Day 4: No such thing as too much when it comes to fringe play reviews

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/07/2023 (776 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

90 LIES AN HOUR: PAUL STRICKLAND

Paul Strickland Presents

MTYP Mainstage (Venue 21), to Sunday

American storyteller Paul Strickland returns with tall tales from his Ain’t True and Uncle False oeuvre in this hour-long, tightly woven routine of four comedic stories and a song. He takes the scenic route to steer his audience toward wordplay punchlines.

Strickland is a gifted orator capable of crafting emotional beats based entirely on folksy, “non-factual” characters. The moral of the stories is, invariably, about the strength of community. “What you walk away with is something that is true — for you,” as Strickland puts it.

If you get a kick out of puns, or just enjoy groaning at terrible ones, Strickland’s got you covered.

“I love that y’all don’t agree on what’s funny,” he told the crowd at a recent performance, endearing himself to them after delivering a play on words that earned one loud squeal of laughter followed by widespread reactionary giggles.

The show is likely to entertain, but don’t expect any deeper truths. ★★★

— Katie May

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THE BARBARIAN BOMBSHELLS

The Barbarian Bombshells

Tom Hendry Warehouse (Venue 6), to Sunday

This trio of bawdy barbarian babes from Houston, Texas, put the hot in hot mess.

Though they clearly have a blast together onstage and their costumes absolutely slay, they struggle to carry a 60-minute show, especially one with no discernible plot or theme outside of “barbarian.”

A lot of the bombshells’ banter is hinged on catfights and slut-shaming each other, even though they are supposed to be powerful, man-eating matriarchs. Sadly, this intriguing idea — the barbarian/bombshell complex, if you will — is not explored in any meaningful way. And perhaps there’s an anatomical reason why sword-swallowing can’t be a grand finale, but doing it at the top of the show creates a difficult bar to clear, especially if it’s followed by copious amounts of awkward audience participation.

The Barbarian Bombshells have performed at the Texas Renaissance Festival for almost a decade, so it’s possible their raucous and raunchy shtick just doesn’t translate to a sit-down theatre. The drinking songs are fun, though. ★★

— Jen Zoratti

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BLABBERMOUTH, THE PUFF MONSTER AND THE WOLF

Merlyn Productions

Tom Hendry Warehouse (Venue 6), to Saturday

This kid-friendly, imaginative story time features a robust cast of all ages re-creating three classic folk tales from Ukraine, performed in English: The Blabbermouth, The Puff Monster and Sirko and the Wolf.

You can’t lose when you’re privy to the folklore of another culture. That said, the play starts off a little slow, but as it goes on, it gets better and better, with Sirko and the Wolf the best of the three.

This is hour-long production is geared towards children 3-12, but don’t let that stop you from attending if you don’t have kids, or even with older children; this is a show the whole family can enjoy. There are minimal props and you need to go in ready to use your imagination.

The actors look as if they are having a good time performing up on the stage, telling the stories with a zestful sense of excitement, and it’s enjoyable to watch them have fun doing it. ★★★

— Shelley Cook

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BREAK TIME

Swingset

Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), to Sunday

The program lists the hour-long, one-man (plus digital pal) Break Time as “unclassifiable,” and while it’s a bit of an oddball show that’s not for everyone, there’s a somewhat interesting and quite topical story at its core.

Avery Gillman, who co-wrote the show with Allan Coleman, plays Mims, a lonely man who enlists the help of AI Chabot, a virtual assistant found online, to help him finish a script for a frog-centric streaming show called Little Jarlings. Greg McLean handles offstage audio and lights, providing the voice of AI Chabot, Mims’ virtual friend who appears onstage as a small round light that changes colour.

There’s a bit of everything here — some sock puppetry, prizes, wooing a pillow named Brie Larson and such — with Gillman’s slightly awkward charm the highlight. The vaudevillian-type songs Mims busts out throughout the show are clever and quite well-sung. ★★ 1/2

— Ben Sigurdson

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BREMNER SINGS: EVERYTHING IN NEW ORLEANS IS A GOOD IDEA

Big Empty Barn Productions

Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), to Sunday

Bremner Fletcher Duthie, or Bremner for short, who has performed the cabaret songs of Kurt Weill and Noël Coward at many past fringe stages in Winnipeg, ditches other people’s tunes for his own in this one-hour ode to the Big Easy.

