The Buzz – Reviews – 2017

Thunderfoot

Life & Depth—Asper Centre (U of W)

This one-man show from Aaron Malkin, otherwise known as James of James & Jamesy from 2 for Tea fame, is a showcase in which he demonstrates diverse theatrical skills. These range from mime to playing multiple characters with very different voices, to singing, all to support what is ultimately a very satisfying story.

At first it can be a little hard to understand what is going on. How are the old man sitting in the chair, the librarian, the main character Matteas (as an adult and in looking back on his life as a child), and what appear to be natural disasters, related? Malkin also employs some light audience participation, never bringing anyone on stage with him, as is common with the James & Jamesy shows, but instead encouraging the audience as a group to participate by making various sounds of animals and people throughout the show.

Eventually we learn that Matteas must confront a giant who is apparently terrorizing his town. As Matteas goes on his hero’s journey, he eventually learns the true identity and motivations of this giant, as do we, in a great twist. A second powerful twist comes near the conclusion of this play regarding the true meaning of all we have seen. Ultimately, it gives this story much more gravitas than a simple tale of a boy and a giant, and we come to understand how this fantastical play is “autobiographical.”

Konrad Antony

Panacea presents: Be a STAR or Get the F**K Out!

Gillian Bartolucci—Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall

One of the most original sketch comedy shows I’ve seen this Fringe. It is a mix of traditional short form sketches as well as original songs, a stand out of which was the “Uber” song. Very funny and witty with twists that made me belly laugh. One thing they may want to work on however would be the volume levels for their songs. It was so loud I had to cover my ears. Definitely one of my new favourite groups.

Kaitlyn Kriss

Your Princess is in Another Castle

Down the Well Productions—Pantages Mainstage

Here’s a social and political statement that covers many aspects, from feminism to environment, to the decline of the bees, to the absurdity of political system. In a succinct phrase,

“The world is shit.”

There’s a lot of truth to thus show, probably more than many want to admit to. As a feminist and environmentalist, I’m on board 100%. The question is: is there any redemption? Are we too far gone to come back? If you can’t beat’em, join ’em? See the show to find out!

Statements aside, I would love, love, love to put on the F-U tirade Polly gave to my former employers! I bet many of you can relate to that sentiment!

Ray Yuen

Angels & Aliens

Active Salad/Peachy Keen Prods.—PTE – Colin Jackson Studio

The program doesn’t do this justice. I was thrilled by this and ran around telling anyone who would listen to go see it. The writing is delicious, sharp, bitingly hilarious. A complaint, also a compliment, is that I missed lines due to the laughter from the previous line drowning out the next. If I had time, I’d see it again to catch these. I’d just see it again period. The duo is so practiced together that they move as one. Their physicality is something to behold. I could count on two hands the number of shows of this caliber this year. I love the imaginative characters they have created; Bob and Bob, especially. The name of the play comes from the premise that aliens and angels, two in particular, are determining the course of mankind; with various screwy options available to them from the Supreme Deity. There is always the option of blowing us up and starting fresh if things don’t work out. While these two are watching us from above, they have the chance to share their view of how we are running things down here. As we know, we are not doing such a hot job. Which leaves room for lots of deservedly critical and unfortunately true, criticism of how we are screwing things up worldwide. There is also a side story of two roommates that have crossed the line the night before. This seemed to particularly resonate with the extremely enthusiastic dating crowd.

I don’t want to dump a bunch of over-used superlatives here. Let’s just say that Jeff is perfect, commanding and right on the mark; while Sydney is so engaging, animated and top notch. Together they are something greater. Their synchronization of movement and dialogue is something rare to behold and a joy to watch. My Fringe Find to date. Magnificent!

Lisa Campbell

My Thoughts…Exactly!

