Five-star shows at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival

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This article was published 25/07/2023 (1144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival offers many, many shows — and all of them have been reviewed by our dedicated team of writers. There is something for everyone to see and enjoy, but there is a lot to choose from.

If you don’t want to “eeny meeny miney mo” to decide what to watch, take a look at the list of shows that received the highest rating from our reviewers.

Check out the five-star reviews from this year’s fringe festival below.

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DRAG ME TO THE OPERA

Aida Cupcake Presents

MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 29

What a necessary show and a lively introduction to two historic and affirming artistic disciplines: opera singing and drag. Steven Morton wanted to take centre stage as a professional opera singer and he finally, truly gets that chance. We get a linear recounting of how Morton’s passion to sing ultimately led in 2006 to a prestigious audition in Weimar, Germany, as told by his alter ego, drag maven Aida Cupcake.

This reference to the German district and the use of cabaret-style title cards creates a subtle time shift; we can’t help being willkommen to think back to the brief era of late 1920s Weimar Berlin, where drag and gender expression flourished.

Morton’s impediment to stardom (but his ultimate victory) is his beautiful, unique voice, which does not fit into a conventional vocal category. You could say there’s a tenor and a soprano trapped inside the larynx of a lyric baritone.

The chosen arias provide an opportunity for a little operatic history and a mini recital; one baroque aria in particular can inspire tears.

On leaving, a woman stepped through the exit into the arriving dusk, bursting to say, “That was the best thing I’ve ever seen.” Sing that from the rooftops. Brava/Bravo! ★★★★★

— Lara Rae

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NEECHIES

Broken Record Productions

Centre culturel franco-manitobain (Venue 4), to July 30

Anishinaabe playwright Jo MacDonald offers up a comedic story of four childhood friends who reunite for a night of shenanigans that lands them in the slammer.

While waiting in a jail cell to be questioned by the overnight officer, these four of your deadly aunties not only have to navigate their night gone awry, they also begin to unpack the tumultuous years of estrangement and the mounting situation (and person) that landed them there in the first place.

Right from the start of this comedy, that real deadly neechie sense of humour shines with one-liners, funny quips and the showcase of Indigenous culture, humour and personality. The characters are endearing and the cast members have good chemistry with one another.

Written from an Indigenous perspective, Neechies is universal and relatable for everyone. ★★★★★

— Shelley Cook

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FAKE ‘N’ BAKE

Oh Hello Productions!

John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 30

ELLIE Heath takes us on a journey from her teens to her adulthood, a journey we take with her inner critics who take shape as a mean girl, a basket case, and a male bully. The critics constantly butt into Ellie’s life as we follow her from high school to leaving her Edmonton home for the bright lights and big-city glam of…Vancouver.

The inner critics act as Ellie’s greatest enemies but also her closest friends. They drown out the caring voices of her father and mother who notice Ellie’s disordered eating and how her life isn’t going the way it should.

Heath is not afraid to shine a spotlight on her past pain, hoping that doing so will help someone else in their battles. She brings the audience into the story and we help her quiet her inner critics. It is an experience not to be missed. ★★★★★

— Sonya Ballantyne

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GOOD GRIEF

Gangland Productions

MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 30 

James Gangl (In Search of Cruise Control) returns to Winnipeg with an incredibly funny, heartfelt and moving one-man, 60-minute show about grief, the grieving process, guilt and more.

The Los Angeles-based performer — one of four sons of a mother from Malta and an Austrian dad — presents a show that revolves around how his father died when he was 25, about losing and missing his father and the way in which his relationship with his mother changed, for the better, after his death.

At a young age Gangl was taught by his brothers to “take the pain,” burying and repressing hurt and confusion about everything, including a childhood trauma.

But it’s his parents who are at the core of this show; scenes around Gangl’s father’s bedside during his last breaths are deeply poignant and endearing, and depictions of interactions with his mother both funny and empathetic.

Anyone who has lost a loved one — pretty much everyone, essentially — will find plenty to relate to, and adore, in this well-paced, brilliantly written and stunningly acted show. ★★★★★

— Ben Sigurdson

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(IN)DECISION

Drawing Board Productions

MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 29

Toronto’s Tamlynn Bryson absolutely shines in this 60-minute one-woman comedy about making decisions, and tests the very limits of the pro and con list.