Risk is the main theme in Bremner Sings, and not because the sweet-singing baritone is debuting his own material. Beyond this musical-theatre tour of his hometown, which includes Congo Square, Mardi Gras parades and the tourist-filled French Quarter, lies danger around every corner: high murder rates, hurricanes and artistic failure, which he tempts with a comical costume change that cost $12.95 at Value Village. ★★★★

— Alan Small

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CLUELESS IN ZA

Erik de Waal

Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 9), to Sunday

As a young boy, Erik de Waal believed that his homeland of South Africa was the nicest country in the world. Then he was forced to open his eyes: he was living a false reality, tucked inside an exclusive oasis where only people born with white skin were granted the privilege to drink the water.

A terrific and patient storyteller who makes excellent use of silence, de Waal takes his listeners back to the crumbling of the apartheid era — relatively recent history he feels a responsibility to revisit, as racism and baseless hatred become increasingly normalized. He makes no excuses for his country, and confronts with impassioned honesty the lingering toll of white supremacy nearly 30 years after Nelson Mandela ascended to the presidency.

Clueless in ZA isn’t about Canadian history, but it isn’t entirely foreign either. ★★★★

— Ben Waldman

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CONQUEST OF THE AIR

Jurasco

The Cinematheque (Venue 7), to Saturday

Wayne James is blessed with the gift of believability. Sometimes, as soon as someone opens his mouth, the listener can call B.S. But take one look at James — the crags of experience that frame his wizened smile — and you don’t doubt for a second that he’s built and flown his own airplane.

In this 45-minute solo flight, James takes his passengers on a journey through mankind’s longest-standing fascination — the heavens. From ancient Greece to Orville and Wilbur Wright, James darts across the early aeronautical record, dipping between moments of calamity and glory, both of which were equally possible whenever liftoff was achieved.

Part history, part “Popular Mechanics for Fringe,” and a showcase for the performer’s range of regional accents, this show from Beausejour’s James experiences minor turbulence, but once the captain regains control, he brings it down for a smooth landing. As a man who once crash-landed the plane he built, James doesn’t for a moment take that for granted. Sit back and relax. ★★★

— Ben Waldman

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DUDE, WHERE’S MY KARMA?

Fedor Comedy

MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to Sunday

Dutch comedian Fedor Ikelaar has been all around the world: Bulgaria, Nepal, France, war-torn Ukraine and now North America. First stop, Winnipeg. He seems to understand how to score points here, poking fun at Saskatchewan’s boring appearance on the map. Ikelaar is likable, establishing quick rapport with his nervous brand of charisma as he pontificates on the femininity of the French noun “baguette” (“Have you seen a baguette? They’re more masculine than I am!”) and the proper way to use a Nepalese squatting toilet (pants around the knees.)

As he jaunts across the globe for an hour of standup and a bit of storytelling, detailing his somewhat aimless travels, his routine takes a similarly shapeless and directionless form. Depending on your ideal road trip, that might be a good thing, but Ikelaar would do well to craft a more well-defined itinerary. Still, he is an affable tour guide and worth taking a flier. ★★★

— Ben Waldman

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THE FOOL

Monster Theatre

King’s Head Pub (Venue 14), to Sunday

The creators behind last year’s brilliant Juliet: A Revenge Comedy are back with a one-man play written and directed by Ryan Gladstone and starring Jon Paterson.

We encounter Paterson, the titular fool, locked in a dungeon; dressed in bright and jangly attire, he spends the next hour describing just how he ended up there. The strength of this show is Paterson’s energetic physical comedy, particularly his ability to jump back and forth among characters, playing the king and queen as well as guards, the fool’s BFF (an ox named Drew), and more.

There are some decent laughs, as well as a few cornier gags that will elicit groan-worthy guffaws; the writing seems less tight and the comedy less relentless than in Monster Theatre’s previous offerings. Still, it’s perfectly palatable pub fare with plenty of charm. ★★★ 1/2

— Ben Sigurdson

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HOW TO LIVE FOREVER

Hypothetical Productions

Stephen Juba Park (Venue 10), to Sunday

The best conversations always happen around a bonfire, and in this 70-minute (billed as 60) low-key local dramedy, innovatively set by a firepit in a park, the talk is turning to mortality. Whether it’s the impending death of a parent, the suicide of a sibling, the COVID-delayed funeral of a grandmother or a scary heart condition, these millennials are realizing life is no joke.

