. After six years at the fringe, MacKenzie and McRobb are masters of good-natured improv. Both have bang-on comic timing and effortless onstage appeal; nicely paced interactive bits keep the laughs coming fresh and easy.

Every act was uproariously funny, and the duo's good-natured one-upsmanship will have you rooting for one or the other to score the biggest gag. While there's no telling exactly what future performances will hold, the show-closing fast-forward replay was deliciously clever and self-effacing.

Quick tip? If you're too shy to become part of the act, nudging the person next to you is not advisable. MacKenzie and McRobb have eagle eyes for that sort of shenanigan.

SUPER MUSIKANT
Die Roten Punkte
MTC Backstage at the Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 26

Otto and Astrid Rot, Berlin's prince and princess of punk parody, make another Winnipeg concert stop after sweeping the best production honours at fringe festivals in both Montreal and Ottawa.

Super Musikant (German for Super Musician) offers another sonic barrage and more sibling squabbling from Die Roten Punkte (The Red Dots), a pounding two-piece that sends up the White Stripes. Much of the fun is the improvised interplay between the self-indulgent brother and sister, who are back on tour after taking time off to deal with her excessive drinking. The creepy sexual tension between the randy drummer Astrid (Claire Bartholomew) and the lipstick-smeared guitarist Otto (Daniel Tobias) is deftly maintained.

The pair can play and are firm believers that it takes only three notes to make a great song. Expect to join in on Astrid's drinking song, which boasts the refrain, "Don't be pains in the asses/Let's fill up our glasses/You'll be dead for a very long time." Rock on, Die Roten Punkte.

SUCKER
Sugar and Spice Productions
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 26

From a throbbing soundtrack to pitch-perfect acting, this drama takes distasteful subject matter -- pedophilia, child porn and suicide -- and keeps audience members squirming until a dramatic conclusion.

The play, based on the movie Hard Candy, opens with a 14-year-old honours student, Haley, sitting in a cafe with a seductive 32-year-old photographer, Jeff, after the duo have met up the Internet.

Let the stomach churning begin.

From the play's opening minutes, actor Karl Thordarson handles the slimy character of Jeff with such ease that audience members visibly cringed when he slowly wiped a crumb of chocolate cake from Haley's cheek. Soon, both head back to his apartment, where they start downing screwdrivers.

Then, a manic pyscho-social guessing game begins for audience members about who's hunting whom.

Gislina Patterson is thoroughly believable in the cheeky role of teen Haley, a not-so-innocent teen gifted with dark comic delivery who had the audience chuckling as gruesome events start unfolding. Never mind the cartooned back-pack she's carrying -- Haley's conniving use of modern technology to torture others provides a sheen of sympathy to Jeff's own cruelty.

This is no easy feat.

Steel thyself for this one-hour production: it's full of graphic and sexual content and bloody imagery that will haunt you long after the theatre lights have gone up.

With that warning aside, the production by Debbie Patterson is remarkably tight, from stage design to music to the wonderful young cast. See it, if you think you can handle it.

THE B-LIST
The B-Girlz
MTC Backstage at the Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 26

This broad comedy and musical revue delivers a full bawdy blow from the multimedia opening -- a short film spoofing celebrity bad girls -- to the super-sized encore.

Toronto glitter queens Barbie-Q, Ivana K and Hard Kora wrap the show in a loose theme -- fame and rehab -- taking Dame Edna-style potshots at everyone from Britney Spears to Celine Dion and even sainted songbird Rita MacNeil. They spare no one, least of all each other.

When slutty Ivana K croons, "I wanna live forever," Hard Kora snipes, "It looks like you already have." And there are racy references aplenty to Ivana's adventurous sex life.

There's also a heavy dose of Canadian content that includes an audience-participatory game show and comic versions of hits from Anne Murray, Feist and Avril Lavigne.

