FRINGE

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/07/2004 (7833 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chicken for Supper Productions

PTE Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 25

THE man who tackled the Star Wars trilogy turns his amazing facility for physical comedy to the land of Middle-earth, condensing J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1,350-page masterpiece into a one-hour work of solo genius.

You don’t have to know the books to comprehend Charles Ross’s interpretation, but if you haven’t seen the movies, you might not catch the brilliance of his re-creation of all the musical themes and many of the sound effects from the Peter Jackson film versions.

The Victoria, B.C., actor is an incredible impressionist who nails the voices and mannerisms of Gollum, Gandalf, Treebeard, Frodo, Pippin and Sam with disturbing ease. He also comes up with novel ways to depict many of the major action sequences from the films, most hilariously Denethor’s tumble off the top of Minas Tirith and the collapse of the oliphaunt slain by Legolas.

By the end of the very physical hour, you’ll be amazed at how much Ross manages to pack in, as he works up a sweat so thick he leaves little puddles on the PTE stage. HHHHH

— Bartley Kives

P.S. 69

Watson Arts

The Conservatory (Venue 7), to July 24

COMIC Susan Jeremy introduces substitute teacher Molly DeKowski on her first day in Public School 69 — “Anyone with a BA and no criminal record can be a substitute in New York.” The overmatched educator encounters a United Nations of Grade 4 kids, as well as beleaguered teachers and pushy parents, all given individual characterizations by Jeremy, who shifts her hip, tilts her head or alters the timbre of her voice to create a Bronx accent.

The real fun of the hour-long show — and there is plenty of it — occurs when the financially desperate and tequila-fuelled Molly gives in to her personal assertiveness trainer’s suggestion and enters an amateur go-go dancing contest at the Vaginal Vault nightclub. Of course, things don’t go as planned — Strip Teach and ABC It All are the next day’s headlines — and her career is in doubt before a happy ending.

Jeremy, a professional New York comic with a Laura Dern smile, is a brilliant impersonator. Inexplicably she lost her concentration and tripped over a line several times but covered with a crack about the effects of smoking dope. Accept no substitutes; Jeremy is the real deal. HHHHH

— Kevin Prokosh

ARTICULATE

Saucy Fops

Red River College (Venue 11), to July 25

IT’S rare to come across a show that’s witty, touching, funny and extraordinarily well-written, but Kamloops’ Saucy Fops has all that going for it and more. Articulate tells the story of two people coming together and beginning a relationship. Well-worn territory to be sure, but it sets itself apart by stripping social interaction down to its core and offering inventively funny scenes that everyone can relate to.

Part of the show’s appeal is the talent and comedic timing of the two performers, playwright Cayman Duncan as Jack and Terri Runnalls, who plays Samantha. Duncan’s talent for writing believable dialogue and hilarious inner monologues doesn’t hurt, either.

If you’re looking for a date-friendly romantic comedy, or just something that’s guaranteed to make you laugh, Articulate is it. HHHHH

— Anna Lazowski

PITH!

Teatro la Quindicina

MTC Backstage at the Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 25

THIS exquisitely crafted gem by Stewart Lemoine, the best-known playwright of the Edmonton Fringe, has been deemed a masterpiece at other festivals. It deserves every superlative in the critic’s vocabulary.

It’s a world-class redemption story that is both roaringly funny and profoundly moving. The title refers to adventurers’ pith helmets, and to the hero’s uncanny gift for uncovering the pith — the essential core — of things.

Jeff Haslam gives a stunning, stylized, old-movie performance as Jack Vail, a charming 1930s drifter who insinuates himself into the home of a wealthy Rhode Island woman, Virginia Tilford (Davina Stewart). For 10 years, Virginia has been trapped in a cocoon of despair, numb with unprocessed pain. She’s unable to accept that her husband, who disappeared on a journey to South America, is probably dead.

Jack might be a Capra-esque angel. Or he may be a con man, out to fleece Virginia and her matronly servant, Nancy (Leona Brausen). But when, under his spell, the two women begin to follow their imaginations, the audience goes along for the wondrous, playful journey.