Daphne Finlayson’s script has the ring of truth and even with the challenge of making their voices carry in the unpredictable outdoor venue, the cast — Sarah Jane Flynn, Madyson Richard, Chris Sousa, Ryland Thiessen and Charlotte Thompson — conveys the easy intimacy of long friendship, whether they’re making morbid jokes or comforting one another.

One doesn’t expect easy answers, but the dramatic stakes do need to be raised here. Despite the relatable content and genuine emotion on display, this feels more like eavesdropping on friends than a play. ★★★

— Jill Wilson

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THE LAST FIVE YEARS

Hot Reject Productions

Tom Hendry Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 29

The Last Five Years is an intimate sung-through musical that presents a couple, Jamie Wellerstein, a rising star novelist, and Cathy Hiatt, an unsure-of-herself actor struggling in the profession. At 80 minutes, the show works ingeniously sometimes, awkwardly at others. We see Jamie from the relationship’s start to its breakup, while Cathy gives us the reverse, from the end to the beginning. The only time they come together in the show is for their wedding.

The mostly engaging songs are, in a way, a formalized song cycle for each character. This lovely production, deftly directed by Tanner Manson, balances the show’s difficulties — Jamie can often be seen as an arrogant jerk, Cathy as an adolescent whiner — with a straightforward approach, giving the characters their due despite their very human recognizable flaws.

The show takes a while to get going, but it’s worth the wait. Kira Chisholm (Cathy) and Anaka Sandhu (Jamie) are strong performers and the four-piece band under Mackenzie Wojcik deserves a bow. ★★★1/2

— Rory Runnells

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THE LIFE HENRI

Still Your Friend

Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 9), to Friday

Henri Rousseau, a French post-impressionist artist who died in 1910, was a naive oddball who painted mysterious, dreamlike jungle scenes. He was ridiculed and shunned for his “childlike” style, but stayed true to his unique vision and believed in his own worth.

Toronto writer-performer Adam Bailey (creator of the one-man Franz Ferdinand Must Die) tells Rousseau’s story in an engaging format that’s like an art history lecture given by a super-animated, super-passionate prof, complete with a slide show. Despite mispronouncing French words, Bailey commands the room, acting out mini-scenes from Rousseau’s life and weaving in his own experience of being a bullied, queer outcast in middle school.

The hour-long show builds to a climax in which Pablo Picasso hosts a banquet to mock-honour Rousseau. Bailey constructs a strained, largely ineffective parallel between this and the prom in Stephen King’s Carrie. You’re left with a sense that there’s a wilder artist inside Bailey who might dare to abandon the history-lesson format and follow Rousseau’s eccentric lead. ★★★

— Alison Mayes

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LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

The Dramatic Theatre Company

John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to Sunday

This classic musical about a carnivorous houseplant is a four-course meal that will leave you satisfied. It all takes place on Skid Row, where Mr. Mushnik (Laurie Fischer) wonders why nobody seems to buy flowers anymore. Amid the squalour of a deteriorating urban core, two of Mushnik’s employees, the starchy-sleeved Seymour (Philip Rogalsky) and the outlet moll Audrey (Alana Penner) are caught in a fatal love triangle with a sadomasochistic dentist (Rich Smith). A freak chorus (featuring Moriah DeFord, Christine Vetus and the shticky Kelly Hirst, puffing on a prop cig) is along for the 90-minute ride.

When Seymour’s invention — a miraculous plant called the Audrey II — claims its first victim, the likable cast already has the audience eating out of its hand. (The Audrey II — operated by Kane Makowski, voiced by Duncan Storozuk and designed by Shy Pattie — is, in the best way, the stuff of nightmares).

The third act could use some pruning, but you can take that up with composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman. You won’t regret going somewhere that’s green. ★★★★

— Ben Waldman

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ME: ROAR

Alembic Theatre Creations

Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), to Sunday

Winnipeg actor and dancer Jae Janzen grants the audience a view of the closet in this courageous and sometimes awkward one-person piece of contemporary dance, monologue and queer odyssey.

The six-foot-five redhead enters a new home after a day of office drudgery, alone besides Sophie Shark, a furry companion, and quickly sheds most of the trappings of male comformity.