They're not the greatest singers in the world, but what the Girlz lack in substance, they make up for in fabulous style, performing lyrically altered songs from the musical Chicago, the disco era and, naturally, Queen. Not every joke hits home, but this trio gives good value for your entertainment dollar, and there's no denying they work hard for the money, especially after their energized encore medley.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S FEVER
Leithelle Productions
MTC Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 26

Shakespeare's comedy about mixed-up lovers gets spun like a disco ball and pimped out in platforms in this gloriously silly local musical, brought back for a booty-shakin' 10th-anniversary remount. Inventive creator Leith Clark stays true to the Bard's storyline and spirit while transposing the tale to the backstage of a '70s Solid Gold-style TV show.

Watch for Clark shakin' his groove thang in a different cameo at each performance. On Saturday he popped up as a foxy backup dancer in silver lamé.

Clark's clever script is a non-stop spoof of '70s culture (Shakespeare's magic pollen becomes a snortable white powder), while his characters range from Puck as a hyperactive little dude in an afro to Titania as the "queen of choreography." Though the opening version of Dancing Queen is anemic and the large cast varies in talent, the 90-minute show picks up steam until it has the crowd in a side-splitting boogie fever.

Gio Navarro's rendition of You Sexy Thing as a pelvic-thrusting Demetrius is a scream, and the guy can really sing. But hefty Bernie Pastorin truly takes it over the top as Bottom, the clueless ham who is transformed not into a donkey, but a Disco Duck. The idea of recasting the bumbling rustics as the Village People is pure genius, and by the time the quintet pumps its way through Macho Man, Pastorin will have you gasping for oxygen. Get down, get down, get down tonight to Venue 6, before all the tickets are snapped up for this disco Dream.

THE BUSH LADIES
Theatre by the River
School of Contemporary Dancers (Venue 8), to July 26

When 19th-century authors Susannah Moodie, Catharine Parr Traill, Anne Langton and Anna Jameson made their way into the wilds of Canada, they left behind a wealth of writings documenting their struggles in the untamed country. The Bush Ladies takes these words and turns them into invigorating, and educational, theatre.

This is nothing like a high school history skit. Thanks to top-notch production and an experienced cast and crew, The Bush Ladies expertly connects contemporary Canadians to our pioneering past. The period costumes are magnificent, and the four actors' strong chemistry shines as they handle a complex script. Lisa Nelson is especially confident as Moodie, while gorgeous Megan Herkert brings a fresh spunkiness to Parr Traill.

One small quibble: while the material is well-edited and usually brisk, some of the closing scenes feel parenthetical, and the 90-minute run time might benefit from some judicious trims. But this is a small stumble in a very strong play.

MR. FOX
Chipped Paint Productions
Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 10), to July 26

EVEN without a big fuzzy suit, Greg Landucci can whip a crowd into a frenzy. The Vancouver performer (Dishpig, 2007) is a motor-mouthed bundle of compact energy, which he uses to great comedic effect to tell what one presumes is the autobiographical story of his days as a mascot for rock radio station CFOX.

Over the course of the 60-minute show, Landucci deftly shifts among several roles -- the no-BS drill sergeant of a mascot-school instructor, the snippy CFOX promotions director -- but mostly, it's on Mr. Fox's shoulders, and the actor works up a sweat demonstrating the mascot full-body nod, the big-footed mascot dance and the never-ending high-fives and six-guns (he informs us that mascots can't communicate much more than "It's awesome!" "You're awesome!" and "I'm hot!").

The play taps into the cheesy sense of semi-celebrity surrounding rock radio, but it doesn't often go much deeper than belly laughs. Dishpig had a poignant underside, a real sadness to it that made it more than just a guy telling restaurant-worker stories. Mr. Fox doesn't quite have that nuance or narrative arc -- it ends with bizarre abruptness -- but Landucci's performance deserves a rousing rendition of The Wave.

MANNERS FOR MEN
Screwed & Clued
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 26.

