A man in a silver space suit, that being Johnny Tomorrow, a time traveler with a penchant for the history of astronomy, is a man on a mission. He’s utterly delighted to be taking our soggy Sunday afternoon audience on a laser lit trip through time and space.
This sketch of an Iraqi named Saddam - an illegal immigrant in (unnamed city) earning money by selling roses - is written as a bitter and complex inner-dialogue-made-public. It turns in on itself through repeated phrases just as the character's mind obsessively circles his own pain.
You know how jokes can get kinda tired and end up falling flat? Jokes about cocks tend to do that, but before they do, they’re pretty funny.
Stand-up comedian Jon Bennett has been working on this project, Pretending Things Are a Cock for about the last three years. It started as a Facebook page where he’d post pictures of varied items protruding from his groin area. It became wildly popular so now there’s a book for sale filled with glossy Pretend Cock photos and he has this show going.
The list of objects Bennett employs includes monuments from around the...
The year is 1962. The time is approximately 5:30 in the afternoon. Mr. Teale, a well adjusted, introverted bachelor, pours himself a glass of lemonade and settles in for a quick afternoon nap in his perfectly manicured back yard. As he starts to nod off, he is unexpectedly interrupted by the intriguing and persuasive Mrs. Deremont, an encyclopedia saleswoman with an interesting pitch. Out of politeness and curiosity, Mr. Teale surrenders his next hour of his time to Mrs. Deremont, which turns out to be one of the most poignant hours of his life.
I was excited to see this show, Truth and Roses, and to delve into the realm of psychosis. The characters looked interesting and the subject matter stimulating. All was lost, though, in the writing of the play.
The three actors who tell the tale are good at what they do, but it is what they do in this piece that is unclear, slow, and relatively confusing. The storyline comes together finally nearing the end of the play, but the one character in leather with a high blood-alcohol level is still a big, huge question mark to me. Is she a...
This production by We Make Creatures included two short ghost stories at the Vancouver Police Museum, which is right beside the Firehall Theatre. After ascending the creaking stairs, the audience was ably introduced to the facility by Ashley O'Connell who served as the evening's host. The audience was then divided into two groups. One group viewed the play "Last Night" in one room while the other viewed the play "The Cold Room". Each play lasted about the same amount of time and after seeing the first play, the two audience groups switched rooms and viewed the other play.
Melvin Brown comes to us this year with a polished up version of his hit 2008 Fringe show full of beautiful singing and dancing based on his very interesting life of now 65 years. While taking us on a journey through the musical hits of the times of his youth, he provides insights about love, military service, being a black man in the US south in the 1950's and 1960's and performing as an exotic dancer. A lucky lady from the audience gets invited on stage to view the exotic dance routine up close which is great fun for all. ...
A Savage Birthday has numerous comedy skits by four performers that reflect the influences of Eric Davis, the Red Bastard at the 2009 Vancouver Fringe where the performer wears a costume with a large padded belly and behind and face fully painted. The best of these was by Monica.Pyress Flame who demonstrated considerably physical dexterity.
Other sketches of note were Thomas Jones as a hobo, Jim Sands as a German nazi Shakespearian and Priscilla Costa as a birthday girl waiting for no one to show up at her party. A lot of effort is apparent in the costumes. Some of...
A show about a future world where people evolve out of their bodies into a unified consciousness melded by an alien called Aomega performed by Daniel Nimmo from Australia.
It opens with Aomega offstage facing a videocam that is then projected onto a large ball suspended from the ceiling. Eventually Aomega appears onstage and talks to a small stuffed bear also suspended from the ceilling and focusses the videocam on this stuffed bear. Aomega then directs attention to the audience and accessible audience members get to have their hair toussled, sat on and almost licked although this tall performer probably...