Janzen uses the entire stage at the home of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers to show off physical-theatre skills that are at times masculine, at times feminine and sometimes both simultaneously, ably demonstrating how a person’s dreary unhappiness can eventually become a moment of joy that helps build enough self-confidence to take on whatever the world has to offer. ★★★ 1/2

— Alan Small

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MIDNIGHT

Meraki Theatre Productions

CCFM — Antoine Gaborieau Hall (Venue 19), to Sunday

This 45-minute musical combines Taylor Swift’s discography and the tale of Cinderella… with a twist.

Before the show, guests are greeted with a live acoustic performance of the pop singer’s Innocent, followed by several other songs to set the tone, before August, the narrator, announces they will guide the audience through the “treacherous” tale of Elle, who longs to stand up to her cruel stepsisters and potentially find her Prince Charming. Two mice friends, a fairy godmother and Elle’s best friend Abigail help her along the way as she realizes believing in herself will benefit her more than any love story.

The large Winnipeg-based cast — all young theatre students — occasionally stumble through the collectively written production’s adapted Swift lyrics and often fail to project adequately. Comedic cues are rushed at times and the onstage chemistry isn’t consistent.

While you don’t have to be a Swiftie to enjoy this musical mashup, some knowledge of Swift’s top hits could be helpful to navigate the show’s references and fill in the lyrics when they’re inaudible. ★★

— Nadya Pankiw

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MY BODY OF WORK

Holly M. Brinkman

Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), to Sunday

Victoria’s Holly M. Brinkman bares it all — literally — in this sparkling 60-minute cabaret show that deftly blends storytelling and burlesque about diet culture, intergenerational trauma and finding a home in one’s body.

Brinkman is a gifted storyteller, poignantly delving into the ways her history of disordered eating is inextricably linked to that of her grandparents, who endured enforced starvation in Nazi-occupied Holland.

But it’s how Brinkman uses her body to tell this story that makes it so powerful. We see her morph from a 12-year-old in a bathing suit feeling joy in her body, to a self-conscious teen in an oversized shirt, to an adult whipsawed by diet culture to, finally, a sensual burlesque performer feeling joy in her body again. When she’s standing nude — unflinching, reborn — in a pool of stage light, the effect is stunning.

Some streamlining would help it keep its focus. Some of the props, as well as the Britney Spears needle-drop as a calorie-count trigger warning, distracted from the arc of the story. ★★★★

— Jen Zoratti

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OLD GOD

Splash Time

CCFM — Antoine Gaborieau Hall (Venue 19), to Sunday

If you look past the facepaint and allow yourself to free fall into this fever dream, you’re bound to get some laughs out of this hour-long clown performance from Las Vegas-based theatre company Splash Time.

The one-man show follows Old God (Alec Jones-Trujillo), a clown who doesn’t make balloon animals or juggle, but rather mimes, sharing stories from the ancient past by going back in time, and poking fun at modern-day dilemmas.

Among jokes aimed at tech titans Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg were improvised shots at the audience that maintained engagement as stories spiralled into minutes-long monologues, revealing Old God too, would like to be a billionaire. The show’s structure is scattered yet stabilized by Old God stepping out of the stoplight and breaking character. (Profanity and sexual content are consistent throughout the show, so if your humour isn’t crass, this performance may be a pass.)

Old God’s performance will leave you feeling delighted, delusional and perhaps slightly closer to understanding the divine beings that watch our worldly chaos unravel. ★★★1/2

— Nadya Pankiw

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PRAMKICKER

An Seanchaí

Théâtre Cercle Molière (Venue 3), to Saturday

Pramkicker, a contemporary feminist play by England’s Sadie Hasler, calls to mind the British working-class “kitchen-sink realism” of the ’50s and ’60s. This local, amateur two-woman production — the play’s Canadian première — doesn’t attempt British accents but retains all the British references, creating something of an audience hurdle.

Jude (Siobhán Keely, who too often rote-rattles her dialogue) is a tough, foul-mouthed, 40-ish woman who is forced to attend anger-management classes after she has a rage outburst against smug mothers (“nappy-toting vacuous twits”) and kicks a pram.

It emerges that Jude is not entirely at peace with her choice against motherhood (“I don’t count”). Her 30-year-old sister, Suse (the more natural Calum Peppard), is at a different stage of wrestling with that choice. The best scenes explore the deepening of their sisterly bond.