POOR Frank can trace his lifelong unpopularity to one unfortunate incident of public defecation. Why this childhood trauma was shameful in his mother's eyes, while soccer star David Beckham vomiting on the sidelines of a game is not, he'll never know.

Hunched, solitary and socially awkward, Frank is out of place in the soccer-loving, lager-drinking England he inhabits: a reader of Butterfly Collector Monthly whose relationships with women are nonexistent, save a dogged devotion to his verbally abusive mother that is touching and unsettling in turns.

Written by and starring longtime fringe star Justin Sage-Passant, Manners for Men traces Frank's attempts to make his way in a society that seems to simultaneously draw and repulse him. The pace is slow and the humour dry, though one sold-out noon-hour crowd had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

Ultimately, though, Manners for Men is less a comedy and more a thoughtful drama about familial loyalty, obligations and the way a complex maternal relationship shapes one man, for better or worse.

INFERNO SONATA
The August Assembly
The Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 9), to July 26

THE road from hell to paradise is only three steps long, but it's a strange and twisted path featuring smoke and mirrors, where nothing is as it seems, according to 19th-century Scandinavian playwright August Strindberg.

In his one-man play about the life of the writer and artist, Edmonton's Scott Sharplin takes us on a mesmerizing trip into a world of paranoia and insanity. His portrayal is nothing short of brilliant as the character tries to distinguish himself from his rivals and solidify the love of his wife by trying his hand at alchemy, turning sulphur, arsenic and mercury into gold.

Sharplin, who wrote the script based on Strindberg's journals, stalks the stage intensely in white face paint, using a variety of props to illustrate the protagonist's methods and what is going on in his fevered mind as he slowly descends into madness.

The journey is intense and fascinating, smoke and mirrors be damned.

THE SADDEST GIRL IN THE WORLD
Otherwise Productions
Red River College (Venue 11), to July 27

Vancouver writer-actor Tina Teeninga accomplishes an impressive feat in this 60-minute one-woman drama -- she makes us care about the fates of two young women who lead parallel lives of disenchantment in the big city.

The first is Mary Tyler Moore-style innocent trying to make a go of it as a salesgirl in a high-end jewelry store. The second is an engineer from the former Yugoslavia who is haunted by the ghosts of her homeland and is forced to work as a janitor.

Teeninga, a gorgeous brunette of about 30, expertly delineates the two characters, switching between them every few minutes. She also plays several supporting characters, most notably the jewelry store's haughty female manager.

But it might be her writing that is Teeninga's strongest suit. She wrings actual suspense from her humanistic story and displays a poet's gift for simile. Stars shine in the night sky "like a million tiny opals" and a dying crow lies on the pavement, its wing "like a slick of oil."

She employs little music and only a few props. She wastes no time on corny romantic subplots. She holds our attention with her talent alone.

DR. FAUSTUS
The Little Theatre of the Gray Goose
Adhere & Deny Studio (Venue 19), to July 27

Creepy, homemade dolls playing the Seven Deadly Sins a la Christopher Marlowe is worth the price of admission alone.

But pretty much everything is else is just as inventive and funny in this puppet version of the famous tale of the scholar who sells his soul to Satan for knowledge and power.

Local actors-come-puppetmasters Graham Ashmore, Eric Blais and Carolyn Gray give us the Coles Notes highlights of the morality tale and deliver fine voice performances with some puppet physical comedy that gets all the laughs. The Elizabethan language is dense, so it helps to have a passing knowledge of the play, but you'll get the hang of it.

The puppets themselves are works of art.

A little too high-brow for kids. And, at 45 minutes (not 90, like it says in the program), it's exactly enough Marlowe.

OLD GROWTH
Acky-Made
Ragpickers (Venue 13), to July 27

Don't just look at the stars. Read this review. This show is wonderfully fringey, but it's not for everyone.

