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...
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....
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...
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”...
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...
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...
This piece is very funny, quirky, brutal, sensitive, in short it is about relationships specifically between a daughter and her mother. Maria Grazia is trying to make sense of her relationship with her mother, and other relationships along the way. Our mothers sometimes we think we know them completely, they brought us into the world and so we have a connection (like it or not) that is visceral we feel we know them completely and we are frequently shocked to find out that we may not know some of the pivotal moments in their lives. The reality is we can never...
So at the end of the show I look down to realize I don't have any notes... it means I was engaged. I loved watching these two experienced performers play. They had us at the entrance of the Teapot, followed by Jamesy Evans with his bumbling precision is outstanding and finally enters the straight man James Brown our solid sounding board also outstanding. The two of them play off each other as the seasoned pros they are, they quickly and effortlessly lay out the rules of engagement and we are all off on the High Tea, high seas, adventure.
Every...
Fringe Description: Funny · Family Friendly · Intellectual
If you are a fan of The Twilight Zone, Tales from The Crypt or CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, this is the play for you. If you aren’t, this play could make you a fan. The play opens with an announcer in the style of the 1940’s radio show “The Mysterious Traveller, welcoming us to Spectral Theatre’s Late Night Double Feature. Thus begins the first of the two stories.
The stories aren’t original, variations of them have been done in the mystery, science fiction, horror genre before, but that is beside the point. The execution of the themes is flawless and plays...
Don’t be fooled by the cute title. Little One is anything but. As the audience enters the theatre a man sits with his back to us. Once every one is seated he turns around. It seems he has been waiting to tell his story and once he starts it all spills out. What follows is a harrowing tale. What is disturbing about it is the believability of it all.
Little One features Daniel Arnold and Marisa Smith as brother and sister Aaron and Claire. They tell of their childhood growing up in a respectable neighbourhood in Ottawa. But all is...