Pith! is a love letter to 1930s popular culture, a celebration of make-believe and improvisation, and a tribute to theatre itself. It’s a comedy of the spirit, affirming the power of ritual to heal and liberate. HHHHH

— Alison Mayes

MY BROTHER SANG LIKE ROY ORBISON

Lorraine Jane Productions

Bull and Bear (Venue 12), to July 24

PLAYWRIGHT and performer Randy Rutherford offers up this gorgeously woven tale of an evolving relationship between two brothers, moving effortlessly between a 16-year-old version of himself, his older brother Denny and a handful of supporting characters.

Told with loving nostalgia and just the right dose of humour, this compelling coming-of-age-in-the-’60s tale shows how relationships are tested by differing political views, as America’s cultural shift during the Vietnam War is mirrored by the two brothers.

The San Franciscan’s talent truly shines as the brothers age and change over the years. Rutherford manages to create incredibly complete characters — occasionally moving audience members to tears. His skilful ability to hold the crowd in the palm of his hand for 90 minutes should be required viewing for any actor thinking of mounting his own one-person show.

If you didn’t catch this hit when it was here a few years ago, don’t miss it this time. HHHHH

— Anna Lazowski

JEM ROLLS

Big Word Performance Poetry

Winnipeg Press Club (Venue 18), to July 25

ONE of the revelations of the 2003 Winnipeg Fringe Festival was this premier Scottish power poet, who returns with a repeat riot of rhyme to relish. The only thing missing this year is that wonderful sense of surprise that accompanies that first encounter with an unanticipated talent.

Rolls rocks, energetically spraying his audience with vivid images, fresh phrases and cheeky ideas in such poems as The Whole World is Your Fault, We Broke Up Because the Sex Was Too Good and The Entire History of the United States. In his opening piece, Nostalgia at the Montreal Fringe Festival, he speaks of memories “made safe by befores.” In Egos, he confesses that “self-love isn’t enough, I need you to love me, too.” In another piece Rolls revels in the line, “I love the me I’m being when I’m being with you.”

His are not the esoteric musings of some showoff egghead, but a charismatic common man with an uncommon ability to give energetic expression to the everyday, whether politics, love or history. The poetry-panicked need not fear an hour with the well-versed Jem Rolls. HHHHH

— Kevin Prokosh

THE CURSE OF THE TRICKSTER

Big Sandwich Productions

PTE Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 25

IT should come as no surprise that The Curse of the Trickster is thematically all over the place, given that it was written in Mexico and Honduras, revised in Vancouver and rehearsed in Amsterdam and London.

TJ Dawe, the fringe circuit’s reigning king of monologues, journeys far and wide in his laugh-filled 80-minute rant, riffing about everything including the traveller’s worse affliction, Montezuma’s Revenge. He unleashes a torrent of words about all that pains him, whether it be diarrhea or ringing cellphones in movies.

Sprinkled throughout the fast-paced, Seinfeldian diatribe are statements you don’t hear uttered very often, like, “I sure wish I had more hair growing out of my back,” “I get too many paid vacation days,” and “That summer movie was great.” His long segment about being lost in the dark of his billet’s basement is a bit of a dud but his portrayal of a cat in heat is hilariously accurate.

The bespectacled Vancouver storyteller sits coolly on a stool, completely at ease with his witty words and confident about their effect on the sensibilities of his listeners. Ironically, words can’t express just how funny Dawe is on stage. HHHHH

— Kevin Prokosh

LUNATIC VAN BEETHOVEN

Doctor Keir Co.

PTE Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 24

LUNATIC Van Beethoven begins with the famous composer dancing to his favourite disco song — what else but Walter Murphy’s A Fifth of Beethoven? It sets an irreverent, playful tone that permeates the fringe festival debut of Beethoven, who is unimpressed that he wasn’t granted an exemption and was made to get in by lottery like everyone else.

The delightful 50-minute musical bio-comedy — written and performed by Montreal’s Keir Cutler (Teaching Shakespeare) — brings Beethoven to life so we can hear his reaction to the competing myths that have grown up around him and how his sublime music has been crassly exploited. He’s a bit cranky about his bobblehead doll and that snippets of his Ninth Symphony are used in cellphones and alarm clocks.

Cutler’s joyful ode wonders whether Beethoven, with his wild eyes and unkempt hair, would be considered a madman today as he was in the 18th and 19th centuries. He explains the source of his lunatic reputation and points out that that doctors found concentrations of lead in his hair 100 times the norm. “Without the lead, I’m a fun-loving guy,” cracked Beethoven before a sold-out performance at the Montreal Fringe Festival.