It's the story of Alex (Alex Eddington) and Aura (Aura Giles), two Toronto eco-warriors who make a pilgrimage to an ancient Haida redwood on the Queen Charlottes that was cut down in 1997. There they make a bumbling, self-important attempt to tap into the tree's soul so they can fight the consumption and waste that threaten to destroy the planet.

Throw in some amateur magic and some haunting flute-playing by the mopey-faced Aura and you'll have just barest elements of this complicated, challenging and quite masterful show.

It's a little preachy and a bit hard to follow at times. Eddington's performance gets overwraught near the end when Alex descends into naked, self-flagellating mental anguish.

But it's also lyrically written, morally ambitious and exponentially more sophisticated and original than most fringe fare. Eddington, the composer and performer who brought us the Fugue Code last year, totally commits.

THE REALLY REAL ADVENTURES OF SCOTT FREE AND WILL DO
Shrimp Magnet Theatre Company
The Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 9), to July 25

Lots of really physical comedy, really cool talk of aliens, and really fun costumes and sets makes this a really, really good Kids Fringe show.

Join Scott and Will as they set off on a mission to solve the mystery of what is really real and what is just plain imagined. This Toronto powerhouse troupe really (OK, I'll stop now) knows its stuff and could entertain even the most discriminating audience member. And what's refreshing about this show is that the adults were laughing just as hard as the kids.

Leslie Halferty, Kate Keenan, Scott McCallum and C.J. Schneider are outstanding in this adventure story that's appropriate for families with children of all ages. A baby was cooing throughout and it didn't bother these guys and gals one bit. In fact, this zany bunch often fed off of the audience and included the kids in their mission.

Very smart and full of twists and turns that I won't ruin here. But if your kids are saving a place for their new imaginary friend at the dinner table afterwards, you'll know why.

HEY ABBOTT! A CLASSICAL COMEDY TRIBUTE SHOW
Chase & Hamill
Tom Hendry Theatre at the MTC Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 27

Some fringe shows push the boundaries on all manner of sex and profanity, but this isn't one of them.

Hey Abbott! is a re-creation of some of comedy duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's best routines from the 1930s and 1940s, played to perfection by Winnipeggers John Chase as straight man Abbott and Kevin Hamill as his hapless partner Costello. With several jokes per minute being thrown out, some can't help but be groaners (they were written 70 years ago, after all), but the majority hit home, and even the bad puns earn laughs.

The impressionists deliver each send-up with perfect timing and impeccable delivery. Who's on First and Hertz U-Drive still sound fresh, and other forgotten favourites are updated and spruced up with local references.

Costello may lose a one-horse race, but there's no chance anyone who sees this show will feel swindled.

LESTER GETS KISSED
Magic Toaster Productions
Tom Hendry Theatre at the MTC Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 27

Gene Simmons has always had a bit of a God complex, so it only seems right that he and Jesus -- who both look pretty cool on a lunch box -- battle it out for the soul of Lester when the KISS reunion tour hits town in 1996.

Lester (fringe vet Dan Baker-Moor) used to rock and roll all night, but has stopped partying every day to devote his life to the Lord by working at a Christian supply store, which is next door to a record shop where his son works. The temptation of the KISS concert is almost too much for the tormented convert and he resorts to spitting up Moses' Red Sea ketchup to imitate his hero.

The strong pull of musical nostalgia and religious fanaticism and hypocrisy (along with a side-helping of feminism) are explored in this 75-minute musical comedy that has plenty of in-jokes for KISS fans. The 13-member cast keeps things moving quickly with sharp dialogue, snappy musical parodies and simple choreography.

If there's a lesson to be learned, it's that hard rock and religion can co-exist, because, after all, as KISS famously noted, "God gave rock 'n' roll to you."

