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

Padre X

Looking Glass Productions—Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall

This is theatre at its best. I saw this seven years ago which left me just enough time to want to treat myself again. This is for war and Canadian history buffs, serious theatre lovers and anyone with any taste. If you only see a handful of plays, make sure to include this. You are back in WWII, with a war-torn, Victoria Cross recipient, who happens to be the bravest of padres on his final journey home. Don’t you dare call him a hero. He is just a man. A man who thinks himself ordinary, but whom has performed the most extraordinary of deeds. He matter of factly relates tales of events that would crush the mettle of those of us who have enjoyed peace time. All the soldiers of WWII suffered catastrophic events, the harshest of situations, but none more so than the Canadian Forces that endured the massacre that was Dieppe. Only one in six survived. Our boys were sent to slaughter.

His performance is flawless and you cannot help but emotionally get swept up in his modest tale of the sacrifice made going back to help his abandoned comrades; and the resulting three years as a POW. He could have avoided these years by just staying on the retreating ship. The tortures they endured were unimaginable, but the spirit they managed to maintain, through sheer love of their brothers, is a lesson that needs to be retold. The small joys in irritating their German captors kept them sane. Forgive me for being sentimental, but I cannot regret the sacrifices these brave men and women made for us are being lost as they pass, and their story should be remembered. I don’t know how to express just how moving this is. Marc, you are my hero!

Lisa Campbell

Hockey Night at the Puck & Pickle Pub

Ryan Gladstone—The King’s Head Pub

What a goofy and fun show! These two comedy kings had me in stitches the entire show. I’m not a huge hockey fan but had a great time despite that. Even if you have never watched a hockey game before, both actors total commitment to hear ridiculous characters will make it worth your time. Playing all the patrons in a bar with the gold medal game playing in the background, the two switch characters on a dime at break neck speed. I did find some of the references go over my head and that the commentators portion seemed to go a little long. There were also some very very dirty jokes. It was a wonderful play from two fringe gems. Even if you don’t like it, at least there’s beer! (Thanks King’s Head)

Kaitlyn Kriss

Mr. Flubbers’ Undead Legions

Agnes & Agnes—Pantages Studio

I love the premise of this and I expected lots of comedic zombies jokes. I’m a little disappointed that this isn’t nearly as comical as suggested but I am pleasantly affirmed that this show is every bit as entertaining as I hoped.

The conflict between the main characters never gets fully resolved but conflict between the zombies and humankind receives lots of exploration. Overtures of macro-morality gets some work, as well as concepts of who knows best for whom.

This show promises 75 minutes but actual run time ends at 50. I wish they would have wrote in the extra 25 minutes as the plot has lots of issues left to address. I would have liked to see some development after Finn’s sole, physical link to life severs. Does he fall to Alice’s desire to “live” among the living? Does he fall to the ideals of a zombie apocalypse? Where do they go from here? We never get the chance to find out.

There’s lost potential here but what they serve up is good for the brain.

As you leave the theatre, they offer a package which is the prelude to the show. You can get the package by donation and I highly recommend that you pick it up. They did a very good job putting the prelude together and it’s well worth your read.

Ray Yuen

No Place Like Home

Elaine Phillips—Red River College

The first rule of stand up is not to book an opener funnier than you. This play gave me very high hopes with Mike Delamont being the opener! Unfortunately that led to them being smushed by an awkward and non-funny 40 minutes of her struggling through her material. The whole thing felt unrehearsed and unprofessional. If this was her first time at stand up I wouldn’t be shocked. There were huge awkward pauses while she tried to think of something else to say. She couldn’t remember stories and seemed to grasp for literally anything at all to say to us. Awkward and unfunny, this stand up made me also want to stand up and leave the theatre. A play you can skip this year.

Kaitlyn Kriss

Schrödinger’s Cat

Ditch Water—Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall

Given that this company has two performances under their belt, this show took a long time to find its feet. I really wanted to like this show. It had young and eager actors and a script with an interesting premise. But sadly, it did not deliver.

The performer playing Zack (?), the boyfriend, was a stand out in the show. He had good comedic timing, we could hear him, and his character was likeable and believable. The actor playing Professor X had one shining moment in the one hour production, when he regressed into a cat laying with a ball of yarn. Nice work, and it got a few laughs.

Pretty much everything else was problematic. The Professor character delivered most of his lines to the floor. And at one point I wanted to rush the stage and nail his shoes to the stage – his shuffling was so distracting. Beatrix, the villain of the piece, had very little stage presence, and when the same actor played the girlfriend, her stage presence was even less. The prop cat provided everyone with a very brief moment of interest, and the pharmaceutical-style commercial was produced well and was very believable. But it didn’t need to be aired twice. And to see its two actors, I had to go to a different show.

After really slogging through about forty minutes of the performance, it dawned on me that the show was trying to be campy, in the style of Back To The Future. I think.

The handout at the door had no credits or information about the company, the playwright or actors. I don’t know their experience level, whether or not there was a director, or if this was a first time effort.

By the way guys, teleporters (transporters) are not a Star Wars, but a Star Trek thing.

Michelle Cook