Ain’t True & Uncle False
Paul Strickland Presents—School of Contemporary Dancers
Paul has become a Winnipeg favorite. As he walks among the crowds, you hears cries from patrons yelling out how much they loved his previous shows and how wonderful he is. And they are right. Both he, and his partner in life and theatre, Erika MacDonald (in the excellent Evacuated!), always bring quality work. Their shows should not be missed.
Patrons underestimate the effect an audience has on a show, and tonight’s late crowd was rather subdued. Each line has punch and his stories of life in the trailer park are ably accompanied by his clever guitar ditties. He needed more appreciation for the excellent work he was putting our way. I will never miss a chance to see him . I am looking forward to next year’s installment of the continuing saga of the carefully crafted characters that populate his mobile town, ‘Tales Too Tall for Trailers’. I can’t wait.
Lisa Campbell
Help! I’m American!
DK Reinemer—Son of Warehouse
One of the goofiest sketch comedy shows I’ve ever seen. This show was a lot of fun. Very bizarre and off the wall. The performer was charming and definitely wasn’t afraid to sacrifice himself for a laugh. If you don’t like audience participation I wouldn’t recommend it, he calls on several audience members to help out especially in the front row. I also wouldn’t recommend it if you are a devout Trump fan. One of his sketches ran a little long but in general they were short and to the point. Some of the transitions were very long and need to be worked on as well. Music may have helped this. A neat show if you have some time and want to laugh.
Kaitlyn Kriss
Eastport
Mindful Productions—School of Contemporary Dancers
This show, a local production with a script by Laurie Duncan, features one of the better looking sets I have seen at a Fringe production, showing the interior of a drawing room of a former New England bed and breakfast, including comfy chairs, a wall with many old photographs, and a grandfather clock. The story takes place several decades ago, but exactly when is a little vague. The hotel proprietor (Muriel Hogue), still grieving the loss of her husband Ned many years earlier, lives alone on this property. Out of the blue on a blustery winter evening a mysterious man named George (Harry Nelkin) shows up, dressed up like Colonel Sanders and wanting a room.
The two characters spend a lot of time sitting and talking (more movement would have been welcome), with George drinking copious amounts of gin. The proprietor can’t understand how George arrived at the hotel, with all means of transportation currently inaccessible. She tells him, “You don’t add up.” No matter what he says, he can’t explain his appearance and she becomes increasingly anxious, asking him to leave. But he doesn’t leave. He continues to talk, revealing more and more knowledge of her life with her late husband. Is he himself her ex-husband, somehow disguised or altered after all these years? That was my first thought, but the script never seems to veer in that direction. The conflict being acted out is interesting to watch. Unfortunately, even though there is eventually a revelation about who this man really is, it was not clear to me.
Konrad Antony
Dear Jenny,
Michelle Cook’s review of our show hurt my heart. Not because you didn’t like the show, I’m fine with that. Usually I can read bad reviews, forget them instantly, and go on with my day. But since reading your review I just can’t shake the horrible anguish that comes with knowing that someone out there believes that myself and my actors don’t know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek. It’s killing me, Michelle. Remember when Q took Picard to the reality where Picard never made Captain? Remember how that made him feel? That’s how I feel right now only worse because I don’t even have Q here to crack jokes. I feel like a womp ratt that has been bulls-eyed, I feel like Worf when a “real” Klingon challenges his Klingonhood, I feel like I’ve been stabbed through the heart by my own child. For me, this is worse than when Data died. And that was a bad day for me. I took work off for that. As I write this I am sitting in a house that contains two radio controlled R2D2s, several X-wings, Bobba Fett’s ship in three different sizes, and no children. The lock screen of the phone on which I’m composing this email is an official Starfleet communication wallpaper and had I chosen to write you from my computer I would have booted up to an image of Kirk screaming about Kahn.
That line was a reflection of Zach’s character and not a reflection of the writer’s knowledge of the Rebellion, the Empire, or the Federation. We throw back to the joke later in the show when Zach responds to the Doctor, “Cool! Just like Star Trek.” The joke has worked on some shows, other shows it has fallen flat. I’m not blaming you for not “getting” it. It’s never the audience’s fault if something is not clear enough. I’m not asking you to alter your review or even respond to this email. I just want you to know- no, I NEED you to know that I’m not oblivious to the inner workings of the worlds of Trek and Wars.
Please understand that this is not sarcasm, I don’t hate you, and I don’t hate your review. I am dead serious when I say that I will not be able to sleep tonight knowing that someone out there thinks I’m a fake geek girl.
Fringe long and prosper and may the Fringe be with you,
Cathy Herbert
While reviewing shows, I encounter lots of Fringe fans and many of the same questions arise:
- What’s the Jenny?
- What’s it like to be a reviewer and get to see all those shows?
- What’s the difference between the Jenny and CBC or Free Press? and most frequently
- What’s your favourite show / what do you recommend?
In between shows, I want to take the opportunity to answer these questions.
- Click Here for the answers.
- It’s great to get unlimited access to shows, but it’s also a ton of work. For you as viewers, it’s a hobby, pastime or casual interest. For us, it’s a job. We spend hours preparing our viewing, physically put in the time watching plays, then come up with opportunities to write our reviews. Just coordinating the viewing schedule is a gargantuan effort. First, we need to ensure that one of our fellow reviewers has not already tagged the show. As you can imagine, the pickings get slimmer as the Festival progresses.
You look for plays you want to see—you don’t always get them but it’s more fun for us when we get ones of greater interest. Then you need to maximise your day around those plays—the more plays we see, the better coverage. I don’t want to have a two hour break in the middle; that’s another review I can write.
Then there are the actual reviews. I try to highlight between plays to remember the key points. Most the writing comes after I pack it in for the day—usually with a bottle of wine on the deck. What do I write? I don’t want to give away too much. I want to be fair and critical at the same time. Unless it’s absolute crap, I don’t want to shit on them; however, I don’t want to mislead patrons to waste their money when I know it’s not worth it.
A typical day starts at 7 am, where I attend my real paying job. I hit the first show (usually) at noon. I pack an average of five shows a day and normally pack it in between 8 pm to 9 pm. By the time I submit my reviews, the clock reads 11 pm. In the end, it’s 10 days of hard work but it’s all worth it. We have a great time doing it, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. As hard as we work, we can’t cover all the plays—that’s why your input is critical to our success.
- We always talk about the basic difference between The Jenny and the CBC and the Free Press. Aside from the star system (or lack of), we have two other major differences:
Firstly, we are all volunteers. No one pays us to do this; we do this because we want to. We do this because we love the arts and we love theatre.
Secondly, with main media, they second their regular writers to review shows for a week. What does a sports writer know about satire? Maybe lots– maybe nothing. You know one thing for sure: we want to be here. Does the sports writer?
Let’s pretend the The Sun decides to review Fringe and they send a reporter out. Can you see the review looking something like this?
“There should be no Fringe. Take the subsidy money and put it into roads.” signed Bom Trodbeck.
This is an exaggeration of course, but how much can you expect when you force someone to do something they don’t want to do? Are we all theatre experts here at Jenny? Some of us are, not all—but we all have something in common: we love The Fringe.
- This is the most frequently asked question. Here’s the answer: READ THE JENNY BUZZ!
Happy Fringe!
Ray Yuen
Coordinating Reviewer
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
