The BUZZ – Reviews – 2014

Lies of a Promiscuous Woman

Monkey Centurion/The Company of Women—
Eckhardt-Grammaté (UofW)

Theresa Thomson stars as a reimagined “Virgin” Mary in this local production. Thomson does not sing, but backing her up is a sweet-voiced chorus of five other women and keyboard player Süss, who use either complete or—more-often—excerpted portions of various Madonna songs to highlight elements of her story.

Most of the time, this Mary, dressed in her traditional white and blue, delivers an ongoing monologue of her story while maintaining a magnetic rapport with the audience.

This play, by Audra Lesosky, is a clever, and possibly blasphemous, retelling of the story of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, who is here called by his Hebrew name Yeshua. The focus is not on the promiscuity of the main character, as the title may suggest, but instead on how this astute young woman—with little power in an ancient male-dominated culture—is able to use guile and marketing genius to live her life fully and create something powerful.

She is not only Jesus’ mother, but also his spiritual tutor, business advisor, and the guardian of his legacy. Like a marketing wizard of two thousand years ago, she looks at previous Messiah legends and succeeds at finding potent new angles to captivate the attention of the masses.

Effectively mixing comedy and pathos, monologues and music, this production is a courageous rebooting of the familiar New Testament story.

Konrad Antony

Lies of a Promiscuous Woman

Monkey Centurion/The Company of Women—
Eckhardt-Grammaté (UofW)

This is the play that made headlines both when a couple of creeps attacked the lead actor and when it made the short list for the Harry Rintoul award. It also attracted a sold-out crowd on Thursday night that gave Audra Lesosky’s work a thunderous ovation.

As you probably know, this is a retelling of the Virgin Mary’s story. It is also an outstanding theatrical achievement. Theresa Thompson is utterly convincing as the sharp-tongued mother of a precocious prophet. Her timing is impeccable and her delivery is committed and sincere.

Her analogy of early Middle East prophets as a version of the modern-day Fringe company went down well. She is accompanied by a choir, with a couple of members who also assume small roles. I wish I had a programme so that I could name the young woman whose prayers to the blessed virgin go mostly unanswered.

Lesosky does a great job of putting the Jesus story in historical context, and has some good rejoinders for those who selectively quote the Old Testament.

This seems to me to be a larger work constrained to the Fringe format. I’d like to see the young modern woman’s character and story fleshed out more, and it would be interesting to have Mary explain how sexually obsessed early leaders like St. Augustine of Hippo and Saul of Tarsus chose to blame women for their inability to supress their natural urges.

At one point in the play she claims that the message Mary and her son bring is one of peace and kindness, but it would seem that many modern adherents do not believe her. In the final line of the play, she also says that every Jewish mother thinks that her firstborn son is a god, so what is the truth? What do we believe?

I hope that the company took care to secure the rights to Madonna’s music. It would be less than fun to have HER coming after you.

Kevin Longfield

Hell is Other People

In on the Act Productions—RRC (enter on William)

The show started slowly and carried on slowly. The script did have some good moments, but mostly it was either bland or boring.

These two guys are clearly beat poets, and the show seemed like it was set more to show off their poetry than anything else. That really is a shame because if you want to present poetry, then set up a poetry show, rather than trying to force poems into a script.

I could feel my attention drifting as the show went on. The poetry was good, it really was, but I wasn’t at all invested in the story or the characters.

Arden Pruden

Making Believe

Edge of Make Believe—Kids Venue

The show starts out fun when everything goes wrong for performer Jason Broadfoot. Being a veteran presenter, I know what it’s like when a tiny bit goes wrong—imagine the catastrophe when you witness cascading failure across the board. This sets the stage for hilarity as Broadfoot attempts to salvage the show.

Broadfoot’s energy grabs the audience and has the kids cheering in support as they eagerly try to help him back on his feet. Through ingenuity and his tickle-trunk of goodies, he manages to scrape together enough to start the show.

That’s when it all falls apart.

This twisted rendition of Little Red Riding Hood attempts to be comical but it’s too juvenile for adults and not simple enough for kids—and frankly, a lot of the jokes aren’t funny (for kids or adults).

Before Little Green Baseball Cap makes it to the forest, the kids are already shifting restlessly in their seats. The dialogue drags on and on; there’s only so much charm in puppets if there’s no substance in the delivery.

