Simply put this is one of the best solo shows, hell it’s one of the best pieces of theatre that I have seen in a long, long time. As close to a perfect show as one can get.
It’s about a lonely, abused boy and a Giant Invisible Robot.
Did he invent the robot? Is it real? What is real? Does it matter? (No.) But you decide.
At first glance essentially a stand up comic’s meditation on fatherhood, seriously funny but with a plus that reveals itself in time.
Gibbs is a talented performer – capable of both highbrow and lowbrow comedy, sometimes in the same sentence. Occasionally sequences are more interesting to Gibbs due to the highly personal nature of fatherhood than they are to us as an audience of comedy, but this is where the plus comes in. Gibbs presents a self-portrait with an honestly that few people can manage, and he does a killer Brando to boot!
The full title for this show is JESUS IN MONTANA: Adventures in a Doomsday Cult (A True Story…). It's written and performed by Barry Smith (who is my billet at this year's Fringe).
The story of a young girl, her abiding love for her Grandfather, and the powers of imagination, is told with inspired lunacy in a blend of song, stories and puppetry (carrots, bread, celery and her own face are just some of the items Hansen employs) culminating in a Peter Pan-like act of audience participation and a moment of theatrical magic by Hansen so beautiful, effective and heart-wrenching one could feel the entire audience hold it’s breath in a collective silent gasp.
Little Orange Man (LOM) is without a doubt Hansen’s show to make or break, and she is more...
Written / performed by Ingrid Hansen & written / directed by Kathleen Greenfield
Gladstone is a great, clever, and funny writer (his brilliantly funny HOUDINI’S LAST ESCAPE is playing at the Waterfront Theatre), and a charming performer.
Homeland is just what it purports to be, a multi-disciplinary examination of the meaning of home. It is both more and less than a dance piece, more and less than a documentary film, and most of the time this is to its benefit.
“How do you even begin to plan a show like this?!” I exclaimed.
Friday night, late, Granville Island, Fringe Festival, opening night. A show that I hardly knew anything about but looked fascinating from the brief introduction a friend sent me .... this was going to be interesting.
If you’re expecting an epic about expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic, forget it! This is a no-holds-barred performance about a serious and too often misunderstood disorder. Written by Jason Gale and Tyler Workman, Type 2 follows the life and love of a couple struggling with the effects of bipolar disorder.