MINDSHOCKER ENTERTAINMENT—Red River College

A very neat mentalist show. Of course every prediction was on the money every time. Quite literally in this case as some of the audience won lottery tickets as well as the performer himself keeping his $20. There was even some danger with the infamous ‘which bag is safe’ routine. What was neat about this particular show was that he walked you through how he figured out what he figured out. His delivery was a little weak at times. I feel that a good mentalist must have quite a bit of showmanship. What he lacked in showmanship though he made up for great audience participation and cool tricks. All in all a well done show.

Kaitlyn Kriss

Shakespeare Crackpot

Doctor Keir Co.—Pantages Studio

Dr. Kier is in the house of denial. He is trying to convince us the Bard never wrote what he writ. And not only that, but they, the professors themselves rebut this inane conspiracy theory. Mr.Cutler was in fine form in sharing his wisdom that he has portrayed thru the years, in the world of academia, and literature. He shares stories of growing up in Montreal, and brings back Dr. Kier several times for his crackpot opinion of the truth behind the authorship debate. And whatever you do, do not bring any books, he doesn’t like that.

Kevin Campbell

Mike Delamont: The Devil

Mike Delamont—MTYP – Mainstage

After four editions of God is a Scottish Drag Queen at previous Fringes, Mike Delamont is trying something new (not including his other show Mama’s Boy, also at this Fringe). Like the Scottish Drag Queen shows, this is basically a stand-up comedy show, mixing scripted and seemingly improvised material while Delamont is in character. This time around, his character looks much like Ken Bone, to whom he alludes, wearing a completely-buttoned red cardigan, glasses, and a pasted-on mustache that he inexplicably removes halfway through the show. He makes the point that he as the devil doesn’t have horns and a tail, as commonly depicted in art, but he never explains his current get up or mine it very much for laughs, like he did for his Scottish Drag Queen.

Unfortunately, this show seems to lack a tight focus. Delamont spends more time on comic book heroes than on Satan’s actual appearances in the Bible, and this is disappointing. Furthermore, many of his jokes are about the coldness of Winnipeg’s winter rather than anything religious. He also seems to lean rather heavily on audience-submitted questions, not all of which he had strong, comedic answers to. For instance, someone submitted the question, “Why is there Donald Trump?” and he couldn’t come up with anything at all. Nevertheless, some of the funniest parts of the show were his snappy responses to real-time interactions with the audience. This helped to generate plenty of laughter from the completely sold-out house, at the performance I attended.

Konrad Antony

Project Ex

La Costa Productions—MTC Up the Alley

This play consists of one part satire and three parts improv so anything can happen. It’s a bit wacky, a touch serious but mostly good fun. Costa reviews and relives his past relationships to explore the pothole riddled pavement of his previous love life. In the end, he becomes somewhat enlightened, but who cares—it’s how he got there that brings all the fun.

Ray Yuen

Weirder than Al

Living the Dream—School of Contemporary Dancers

A punny one woman musical follows the life of wannabe ‘al-ibaster’ as she stalks and mocks the star. If you love Weird Al’s works you will love this show. It was full of awful dad jokes and ridiculous parodies. Some of the references might fly over your head if your not a fan of contemporary musicals but the jokes will still make you giggle. Completely clean, it was a good family show and a lot of fun!

Kaitlyn Kriss

Call me Kirk – The ultimate Trek

PKF Productions—PTE – Mainstage

Michael Schaldemose has blended together a number of Star Trek episodes (mostly “Elaan of Troyius”, “The Trouble with Tribbles”, and “Journey to Babel”; with a few other quick shout outs to “The Enemy Within”, “Wrath of Kahn” and some others) into one story. This is then surprisingly cut in a few times with some medleys of Schaldemose as Shatner doing his lounge singer act. Throughout the show Schaldemose expertly portrays the voices and mannerisms of the entire crew and other assorted characters. The sound effects were also cued to perfection adding to the performance.

I really liked that he also ended the show with a rendition of Shatner’s “Get a life” speech. Well done!

Murray Hunter