On a personal note, I want to give special thanks to the kids’ organization that showed up at the last minute. Otherwise, it would have been just me, a mom, four kids, and Broadfoot. Yikes!

Ray Yuen

Man Woman Flower

Sheep On A Mission—WAG

Were it not for the director’s note I would not have known that this was more of a social commentary than a show and in fact, that’s exactly what it was, a bland, however short, social commentary.

The piece centres around various couples going through a museum all stopping to focus on one particular piece of art and all examining it in their own special ways, while a poor young man is only trying to sketch and keeps getting interrupted.

The costumes changes were quick and diverse, I must say, but overall it was rather unimpressive and boring.

Arden Pruden

Sex, Religion, and Other Hang-ups

Gangland Productions—Cinematheque

In this comedy about sexual and religious misadventures, we follow James Gangl’s troubled love life and get to see the beer commercial he was in.

This show is tight and funny and the 75 minutes flew by. He also did a great job of working with and controlling a few audience members who decided to freelance with some sound effects during the show.

He explores some common fringe ground here, but his unique take, quality writing and performance raise this work above the rest.

If you are into themes, I would suggest seeing three shows in the same order I saw them: Quo Vadis, this show, and then Lies of a Promiscuous Woman.

Kevin Longfield

Accelerate

Drive Dance&emdash;MTC Mainstage

Some of the dance routines were beautiful, some of them edgy. The interludes were both fun and functional at the same time. The choreography flowed smoothly and effortlessly, while the music provided an energetic and electric background.

There are a lot of spectacular dance shows this Fringe and this stands among the best. This approachable show should be entertaining to all and the near-full house at MTC Mainstage provided evidence that this monumental effort is no secret&emdash;don’t miss out.

Ray Yuen

La Belle Laide

Lady of the Lake&emdash;Warehouse

La Belle Laide is a dance show. It attempts to tell a story with no dialogue (or monologue or…trialogue?) and minimal lighting, set and props. The actors’ bodies and some music are basically the only means of communication between the audience and the performers.

Do they succeed? Do they ever. Janelle Hacault, Tanja Woloshen and Rodrigo Belifuss convey their emotions and intentions not only in the expressions they create, but also in the way they create them. Janelle is graceful and poised, Tanja is sensual and passionate, (and sometimes a bit scary), and Rodrigo moves between the two, being by turns tortured (not physically), distant, violent and malleable.

As I mentioned before, the lighting, props and set are minimal, but effective in helping the artists convey their message without getting in the way of the physicality of the piece. I would have liked to see more of Brett Owen, but I can see how that might get in the way of the narrative, so I guess even that isn’t a real complaint.

Eric Rae

XHL

The Miracle Violence Connection&emdash;MTC Mainstage

The NHL is on strike so an oil/tobacco baron sells all of his assets to start an edgier, brasher, bolder hockey league to win over fans.

Does the formula sound familiar? Think back a decade ago when a wrestling honcho devised the XFL.

The XFL was a farce and burned spectacularly&emdash;the same thing happened with this show.

The stupid gags and the pot-shot jokes aroused the occasional yuk but they mostly ended with a yeesh. This show brings back memories of “He Hate Me,” and I’m sure he would have hated this show.

Ray Yuen

Bodybag

Mosaic Theatre&emdash;Eckhardt-Grammaté (UofW)

When I walked into the theatre, I was dismayed to see that I was the seventh person joining the audience. It is difficult to perform in front of a crowd that small, especially in a theatre that holds over 200. Then the lights went down and the performer left the audience to go onstage.

Patrick Mercado did not seem to let the small house demoralize him, but it must have been tough. The program gives a good idea of what to expect from this show, as Mercado used various forms to illustrate his loneliness and inability to fit into mainstream society.

This is very much the work of a dedicated artist who is still learning his craft. Some aspects worked better than others, and I hope in time that Mercado learns from his hits and misses.

Some material was really effective. His Lord’s Prayer moment was one place where everything clicked into place. He also needs a bigger audience to give him a better idea of what works and what doesn’t.

This was my first visit to Venue 9, but I can’t help but think that if this show were in a venue closer to Old Market Square that Mercado would have drawn the audience he needs.

Kevin Longfield