It has been 2.7 seconds since Tess (Bryson) was proposed to by her boyfriend, Steve. She doesn’t know whether she should say yes or no. She’s got lots of reasons for going either way, which is why she’s called this meeting in her mind.

Bryson uses a chalkboard to illustrate and annotate Tess’s many, many lists, which fill the board and then spread out onto every available black surface — including her shirt — like a frantic game of Pictionary.

With deft comedic timing and physicality, Bryson immediately lets us know exactly who this anxious, overthinking woman is — but she’s somehow not exhausting to watch, which is a tricky needle to thread. A gem of a performer in a gem of a show. ★★★★★

— Jen Zoratti

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INGÉNUE: DEANNA DURBIN, JUDY GARLAND, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD

Melanie Gall Presents

MTYP — Mainstage (Venue 21), to July 30

Melanie Gall’s previous works, which combined knitting and the Second World War, were the gateway to appreciating the fringe for this reviewer.

Ingénue, an hour-long musical, is Gall at her best. Focusing on the Winnipeg-born singer and actress Deanna Durbin and her time toiling in Hollywood during a career that parallelled Judy Garland’s, the St. Albert, Alta., performer tells Durbin’s story to a reporter after the Garland’s death. (Gall has penned a book on the subject, so she knows her stuff.)

Gall’s musical histories always seem like sitting with an old friend you’ve known for years: her warm camaraderie makes it easy to fall into the world of Durbin — so much so that the few technical hiccups can largely be overlooked. Go for the singing alone. ★★★★★

— Sonya Ballantyne

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SIX CHICK FLICKS

PKF Productions

PTE — Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 29

Ladies: How many of you — like Rose in Titanic — experienced a rip-roaring orgasm the first time you had sex?

While acting out goofy abridged versions of beloved chick flicks, New York’s K.K. Apple and Kerry Ipema constantly interrupt the action to mock the plots, tropes and characters, as in that Titanic question hilariously directed at the audience.

This smart feminist spoof, co-written by Ipema and fringe star T.J. Dawe, is so infectiously funny that you can love it without chick-flick literacy.

But the better you know Titanic, Legally Blonde, Pretty Woman, Beaches, The Notebook and Dirty Dancing, the harder you’ll laugh. The cheap costumes and lack of a set only enhance the show’s playful spirit.

The exuberant Ipema and Apple throw themselves into a whirlwind of over-the-top actor impressions (Apple’s Jennifer Coolidge is a wonder) and dance up a storm. There’s a moment involving a tampon that is Amy Schumer-worthy.

The duo really doesn’t need to interrupt Dirty Dancing’s abortion plot with a serious explanation of Roe v. Wade (we’re Canadians, but we’re aware). That said, Six Chick Flicks is parody gold and deserved its shrieking standing ovation. ★★★★★

— Alison Mayes

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WORLD’S FAIR 1876: THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION

JHG Creative

The Gargoyle Theatre (Venue 25), to July 30

It’s 1876, and the world’s greatest inventors have descended on Philadelphia to vie for the Ulysses S. Grant (Grant).

Among them is a young Ethelbert Watts (Monique Gauthier), who must go up against the likes of Henry Heinz (Cuinn Joseph), Alexander Graham Bell (Ben Krawchuk) and Thomas Edison (Connor Joseph) on idealism alone in this delightful, tightly paced 60-minute musical comedy.

The songs are all bangers. The performers are all bell-clear singers with snappy comedic timing. The script is laugh-out-loud hilarious and, surprisingly, touching.

But the show is stolen by Krawchuk and Connor Joseph, who have incredible chemistry as “Alex” Bell and “Tommy” Edison, who have been imagined as conniving yuk-yuk gangsters. Don’t miss this one. ★★★★★

— Jen Zoratti

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ADVENTURE OF THE LITTLE ROOSTER

The Grand Salto Theatre

Kids Venue (MTYP — Mainstage), to Sunday

Ontario’s Zita Nyarady could give Emma Memma of Wiggles fame a run for her money.

