Fringe reviews #12: Game over? Not even close

52 STORIES 

Dave Morris

Théâtre Cercle Molière (Venue 3), to July 26

👾👾👾👾 ½

Dave Morris doesn’t regale the audience with 52 different stories during his 60 minutes on stage. But he could.

The Victoria-based magician, improviser and expert storyteller instead plucks precious moments from a deck of cards while demonstrating the power of mnemonic memory tricks.

In a bid to improve his own working memory, Morris has learned how to memorize a random 52-card sequence by assigning a person — real, imagined or famous — and their story to each card.

The result is a slow-burn card trick that’s both relaxing and slightly nervy. Will he be able to recall the sequence after pausing to share a sweet, winding story about his son and fatherhood? Don’t worry, Morris’s “memory palace” is a safe and predictable place.

The set is clean and the show is polished, but it could do with less repetition.

— Eva Wasney

BLACK BUTTERFLY

Blackwestward Productions

John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 25

👾👾👾

We meet Laide on the night of her engagement party. She’s surrounded by joyous celebration but is clearly unenthused about her arranged groom-to-be.

Unfortunately, the narrative doesn’t progress much from there. At the end of this 75-minute play/musical/contemporary dance production, Laide has a little more self-awareness but her motivations and desires remain unclear.

The costuming is beautiful and the dance numbers — set to an original Afrobeat-infused score — are affecting.

There are standout performers among this 10-piece ensemble from Toronto, but more energy and conviction are needed overall.

Opening night also suffered from blocking and mic issues that negatively impacted the onstage dialogue.

— Eva Wasney

BURNS AND ALLEN: COMEDY DUO

Dog and Pony Shows

John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to Friday

👾👾👾 ½

This one-hour tribute is an accurate re-enactment of a show by the legendary team of George Burns and Gracie Allen. Burns (Stephen Sim) was the cigar-wielding straight man to Gracie (Caity Curtis) who, the show makes clear, only played dumb.

Both actors play their characters well — Curtis is especially delightful – and the costumes and production perfectly encapsulate the Golden Age of comedy. The show goes through their career as a comedy-duo and couple from radio to TV with breaks in between for Burns to narrate the story.

Sim and Curtis are seasoned professional improv artists (see for yourself at the comedy Four Hearts at Venue 3), but this returning show demonstrates their ability to follow a well-travelled script with a sense of improv-like immediacy.

It’s a timeless act and will have you laughing so much, you’ll hate to say, “Good night, Gracie.”

— Tiago Resko

DOUBLE DARE MAGIC 

Double Dare Magic

Kids Venue MTYP — Mainstage, to July 26

👾👾👾

This is a 45-minute magic show created for kids by kids. Or, rather, a pair of magic-loving teens.

Siblings Tanek and Wynter from Narol have crafted a sparkly, colourful production with some solid sleight of hand and inventive illusions involving scarves and balls and carrots big and small. Their bandana-banana bit is particularly clever.

The action continues between tricks with a series of entertaining, well-produced interludes featuring a silent crew member with a great sense of comedic shrugging.

Though it’s a valuable message, the adopt-don’t-shop (for your next pet) section is a tad clunky.

The reveals and punchlines could also be improved with a bit of breathing room. Kudos to the brother and sister for carrying on unfazed despite microphone issues.

— Eva Wasney

LOOKING FOR LOVE IN ALL THE WEIRD PLACES

M.P.M.M. Productions

The Output (Venue 12), to July 25

👾👾 ½

Joel Passante knows a thing or two about getting put into the friend zone, the uncomfortable place where someone you are interested in only wants to be pals.

Passante’s one-man hour-long show is akin to someone telling you a story about how hard it is to find love as a person who lacks confidence and isn’t good at starting conversations.

He was married once (he doesn’t say for how long) and has since tried every method of meeting members of the opposite sex, from online apps to speed dating: all result in failure.

“I’m kind of like mould — I’m weird, but I will grow on you,” he says.

Passante is a competent storyteller with some humorous one-liners, clever observations and a personality that does indeed grow on you, but your appreciation of his take on relationships — and eventual basic advice — depends on how much you care about a stranger’s dating history.

He has the tinder ready to burn, but needs to add more fuel to make this show fully ignite.

— Rob Williams

MIDDLE CHILD 

Snafu

PTE — Colin Jackson Studio (Venue 17), to July 26

👾👾👾👾👾

This hysterical hour-long comedy is about a middle child and the two siblings who constantly overshadow her.

