Classic Fringe! With a late start the cast of the opening show was perhaps struggling to find their confidence but while young, they’re obviously troopers.
Javia Selina (Veronica) and Jina Anika (Simone) share the stage nicely with good vocals and believability in their roles as best girlfriends. Kalvin Olafson (Theo) is solid in stage presence and his characterization of the bookish thug with a bit of a crush and Daniel Cardoso (Edwin) amps up his ambitious and hyperbolic Edwin with some pretty suave dance moves.
The interesting Manhattan Transfer-style songs were somewhat drowned out by the background music which was...
The target audience for ZOMG is fascinated by zombies, a fan of slasher movies, and enjoys the new genre of horror comedy - not me! A woman (Jodie Nichols) tells of looking after four little girls, Guides, in a zombie apocalypse, and of all the violence involved in protecting them.
She wears combat boots and camouflage trousers, instantly revealing. She talks of her use of crowbars and tire irons as weapons, appears with a shotgun and tommygun (outdated term, I know). She sounds to enjoy hitting out, shooting, killing. The gruesome content makes it dificult for me to comment on the performance.
If five sets of shamrock pastied boobs bouncing fiercely onstage within the first 20 seconds of the show doesn’t endear you to this comedy ensemble, nothing will!
I won’t single out any performer in this review because they each have strong stage presence, delivery, comedic timing and delightful audience rapport. Jackie Blackmore, Lauren Martin, Megan Phillips, Sidika Larbes, and Iva Kapsikova met while performing with the VFS Sketch Company and the chemistry amongst them is dynamite.
The new kid at school, the poker game, sibling loyalty, pressure tactics for signing a contract and tellers dealing with troublesome...
When I saw Brian Anderson on stage as Arnie in Arnie the Carnie's House of Mystery, my hopes were high, as I had seen him several times performing with Vancouver TheatreSports League. My expectations were well-met with this informative, whimsical, and thoroughly enjoyable production.
Arnie leads us through the life and work of Simon Mackenzie, a mentalist. But is Mackenzie's life and fiery death itself real? A Google search afterwards brought up no leads. But just sit back and enjoy the story.
Simon's career trajectory follows a common arc for mentalists. Beginning with amateurish tricks, his illusions and techniques (demonstrated...
The Fringe program notes: "inspired by a real New Brunswick murder story." The play opens with the murder as a dumb-show (shades of Hamlet), a young man suddenly stabbing a rather older man, so the piece is not who-dun-it but WHY-dun-it.
A 17-year-old high schooler has conflicts with his well-meaning but explosive mother. (She is a single parent and I wanted at least a reference to the absent father). The mother catches him lying, then she loses her job and lies about it. They have a young woman, ostensibly lesbian, as a boarder who lives in the storage room....
Watching Tonya Jone Miller in Threads is an emotional experience. Spanning a time period from 1962 - 1979, Miller's play tells the true story of her American mother, Donna Miller. As a girl who grew up in rural Indiana, Donna Miller's life journey took her to Vietnam in 1968 as a teacher at the Buddhist University in Saigon. How she got there, what happened to her and the consequences of that time are the subject of this riveting theatrical tale.
As an adult, the playwright began to learn more about her mother's life and her own Vietnamese heritage (from her father). Inspired by solo shows...
Promise and Promiscuity is simply a wonderful production. This one-woman musical is full of laughs, clever remixes of musical hits through the ages and double entendres, especially involving the word balls. Not being a fan of Victorian era writing, I was expecting to be bored.
How wrong I was.
This exceedingly clever satire shines its comedic light on the many differences and similarities between our time and the Victorian era. No area is left out: capitalism, feminism, classism, romance, music, art, and marriage. Each made into song and poked fun at. Vancouvershire is woven into...
Shattered is created and performed by Andrew Barrett. He is the Artistic Director of Impulse Theatre based in Victoria, BC which has created over 10 new highly visual and engaging works since 2010. This newest work premiered at Intrepid Theatre's UnoFest May 2013.
The write-up for Shattered states: "Each of us has dozens of pieces and parts inside of us, but what happens when they have to fend for themselves? An intense and beautiful physical theatre piece, Shattered gets inside a person who is broken apart. This solo endeavour follows the pieces as they strive to find where they fit and...
Watching A False Face, I was constantly reminded that the Toronto theatre scene is definitely not the same as Vancouver. We may all be Canadians, but theatre comes in different flavours and it is a product of geography as well as individuals. Vancouver's theatre is generally nowhere near as political, nor as earnest. Add in an urban Aboriginal element and we're definitely not in Kansas (I mean, Vancouver) anymore.
This new script is the debut play written by social worker and novelist Jeff D'Hondt produced by Spiderbones Performing Arts. D'Hondt draws on his 20 years of experience in social work to explore the...