Hasler’s script includes reams of funny (if too written-sounding) vulgarity and some lovely, evocative speeches. But the pointless anger-management scenes are marred by horrendous performances by recorded actors. And the one-hour Pramkicker, billed as “hilarious and heartbreaking,” doesn’t live up to either of those adjectives. ★★★

— Alison Mayes

THE SEAT NEXT TO THE KING

Root Sky Productions

Manitoba Museum — Alloway Hall (Venue 5), to Sunday

It’s the civil rights era and two men meet for sex in a tea room, also known as a public bathroom, in Washington, D.C. They are strangers. One is Black and one is white. The Black man is Bayard Rustin, MLK’s key organizer, and the other is Walter Jenkins, LBJ’s key aide, who is hiding his homosexuality in a closet with walls thicker than a nuclear bunker. The stakes for each man if he gets caught are both different and the same: violence, shunning, arrest and shame.

The premise makes for a stirring 75-minute two-hander. Richie Diggs as Ruskin and Philippe Larouche as Jenkins are both terrific young local actors.

The show is adapted from Steven Elliott Jackson’s longer play and it does feel we may be missing something for the trim, including a sex scene that caused quite a stir at Toronto Fringe.

Simon Miron’s direction is simple and effective. It’s a dramatic, raw, powerful, dramatic and sad hour of theatre. ★★★★1/2

— Lara Rae

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SPECIMEN SHERMAN

Dark Horse Theatre

Cre8ery (Venue 24), to Saturday

This six-hander sci-fi comedy begins as a win-win situation for dopey car-wash attendant Sherman (Dave Pruden) and his alien captors, Keeper (Mike Seccombe) and Curator (Karl Eckstrand). The loner they call Sher-Man gets all the booze, porn and Star Wars jokes he wants and the ETs get a co-operative earthling — harder than it sounds, apparently — for their zoo back home.

The old-school Star Trek morality tale begins when Sherman demands a woman. Keeper says, sure, man, and brings naive waitress Sandy (Simran Bal), tough-as-nails cabbie Alice (Debra Ross) and devil-may-care burglar Tanis (Emma Stevens) for him to choose from.

Locally produced Specimen Sherman provides an hour-long spin around the solar system with a few laughs and dilemmas tagging along for the ride. ★★★ 1/2

— Alan Small

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THE SMALLEST STUPID IMPROV SHOW

The Improv Company

Manitoba Museum — Alloway Hall (Venue 5), to Sunday

At the start of his new show, improv maestro Stephen Sim lets the crowd know this is his 30th anniversary performing at fringe. To celebrate, he challenges himself to improvise alone.

Any cold feet were toasty warm on opening night and the near full house was treated to about 40 minutes of witty, spontaneous comedy. Audience suggestions of “baseball” and “dentist” led to two very funny short scenes. The first involved a hapless community baseball team and the other a new dentist hoping to change the way others feel about his trade. There was none of the seamless weaving of stories that was the hallmark of the Steve Sim/Lee White troupe Crumbs. Instead Sim built two small worlds populated with unique people using only small gestures, posture, one-liners and some very funny facial expressions.

Kevin Ramberran provides the soundscapes for Sim to play in (created by DJ Hunnicutt) and Caity Curtis creates some lighting work. But it was the lone star Sim who came out calm and ready, like a boxer who knew he was gonna win the fight by knockout. And did. ★★★★

— Lara Rae

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STAFFROOM

Scattered Minds Theatre

John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to Saturday

Billed as a bestseller at the 2001 fringe (where it was presented in the Eaton’s basement), this show, written and directed by longtime fringe vet Leith Clark, has been updated for modern times, complete with mobile phones, post-pandemic talk and the like.

The bulk of the show takes place in the school’s staff room, with teachers gabbing and complaining about students, other staff and more. In between scenes (and announcements from the office over the PA), each teacher takes a turn in the spotlight, with a short monologue about what working in education means to them. But you never really get to know (or care about) any of the characters; both the writing and the acting are rigid (save for Clark, who plays the performing arts teacher well).

One plot development near the end of the 45-minute play (not 60, as listed in the program) doesn’t move the needle emotionally, and in the end, it feels like not much has really happened. ★★

— Ben Sigurdson