The Goose soars to prestigious Fringe award

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This article was published 28/07/2025 (385 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For The Goose, Ellen Peterson is the winner of this year’s Harry S. Rintoul Award, an honour given annually to the best new original Manitoban work at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.

The award, named for the late local playwright and founder of Theatre Projects Manitoba, has been handed out by the festival since 2002.

Alongside works by playwrights Adia Branconnier, Thomas McLeod, Heather Madill and Joseph Aragon, Peterson’s name appeared twice on the shortlist, with the renowned theatre creator also earning a nod for Daredevils, starring Cora Matheson and Michael Strickland as high-wire artists making every move count above the Niagara Gorge.

A prairie-set retelling of a Japanese folktale called The Crane Wife, The Goose starred Delf Gravert as a gentle farmer who frees a trapped goose before marrying the bird after she re-emerges in human form (Gwendolyn Collins). Maggie Nagle completed the cast as Gravert’s hardbitten mother-in-law.

Featuring a score from the playwright’s brother Lloyd, The Goose enjoyed a weeklong stay at the Gargoyle Theatre on Ellice Avenue.

In her five-star Free Press review of the show, Alison Mayes praised Peterson’s handling of the well-travelled material, stating that the score, effects and superb performances “coalesce into a breathtaking whole.”

Thomas McLeod, for his madcap MPI frenzy Third Party, starring Dane Bjornson and Alanna McPherson, earned the honorable mention.

Heather Madill and Joseph Aragon were also recognized for their Danish astronomy musical Tycho Freakin’ Brahe, as was Adia Branconnier, who wrote and starred in I Hope You Know with their father, Mike.

Established by the Manitoba Association of Playwrights, the Manitoba Arts Council-funded award includes a $750 prize for the winner and a $250 prize for the honourable mention.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca

Ben Waldman
Reporter

Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.

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