Co-creators Kathleen Greenfield, Jack Widow and Tony Adams also star in the show and deliver incredible performances playing exaggerated stereotypes: the golden child/older brother, the attention-seeking younger sister and the overlooked middle child.

Through their distorted recreations of their own births and memories of their cold alcoholic father and judgemental almond mom, they explore the childhood that made them.

The humour is often very raunchy, but it works and you can tell the performers are having fun with what they’re doing, which rubs off on the crowd.

Even factoring in the exaggeration, the show proves very relatable. You may recognize your own family members in the characters of this crazy family.

— Tiago Resko

OVERSHARER

Einarson Productions

Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to July 26

👾👾👾👾👾

Locals know Kristen Einarson as a successful standup with numerous credits, but fewer know of her late-adult diagnosis of ADHD, attributable to a phenomenon called patriarchal medicine, where women’s health concerns are ignored.

Delivered in sections, dealing with childhood through puberty and into adulthood, this 60-minute show includes the predictable job firings and the roller coaster of impressing others and then disappointing them. You could nearly hear the forceful nods of neurodivergent folks in the house.

In the tradition of Australian comic Hannah Gadsby (Nanette), this brave and vulnerable woman stops letting us off the hook with laughs and exposes the immense pain this invisible disability can cause.

Now for a few bucks you can grow wise and more understanding while laughing out loud.

Laughter is the best medicine (unless, to quote Norm McDonald, you’re diabetic, then insulin is the best medicine). Kudos to a well-organized, focused, informative and, finally, deeply moving show.

— Lara Rae

PRIVATE PARTS: THE SECRETS WE KEEP 

Gravity Theatre

RRC Polytech (Venue 11), to July 26

👾👾👾👾 ½

Can you keep a secret? Joanna Rannelli can. Maybe too well. And now, she’s spilling.

Written and performed by the Kelowna, B.C.-based actor, this funny, moving 50-minute storytelling show is all about the secrets that haunt us, taunt us and make us who we are — from the little white lies to the big bads.

Rannelli has such a warm and comfortable stage presence, energetically playing herself at various ages — there is a hilarious sequence in which rebellious teenage Joanna cranks the Nirvana and lights up a cigarette in her bedroom, but not before she lays out the many accoutrements to hide the smell — to share a lifetime of secrets. Hers, but also her mother’s.

A show like this wouldn’t work nearly so well if Rannelli weren’t willing to “go there,” and go there she does, offering up a genuinely revealing and insightful work that feels not only brave but generous.

— Jen Zoratti

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE: AN IMPROVISED X-FILES

Tolzbad

Centre culturel franco-manitobain (Venue 4), to July 26

👾👾👾 ½

Come with your spookiest stories and unexplained mysteries and watch the members of Winnipeg’s Club Soda improv troupe turn them into an X-Files episode.

Dressed in FBI-issued trench coats, Kevin Ramberran and Kerri Woloszyn assume the roles of agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, simmering sexual tension and all, while Luke Cecelon, Thomas Toles and Jesse Bergen take on various victims, bystanders and paranormal phenomena.

The story-building is solid and the give and take is smooth, as expected with a Club Soda production. But the hour-long show’s scaffolding leaves little room for riffing, resulting in something closer to a faithful retelling of an episode of the long-running sci-fi series rather than an improvised parody.

Potential for more silliness is out there.

— Eva Wasney

UNZIPPING THE CAT

3L Theatrics

Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to July 25

👾👾👾👾

We read a lot about the male loneliness epidemic, but few insights about steps men can take. Perhaps, lonely men need to unzip the cat. (Explaining would be a spoiler, so we won’t.)

In this 60-minute storytelling show, Ottawa’s Kevin Reid (now based in Winnipeg) aptly explains how, in middle age, he found himself at a crossroads. So he agreed to look after a cat and then set a goal to be good enough to share a story about looking after a cat on a public stage.

There are setbacks, but he pushes through. And now he can deliver a flawless story, well-written and compelling and eventually heartbreaking.

This shy mensch is no Robin Williams; he knows his limits and chooses simple, quiet movements. In fact, the show seems practiced and rehearsed to the point of automation, reanimated by a solid, impressive performance.

Some theatrical monkey business that looks really hard to do is often literally smoke and mirrors. And sometimes shows that are just one person talking don’t reveal that what you’re viewing is a masterclass in courage and very boring hard work.

— Lara Rae