REMEMBER THE NIGHT
Moving Target Theatre Company
Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre (Venue 22), to July 27

Negative nebbish Fred Mandelbaum (Andrew Cecon) lives alone, visits his absent-minded mother at the nursing home and is sweet on Cyndy (Clare Therese Friesen), the working girl he's hired to "sleep over" on a regular basis. For Fred, this is as good as it gets. But it all goes to hell when a cop shows him a picture of a murdered girl in a warehouse. Fred's natural predisposition to anxiety goes into overdrive in this tense, curious murder-mystery.

Director Arne MacPherson maximizes his use of the venue space with creative staging, and keeps Daniel Thau-Eleff's dark, funny script moving steadily along at a beat cop's pace -- not too fast and not to slow. Solid performances are delivered by all seven members of the cast. Doreen Brownstone is especially endearing as one of the slightly-out-of-touch residents of a Jewish retirement home, searching for her "Herschel," and Jeff Strome's tightly wound, smart-mouth cop is pretty much everything a prairie citizen both wants and fears in a "law enforcement professional."

YOU WILL WRITE, WON'T YOU?
School of Contemporary Dancers (Venue 8), to July 27

It's a universal question: Should I stay or should I go?

Melissa, at age 16, is in a bus station, struggling to find the answer. She has a shot at going to a summer program for young writers -- the first step toward fulfilling a dream. But strong ties to the farm and the people she loves (and who love her) make going away, even for the summer, a lot more difficult than you might expect.

Ron Blicq has written a very good adaptation of Veronica Steele's novel You Will Write, Won't You? for the Winnipeg-based company RGI International Productions. It speaks directly to its target audience (ages 12 and up), without a trace of condescension.

The production rests on the shoulders of its two young leads, Megan Wilson (Melissa) and Kevin Carruthers (Pete), who both deliver good, natural performances. Ron Robinson, who brings considerably more experience to the stage, does a nice turn as Pete's pragmatic, sympathetic, farmer dad.

WHAT HAPPENED WAS...
Ross McMillan's Large Successful Theatre Co.
MTC Backstage at the Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 27

A painfully awkward first date takes a hilarious wrong turn in this comedy from frequent fringers Ross McMillan (The Ingrates, 2007) and George Toles (Shock Corridor, 2006). When stiff paralegal Michael (McMillan) is invited to secretary Jackie's (Jane Walker) Manhattan apartment for Friday dinner, it's quickly apparent that their easy workplace camaraderie is not transferable to an intimate setting. His stilted conversation -- "You like science?" -- and her misguided conviction that he's intentionally funny at work point to a disastrous evening ahead. And make no mistake, this is a night to remember -- it's just not so clear at the beginning which character is going to provide the most memorable moment. The pair inevitably talk shop, but a few glasses of wine smooth the way to more personal subjects. He admits he's writing a tell-all book about the justice system and she is embarrassed to confess she writes children's stories, a revelation that leads to a screamingly funny scene that includes lurid references to incest, a headless topless dancer and a vengeful baby. Not safe first-date subjects by any means.

By the time this misbegotten duo say goodnight, it's clear Monday is going to be a very bad day indeed. But hey, there's always a ray of hope for next Friday. Penned by New York playwright Tom Noonan, this must-see is directed by Toles and Jeannette Heinrichs (Notes From the Underground, 2002).

BIG EASE, BIG SLEAZE
Rita Shelton Deverell
Exchange Community Church (Venue 12), to July 26

Former Winnipegger and Order of Canada recipient Rita Shelton Deverell (Smoked Glass Ceiling, 2005) brings another socially minded one-woman show to this year's festival.

The solo performer, who now resides in Toronto, delivers a politically inspired collage of events surrounding Hurricane Katrina. Without a glitch, Deverell shapes herself from one Brechtian character to the next, making it abundantly clear that the tragedies of the human spirit transcend age, gender and skin tone.

And when an unlikely friendship develops between an elderly gentleman and a materialistic young woman from Canada, a whole other play unfolds that sheepishly points the finger at less publicized tragedies back home.

