This is a show about a performer, Chris Gibbs, doing a show about an ancestor that partnered with a thief and con man to form a detective agency.
While the tale being performed is interesting by itself, the transitions between actor as actor and the show within the show was insufficiently distinct and made the action on stage hard to follow at times. While the actor seemed quite capable, this show could benefit from better direction and a tighter script.
Antoine Feval is on as part of the Vancouver Fringe. For more information please go here.
This 30 minute show at the False Creek venue consists of eight short pieces of performance art by a Hong Kong based husband and wife team. The opening three dance pieces are modern dance representations of female and male using traditional style masks with a tai chi based piece synthesizing the two. There are two pieces of amazingly beautiful demonstrations of sand painting with the use of a lightbox, videocam and projector.
The solo performer, Hoi Chiu, also performs a hip hop based piece with music from Ryan Kurylo as DJ produce. An original traditional style song by Ivan Hui...
Stretch Dog, written and performed by Robert Olguin, is a play about an actor who is trying to do the work he loves while also providing for his wife and baby daughter, two lifestyles entirely at odds. It’s a tried and true artist’s account of what it means to feel fulfilled by one’s work, but also get some bills paid. Olguin starts the play in sharp white light delivering a poetic account of a childhood memory. It’s all very edgy but suddenly we’re transported into his agent, Marty’s, office never to revisit the intriguing beginning again. In the agent’s office...
Alice Nelson and Jacqueline Russell’s Raunch, cued by Ariel Levy’s book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture is a fun ride into the world of “feminism” and female physical identity.
It’s kinda like a slap stickier, more relevant, two woman Vagina Monologue. Nelson and Russell take you through a short historical tour of feminism from the early 1900’s to today, examine the morality of Girls Gone Wild, explore the puppeted world of “Hooker Chic” and, added bonus, personify a debauched boob job, including spittle. Yea, so… this is a good play. It’s an excellent balance of...
Morgan Brayton is a force. One moment she’ll kick you in the gut, the next she’s making you “auh” at the cuteness of it all.
Her show Raccoonery!, a series of comedic monologues brings onto the Performance Works stage a cast of characters that you wish wouldn’t leave once the lights fade. Whether it’s the blonde dreaded 20 something telling her roommates that she won’t be paying their oppressive rent because she discovered that she’s 1/100th native, or the singed moth hopelessly in love with a flame or the 7 year old who endures the hardship of the ice cream...
One Man Riot is an autobiographical monologue that reveals the roots of Jem Rolls' performance poetry and spoken word activism. Rolls' epiphany came during the 1990 Poll-Tax riot in London, where he was swept up by the crowd and found himself facing a line of riot police wielding clubs and shields. Instead of meeting violence with violence Rolls chose to hold up a mirror, in which each man on the line could see himself reflected.
As Rolls tells it, this was a tremendously empowering experience. As he portrays it, in this one-man tour-de-force, it's a breathless chase through the streets...
Actors Aaron Hutchinson and Elizabeth Kirkland are credited in the program as co-collaborators with playwright Melissa Haller. Hutchison and Kirkland brought their own relationship experience to bear on Haller's original script and the result is the ring of truth in what is said and how it's spoken.
If you enjoy Greek Mythology then you should like the play Echo. In this one wood nymph show, Echo reminds us there are always two sides of the story. And stories change over time.
Echo needs to speak, she is filled with gossip and can’t help using words. Not surprisingly her gift for the gab gets her into terrible trouble.
Hera, Zeus’s wife, puts a spell on her. She is never to speak again unless she is spoken to and then she cannot use the words unless given them from someone else. She has no words when she falls in...
Death is the uncommon theme of this medley of pieces; hence, the name: "Deadley" = "medley" + "death". Nursery rhyme puppet-play is juxtaposed with behind-the-scenes SNAFUs in Heaven and more poignant scenes of everyday experiences of death; there are even a few musical numbers. In other words, the collection is a little all over the place.
What holds the production together is less the script than the solid chemistry between the two actors: Gabriel Carter and Shauna Johannesen (also the author) as they played against each other, constantly changing roles. Ms. Johannesen leads the piece subtly and well, and Mr....
Are you a fan of the Police Academy movies? The sequels to Porky’s? Do you like joking about farts and sharts? Then Misadventures of a Massage Therapist is going to be comedy gold for you.
Jason Brasher enthusiastically presents stories of pranks and assorted weirdness in the course of his career as a massage therapist. There’s the client with a G-string and digestive issues. In another anecdote, a crazy new employee wanders into their meeting room, lets out a long fart and scampers off. And then there’s that outrageous prank where Brasher manages to… wait for it… get the receptionist...