The Kids Fringe 45-minute fable about a Little Rooster getting back his silver ring from an evil cabbage delighted a lively Saturday afternoon audience.

Nyarady as the Little Rooster (as well as the rest of the show’s characters) had the audience in the palm of her hand (or wing). The physicality displayed throughout was fun to watch and take part in (though this reviewer was too shy to jump up for the dance party at the end of the performance).

It’s impossible not to be charmed by Adventure of the Little Rooster. It is a perfect example of what kids fringe should be: fun, silly and full of bubbles. ★★★★★

— Sonya Ballantyne

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CATCH ME IN THE KITCHEN STORY ADVENTURES

Catch Me in the Kitchen

The Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 9), to Sunday 

Catch Me in the Kitchen Story Adventures is a masterpiece of the imagination. This hour-long two-story show is nothing short of delightful, and enjoyable for the whole family.

The Toronto performers are flawless in their telling of reimagined versions of the classic fairy tales Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Lupus Maximus and the Three Little Pigs.

The set is minimal, just a few wooden crates and a colourful backdrop, but that’s all that’s really necessary because the duo are such good storytellers (tales are told in English, infused with French words throughout). They are dedicated to bringing each character to life, not only in the way they speak, but through their physical acting as well — flawless.

This lovely piece of storytelling theatre bears viewing more than once. ★★★★★

— Shelley Cook

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DONATING SPERM TO MY SISTER’S WIFE

Kelly Finnegan Productions

King’s Head Pub (Venue 14), to Sunday

George Carlin dipped in honey-brown bourbon, Kentucky comedian Stewart Huff controls the room from the second he says “taxidermy raccoon ass.”

During this hour-long standup set — a treatise on goodness in an era of divisiveness — Huff takes the audience from a snake-bitten southern church to the moonshine-soaked forests of Kentucky, peppering each sentence with effervescent wit and overwhelming kindness.

Twenty-five years down the comedy road, Huff has been doing this for a long time, but he hasn’t lost his joy, or his sense of purpose. He understands what a privilege it is to make people laugh for a living, and he deserves to be thanked for the service he provides. ★★★★★

— Ben Waldman

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EPIDERMIS CIRCUS

SNAFU

PTE — Colin Jackson Studio (Venue 17), to Sunday

The words “adult puppet show” elicit certain expectations, but Avenue Q this isn’t. Despite her Sesame Workshopbona fides, brilliant Canadian performer Ingrid Hansen’s puppets are often nothing more than her mirrored fingertips, magnified onscreen, or her own balled-up underwear.

It’s no small feat to create a real sense of peril around the escapades of a Kewpie doll head rested on a hand, but the audience gasps like kids at a Punch and Judy show when the weirdly sexy Baby Tyler is in danger, and his fixed coy expression actually seems to change.

It’s almost as entertaining to watch Hansen’s face as it is to marvel at the magic of her adroit fingers and mind.

This 65-minute show (not 75) is utterly magical, insanely inventive, wickedly funny, disturbingly dirty (“Why does it always get all porno for me?” the MC, Florence McFingernails, asks) and beautifully twisted. Give Hansen a hand. ★★★★★

— Jill Wilson

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NASHVILLE HURRICANE

Chase Padgett

PTE — Mainstage (Venue 16), to Sunday

When perusing your fringe program, make sure to hand-pick this tale of a fingerpicking phenom drawn from the mind and soul of Chase Padgett, a festival veteran with transformative capabilities and undeniable talent.

With Nashville Hurricane, Padgett is a one-man band, equipped only with an acoustic guitar and an electric voice that never cracks but often cracks the audience up.

Embodying four characters — the titular guitar hero, an aging bluesman, a struggling mother, and a preacher who puts profit before people — Padgett shifts among them as expertly as he changes chords; he plays four roles better than many could play one.

As if his guitar skills weren’t enough, his singing voice, particularly that of the bluesman, is sublime, a hearty combination of Chris Stapleton and Ray Charles.

Playfully sidestepping music biopic convention while winking at it, Nashville Hurricane is an inventive exploration of talent as both cage and key. ★★★★★

— Ben Waldman