Worst Case Magic

Trick-E-Productions—School of Contemporary Dancers

What happens when a magicians props get stopped at the border? A whole lot of cardboard and stalling is what happens. This cute concept turned cardboard into shabby chic props and enhanced the charm of our magician. He was a lot like a human Eeyore but with more energy. The character he created was genuinely likeable and funny. The magic was also great! My favourite trick involved a wire and some illusions I hadn’t seen before. As a fan of magic I see a lot of recycled tricks. I was very impressed to see some original content! If you go into it knowing it’s going to be hokey and silly you will love this show. Very fun and worth a watch.

Kaitlyn Kriss

Franz Ferdinand Must Die

Still Your Friend—Asper Centre for Theatre and Film (U of W)

A comedic storytelling show, retelling the almost madcap, and often tragic events leading up to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Quite funny, with good set and prop choices, the storyteller manages to tell an engrossing tale that manages to illuminate some less well known aspects of the assassins life, and the arch duke’s death. Very well worth it for the history fans, and generally anyone who enjoys a good story well told.

Josh Fidelak

The 500 List

Ryan Adam Wells—Knox United Church

This is a story about love, friendship, road trips, changes and of course a 500 list of music. Ryan Adams Wells from Houston Texas, tells of his good friend Dave and himself who decide to make a list of 500 of their favorite but poignant tunes they gathered over 2 years. They decided to go on a road trip to bury some of Ryan’s relationship dilemma’s and kindle their love affair with music, plus some tantalizing one night stands. With a booming strong voice (both singing and narrating) and strumming his valuable guitar as a soundtrack to this tale. The plan was to travel through all the major music meccas like: New York, Nashville, Memphis and finally Austin. He shares this camaraderie using 500 tunes (he started with 5000) with Dave, where they compare and share attached stories for each tune. In the end, it is choice and change that is needed to shake up his life. There is of course some great songs he talks about and shares with us, I’m not going to tell you any, just go see this life and music affirming play.

On a side note, the venue’s capacity sits about 50 in this quaint church setting. However the room can easily fit an additional 20 bums in the pews…I mean seats.

Kevin Campbell

MIND GAMES: Brain-Bending Magic

Newman Mentalism—The Cinematheque

Jeff Newman stars in this hour long magician/mentalist show relying heavily on messing with his audiences heads. Overall quite funny, his mentalist tricks were well done, to the audible confusion of many of the audience members. If an audience participation show is your cup of tea, you will definitely enjoy this, but if you’re more of a wallflower you might want to watch out.

Josh Fidelak

Here Together

Autonomous Productions—The Rachel Browne Theatre

Four friends get together to celebrate at a wedding, but not everything is as it seems. There is plenty of other forces at work rebuilding the facades and walls torn down as they unravel why they maybe are no longer friends. This play is a mix of modern dance and a straight drama. Through an inventive use of movement and lights the play frequently swaps from traditional scenes to internal character monologues. I found that none of the scenes went on too long and that the characters were well fleshed out and relatable. I certainly saw myself in all 4 characters by the end of it. I did find the script to be very confusing. Although all the segments were cool there was a lot going on. This made it difficult to understand exactly what was happening. This was not helped by the lack of an ending. Nothing was wrapped up or truly explained. No one knew it was over and myself and many audience member were hesitant to leave in case there was more. There was also a gag in the show of bleeping an external characters name only to have it never be brought up or revealed. Despite its flaws, it is still definitely worth a see especially for the dance segments.

Kaitlyn Kriss

My Frozen Heart: A Comic Tragedy

Crosswalk Productions—One88

What struck me first about this play was the intriguing premise – the idea of a film within a play is a fresh take. The performances are strong and energetic – notably the person who plays the female lead actor. I also liked the interplay between the audio interview and the narrative on stage (would have liked to see more of that, actually.) It is a slow build, and some of the conflict between the characters could have been trimmed – but when the tone begins to shift and drives towards its climax, the effect is palpable. I left feeling, and thinking/questioning, how am I complicit in not calling out sexual harassment, misogyny, and other such ills of the patriarchy? Theatre that leaves me thinking is something powerful indeed.

Craig Terlson

Meatball Séance

John Michael—The Rachel Browne Theatre

This kind of show is what Fringe is all about. Not Bouffon, but certainly in the vein of Red Bastard audience interactivity and connection. While the frenetic antics of the performer feel random, his ability to engage the right participants and manage the whole audience is masterful. Yes, yes, yes!

Audra Lesosky

Underneath the Lintel

Winnipeg Thespian Fellowship Productions—Son of Warehouse

While long, the power of the performer makes the story quite spellbinding, despite a couple of technical glitches in the show I saw.

Audra Lesosky

I Married the King of the Underworld and My Mom Freaked

Acts of Grace—John Hirsch Mainstage

I like mythology interpretations and the title and show description sounded like a funny, modern take – and about one-third of it was very clever indeed. The rest was played straight which was much less compelling. Still, there’s a lot of talent here. Would love to see it tightened up and evened out towards the comedic.

Audra Lesosky