Intelligent and thought-provoking, Deverell, under the keen eye of local director Cairn Moore, brings a touch of old Baptist charm to her silky smooth storytelling that is unapologetically seeped in spirited metaphor.

THE PUMPKIN PIE SHOW
Horse Trade Theatre Group
Red River College, Princess Street Campus (Venue 11), to July 27

If there were a meter to measure the enthusiasm of fringe artists, Clay McLeod Chapman and Hanna Cheek's score would be off the charts. The young but seasoned New York City performers are tickled to be at their first Canadian fringe. They greet audience members like invited guests to a house party.

At their first show they delivered a strong set of sketches, penned by Chapman, that had the literary quality of short stories. Both are fine actors, but Cheek, a smart Parker Posey type, shows exceptional range and depth.

Their "stories," as they bill them, are not just tossed-off parodies or setups for punchlines. They're intelligent vignettes with full narrative arcs, rich with imagery.

In The Pool Witch, Chapman masterfully recounts a puberty tale set at a water slide as if it's a sea-monster tale of epic proportions. In the clever Suicide Bomber, the ponytailed Cheek is a cheerleader on a sacred mission to martyr herself for the team.

The duo can do touchingly serious material, as in Oldsmobile, in which they play an elderly couple. And when Cheek gives a drunken toast to the bride in Bridesmaid, they venture into extremely dark -- but riveting -- territory.

Their gimmick is that they have 14 stories prepared, and only perform four or five per show, based on a random draw. That will undoubtedly entice some fringers to go back for seconds of Pumpkin Pie.

THE VAJAYJAY MONOLOGUES
Pot of Jam Productions
Onstage at the Playhouse (Venue 4), to July 26

If you take Lindsay Burns' word for it, women are in big trouble these days. According to the Calgary-based writer/performer, we can blame Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues, for that one. Ever since the hit off-Broadway production started a revolution 10 years ago, women seem more troubled by the state of their privates than they are about the state of their other very important organ ... their brain, that is.

And if you're expecting to get a crash course on feminism in this 90-minute one-woman show, think again. The word doesn't even come up in the string of exemplars and monologues that point to our more important priorities, like Paris Hilton's purse-sized pet or Nicole Richie's baby stroller. And let's not forget our fascination with everything Britney.

Funny and well-paced, this scathing commentary on the female race should make women very, very concerned about our state of affairs, in particular if we have young daughters with a collection of various shades of lipstick and have never heard the term "lipstick party."

Don't bring a date to this one. Burns is clearly speaking to the women in the audience who need to pull up their socks and re-evaluate how invested we all are in pop culture and where we're heading in a world that's capably dictated by the Church of Oprah.

JEM ROLLS
Big Word Performance Poetry
King's Head (Venue 14), to July 26

In his latest power poetry recital, called How I Stopped Worrying and Learnt to Love the Mall, Jem Rolls takes listeners into what he calls the "rat maze of plenty" that serve as a "laggard-archipelago of lego-ego." This fringe vet's superlative wordplay and image-creation remains impressive, displaying no ill effects of spending his first winter in Winnipeg.

This is the first time that the speed-talking Scotsman focuses on a single subject and the result is that his prose is much more accessible and funny. While the impromptu dashes into the audiences to deliver his words have stopped, he is a more lively action figure on stage.

Rolls does takes time to unexpectedly go off on the Kenny Rogers hit Coward of the County, which he calls the most shameful exploitation of sentiment. His only excuse for the national embarrassment of having the tune last six weeks atop the U.K. record charts is that contempt breeds familiarity.

TEACHING THE FRINGE
Doctor Keir Co.
Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 10), to July 26

Montreal's Keir Cutler wreaks his theatrical revenge against a Winnipeg fringe-goer who accused him in a letter last year of using his play Teaching As You Like It to promote the seduction of underage girls.

Enraged that he was being defamed and tarnished for the sins of his stage character, Cutler responded with Teaching the Fringe, in which he comically trots out a kooky chorus line of rogue audience members.