Like the best the fringe has to offer, Lunatic Van Beethoven enlightens, educates and above all entertains with an enthusiasm that is hard to resist. HHHHH

— Kevin Prokosh

THE ADVENTURES OF BABA YAGA: LITTLE GIRL STEW

Messenger Theatre Company

MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 24

CHILDREN beware! Baba Yaga might eat you!

Or not.

She just might toss a few one-liners at you and crack you up.

Director Emily Davis adapted this Russian children’s folktale about little Vassilissa (Chara Riegel), who is sent into the woods in true Cinderella fashion by her evil stepmother and stepsisters to seek a light for their candle. The catch is she must obtain it from the woods-dwelling crone Baba Yaga, who has a history of consuming children in the form of “little girl stew.”

Vassilissa, our unflappable heroine, meets Eleanor O’Brien’s Baba Yaga, a character best described as Phyllis Diller gone horribly wrong — scary, but in a hilarious kind of way. In order for Vassilissa to escape a fate worse than dinner, she must perform a couple of impossible tasks, which she completes with the help of Baba Yaga’s faithless familiars, a masked dog and cat ably performed by Nelson R. Lugo and Susanna Harris.

New York’s Messenger Theatre Company gives a delightful, intelligent performance incorporating shadow puppetry, masks and costumed actors to nearly seamless effect. Touted for kids six years and up. Warning: Mild audience participation! HHHHH

— Wendy Burke

WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION

On the Edge

MTC Backstage at the Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 24

COLORFUL costumes, catchy song-and-dance numbers, and first-rate performances are a deadly combination in this slick 75-minute musical about a new recruit to the sinister and secret world of the American Department of Homeland Defense, which aims to protect the country from lies.

But truth, as the new recruit quickly learns, isn’t as simple to recognize as one would think. And sometimes lies are right and truth is wrong or muddled in a grey area somewhere in between.

The Los Angeles-based actors (Josh Covitt, Christopher Ellis, Erin Francis, Lyn Heck, Brian Paul Johnson, Roz McHenry, and Dennis Melonas) are incredible performers who bring out the humour, irony and sarcasm imbedded in the show. HHHHH

— Cheryl Binning

PRAIRIE SALT

Bside Productions

MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 24

THIS charming three-man musical, a kind of Billy Bishop for the sailing set, boasts lovely original songs and a lead performer with a strong tenor voice and a pleasing smile.

Jeffrey Pufahl, a fresh-faced fellow who looks to be about 30, also penned this autobiographical coming-of-age tale about a Saskatchewan youth who follows his dream to live on the water.

Pufahl gets able support from fellow performer Jon Pinksen, who plays all the supporting roles and even strums guitar, and Dan Flegal as electric-piano accompanist.

This is an ambitious production by fringe standards, with expensive props (a wooden ship’s wheel and a large mainsail), a 75-minute running time and songs that run the gamut from Maritime folk ballads to melodic show tunes.

It’s an ideal all-ages show. But it’s Pufahl’s voice and charismatic stage presence that make it memorable. HHHHH

— Morley Walker

MORE TALES FROM A DODO

Purple Fish Productions

Winnipeg Film Group Studio (Venue 15), to July 24

Puppets Coco the Dodo and Audrey the Mel Gibson-obsessed Chicken return to the WFF with fellow performers Luan de Burgh and Michelle Seton to share more fascinating stories from around the world.

A fabulous hand-painted mural, depicting Indian-style buildings and a garden in shades of blue, green and brown, provides the backdrop for this dramatic re-telling of three traditional tales from Russia (the familiar Wishing Fish), India (Lakshmi and the Clever Washer Woman) and New Zealand (Maui and the Fingers of Fire).

Seton, who hails from Auckland, and de Burgh, a Londoner, resist playing the folktales for laughs, choosing instead to preserve the integrity of the stories, which explain the natural world or teach a life lesson. Coco the Dodo and Audrey the Chicken act as the linking device between the stories and provide comic relief to lighten the tone.

The actors of Purple Fish Productions are supremely confident performers, physical, deliberate and graceful. This is an elegant performance for children three to nine years. HHHHH

— Wendy Burke