Just as an experiment, guess what the world record is for ball juggling? Twelve? Thirteen? It’s twelve, but If I had told you thirteen would you have cared that much more? It seems that a lot of things today are impressive, but not a lot of things are surprising. For this reason it’s sometimes hard to sit down and enjoy some good old fashioned human spectacle.
Matt Henry’s one-man juggling show might be the worthiest spectacle at this year’s Fringe. Henry is impressive, animated, fast talking. To say he endures the pressure of being before an audience with...
I’m supposed to be reviewing six shows in two days. Four down, two to go. Eye Candy starts at 7:30 at the Performance Works. I’m on Granville Island at 7:15. Plenty of time. I wander over to the Fringe tent and run into an old friend, Benny. Our dads both worked in the theatre industry. I tell Benny I’m now working as a reviewer. He says I must have a pretty good lay of the land. We laugh. Of course I do.
I bid Benny adieu because they’re letting people in at the theatre and I want to...
This show takes place at Granville Island’s public waterpark. No, the water is not running. Instead, the dormant yellow waterslide, the rolling cement hills, the intricate playground apparatuses, all are host to a conference of William Shakepeare’s favourite female characters. Sounds interesting? There’s more.
Twenty some odd audience members are split into three groups and then led around the landscape by their Pixie Captain. The aim of the Pixie Captain is to illuminate female/lesbian/queer/trans perspective in Shakespeare’s drama. Only once all of Shakespeare’s female characters are liberated from their subordinate gender roles can anyone go home.
Winnipeg’s random band name productions presents Fraz Wiest in his 60 minute one man show “Fraz vs The Future”. It is being staged at one of my favorite venues -- the lovely intimate Studio 1398 on Granville Island. I was a little disappointed that there was no programme for some cheat notes, and that they chose to close the black curtain over the big, beautiful, bay window, even though the play takes place in the present, and lighting and special effects are at an absolute minimum.
It’s all about Fraz. He strides onstage with a towel and a water bottle (which...
Written by Harrison Mooney, this piece is a one of those rare but fabulous shows where the ensemble cast is so damn good you can’t fairly highlight only one or two performers. While they’re all trained and talented actors, the singing and musicianship were surprisingly good too.
Director Andy Toth has pulled together a seamless work of art in spite of the narrative jumping from one decade to another and he somehow manages to have evaded that sometimes awkward transition from dialogue to song that can feel artificial in some musical theatre...
Andrea Yu wrote, directed and produced Versus – a locally staged play by Lotus Land Productions at the Firehall Arts Centre for the 2014 Vancouver Fringe. Featuring actors Evelyn Chew, Pandora Morgan and Chris Lam, this show is immensely self-referential as the plot centres on a struggling playwright named Andrea and her friend who is a struggling actor named Pandora.
Andrea (in the play) is writing a play for a competition – and it's not going at all well. Her friend Pandora isn't having much luck either – she blows up at a casting director during...
Gary Smally is a scientist who’s written an authoritative book on snails and is interviewing for a teaching position at the university. Yet he still struggles with everyday tasks and his mom has helpfully sent him a book to prep him for his first real date.
Emily Windler (of the wonderful Wonderheads fame) has created a memorable and immensely likable character in the tradition of Buster Keaton and Mr Bean. (Think of a mustachioed southern fried Bean, with thick glasses.) This is very broad physical comedy and Windler pulls out all the stops throughout show....
A Mind Full of Dopamine is the story of Rory Ledbetter’s descent. At an innocent poker game, one of the milestones of attaining manhood, he has his first great flood of dopamine – the product of risk and reward. Mice will give up everything, food, water, sleep, for dopamine. Rory, to feed the dopamine craving monster within, shoved $98,000 down its gullet and it still wasn’t satisfied.
I went into the show without knowing anything but the title. I’m sure, had I googled or even read the program, I would have had many of the common...
Sam Mullins is a true storyteller. In this show, staged at the Havana Theatre, he offers us a very structured performance. Though he told us that this performance was the most sick he's ever been onstage (laryngitis) and drank tea throughout, you wouldn't believe it. Mullins is well-trained and a seasoned performer.
We meet Mullins at his first stand-up comedy workshop in Victoria taught by a man who reminds him of Ace Ventura. To get the creative juices flowing, Ace Ventura requests that Mullins and his classmates take one minute to write down some personal truths. These “truths”...
Humorous, exuberant physical comedy, in this play within a Radio Play. The Neverending Highway Productions from Saskatoon, have successfully captured the style of the "Golden Age of Radio". Add fascinating characters with a dash of eccentricity, mix in conflicting objectives with a twist in plot line and a cast who was clearly enjoying bringing the story to life and you have the ingredients for a delightfully delectable evening of Theatre.
However, I was not completely engaged throughout the show, at times and it lacked the precision and pacing required for this type of physical comedy and to have us "rolling...