While the wide-eyed Cutler appears to be a bit of a nut magnet -- he once chased a guy out of a New York theatre who kept yawning loudly during his show -- he mostly concentrates on the letter sent to then-fringe festival executive producer Nick Kowalchuk and Child Find Manitoba charging him with legitimizing the sexual misconduct of students by their teachers.

In his first autobiographical work, Cutler analyzes each word of the letter to much comedic effect. He has great fun at his accuser's expense and the audience is the grateful beneficiary.

TROJAN WOMEN
Eyewitness Theatre
School of Contemporary Dancers (Venue 8), to July 27

It's often said that fringe audiences prefer frivolous comedy to meaty drama.

The appreciative packed house for this undeniably heavy Greek tragedy proved otherwise.

England's Eyewitness Theatre gives an engrossing, gutsy performance of Euripedes' antiwar classic. The play is a still-relevant exploration of the plight of women who are treated as spoils to be raped, executed or spared, according to the whims of brutal men.

In this 75-minute adaptation, three captive princesses await their fate after the fall of Troy, igniting dramatic sparks as they rage and lament, forming a kind of death-row sisterhood.

Through their fierce performances and evocative language, you can almost hear the city screaming as the Greek conquerors leave "marble floors slimy with Trojan blood."

Teenage Cassandra is faced with becoming a disposable concubine. Half-mad with fear and shame, she is cursed with the ability to foretell the future. Widowed Andromache is crazed with grief, but steels herself by clinging to duty and dignity. Helen, the regal beauty blamed for the Trojan War, has known real love, but also knows how to manipulate men for the sake of survival.

There's no program to identify the performers. Red-haired Cassandra and blond Helen are terrific, while Andromache is often difficult to hear and becomes a bit tiresome in her one-note recriminations.

Still, for those seeking real theatre at the fringe, Trojan Women delivers.

BOAT LOAD
Stars and Hearts
PTE -- Colin Jackson Studio (Venue 17), to July 27

Struggling actor Gary Bazman has a $1,000 choice -- pay for his cat's life-saving bum operation or shell out the fee for a talent contest that could kick-start his career and get him out of his lame town.

En route to a decision, he's got to navigate an embarrassing fairy play, a crabby ex-girlfriend and a metaphoric boat captained by a drunk guy that's about to hit an iceberg.

This is the comedic creation of London, Ont., native Jayson McDonald, who brought us fringe fave Giant Invisible Robot last year. It's a one-man-and-a-chair kind of show, a character collage of the people in Gary's dead-end life, and it's a gem. Each character, from his bourgeois parents to the cat, is a precisely drawn little nugget of humanity, and there are lots of laughs and just enough depth to make it moving. It's smartly constructed, especially once it gets really rolling. McDonald weaves all the characters together in a way that keeps the audience just confused enough to stay alert, and there's a funny bit with a cellphone that turns the actor-playing-an-actor-in-a-play-within-a play thing on its head.

Plus, you know it's got boatloads of advance buzz when when fringe gods Keir Cutler and TJ Dawe catch the first show.

This veteran Winnipeg community theatre troupe, in at least its fourth fringe outing, has chosen wisely with American playwright A.R. Gurney's 1981 dramatic comedy about the vanishing American upper class.

With 12 actors, ranging in age from 20-something to 85, playing 40 speaking roles in 12 thematically related vignettes, the 80-minute production radiates ambition and intelligence.

Gurney's original script, which explores both the solidity and creakiness of Episcopalian WASP values, has been pared back from 18 scenes.

But little of its sense has been lost as a series of well-off U.S. Eastern Seaboarders lay out their prejudices and conflicts in the dining room of a grand old house.

MTC did the play in 1984 on its mainstage, which gives you an idea of its pedigree. The acting here is not uniformly professional, but everyone's heart and mind are in the right place. And they've actually found the perfect table to serve as the play's central symbol.