A Midsummer Night’s FEVER 20th Anniversary

Leithelle Productions—John Hirsch Mainstage

From the name alone, I walked into this show excited, having a deep and long-standing love of Shakespeare and Saturday Night Fever. A stage set up with glittery sign, disco ball and 70s favourites playing on the theatre speakers set the scene perfectly. This is the first time I’d seen anything from Leithelle Productions, and I was interested to see how they blended these two popular but different pop culture and theatre phenomenons.

Queue the stage lights, and energetic dancers took the stage in dazzling costumes, singing a rendition of “We are Family”, with the audience immediately clapping, singing along and dancing in our seats. The fast-paced show moved through a great selection of tunes from Elton John to the Bee Gees to Errol Brown, all written into the screenplay right where it made sense with the plot, and some slightly adapted to fit this show.

It was a very fun, clever and period appropriate adaptation of Shakepeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, as they changed the context of the drama, inserted a plethora of pop culture references, puns, and physical comedy that had us all howling with laughter. The characters that many of us know from the original play found themselves in a new scenario of a dance studio production, with the drama and comedy of young love, potions and scheming by Puck played out in a wild and hilarious fashion.

The only part that I feel could have added to the performance is the projection and volume of the singers’ wonderful voices. The John Hirsch Mainstage is a larger venue, and without any amplification or mics, some of the song lyrics and dialogue were a bit too quiet and difficult to hear, even from my spot in the third row.

The blend of rhymes, jokes, music, poetry and comedy resulted in a thoroughly enjoyable, hilarious, and at times unexpected production that I would highly recommend for a good laugh and nostalgic visit to a time that some of us remember fondly and others wish we hadn’t missed. As intended by the writer, it makes the material from Shakespeare a lot more relatable, accessible and fun in a new way! The costumes were terrific, the disco was fab, and I was on my feet at the end and I’m still grinning ear to ear! Great show!

Calantha Jensen

INTERSTELLAR ELDER: Badass Grandma in Space

SNAFU—PTE – Colin Jackson Studio

The audience knew it was in for something special when the show opens with a greeting from a perfectly robotic robot to ease us into our cryosleep. The spaceship we are in is orbiting Earth, which has suffered an unusual ecological disaster, and will stay in orbit until the Earth has recovered enough to be repopulated by its frozen passengers (the audience). Ingrid Hansen stars as Kitt who is taken out of cryosleep early to tend to the ship and its important cargo.

Her portrayal of Kitt, using her amazing physical comedy abilities, was a treat to watch as Kitt comes to realize what her life has become. I won’t spoil the ending, but just be prepared to follow along. All in all a great adventure and fun show, well done!

Murray Hunter

Delightfully Rude

Elaine Orion—The Cinematheque

Delightfully Rude? Perhaps slightly rude but not delightful. Orion was off and struggled to find material, often hushed in segments of silence while she pondered what to say next. This performance was somewhat of a disaster and I don’t think it’s fair for me to slam this show because I honestly do not believe that today was an accurate portrayal of what Orion’s show is normally like.

Elaine (I hope you’re reading this): you looked uncomfortable right from the beginning. I sense your hesitation in broaching sensitive topics, perhaps for fear of offending the audience. Your show’s description says that the act is “rude”; feel free to be rude. No one will be offended; and if they are, what are they doing here? They read your description and this is Fringe after all.

For some reassurance, America is a lot (A LOT) more religious than we are in Canada. We are less likely to take religious jabs to heart (I saw a show yesterday where someone portrayed Jesus as a penis). As well, Fringe folk generally are not shocked by sex jokes. Your toilet skit was very funny; you should have built on it.

I could feel you searching for material that you believed to be appropriate for the audience. Instead of a cogent and coherent delivery of gags that are scripted to build on each other, the show ended up being a mish-mash of content that had no connectivity. You should go with your designed act and stick with it. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience today and I look forward to seeing a future performance from you where you hit your potential. Best wishes and best of luck to you for the remainder of the Fringe.

Ray Yuen

6 Guitars

Chase Padgett—PTE – Mainstage

Back with his sold-out hit, Chase cannot fail to delight. He masterfully plays six different musicians, each with their own distinct style of music. Thus the title. He apologizes for not bringing us the new shows he planned as he was recovering from a heart attack he had in March while working a cruise.

I was most blown away by how he managed to replicate the Spanish classical style always played on an acoustic guitar on his electric one. But it’s hard to choose a favorite. He moves seamlessly from one character and style into another, always distinct, different and true to each performer. The personas are real, engaging and heartwarming in their own right. This shows checks the right boxes as both an entertaining musical performance and a play with a totally engaging story. The 90 minutes fly by, leaving you sad it’s over so soon. You would be six kinds of a fool to miss it.

Lisa Campbell

The Ballad of Johnny Boy

Walk&Talk Theatre Company—MTC Up the Alley

If you can’t stand indie music, while I would say there’s more to it than that, this one probably isn’t for you. The songs were excellent, though I found some of the segues to be a touch stilted. All three performers were very funny, their line delivery was nearly perfect, and when they had to bring it down to a more serious level they were more than capable. They seemed to have a theme going of which character liked which story more, and while it wasn’t referenced much, I feel they could have played more into it. All in all though, more than worth your 10$.

Arden Pruden

VarieTease: Room 100 at The Chelsea Hotel

Dynamite Lunchbox Entertainment—Tom Hendry Warehouse

A feast for the senses, well, just two senses: the eyes and the ears.

The excellent choreography and thrilling dance moves provides a treat for the eyes. The talented dancing drives the energy that penetrates the performance throughout. The stunning costumes lure your eyes and the hypnotic movement keeps you entranced. At times shocking, at times reflective and often seductive, the movements propel your emotions.

The music completes the ambiance, taking you from sympathetic to shock, with stops at serene and sedated. You know you’ll be in for a musical journey when the early tracks include Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” and a frightening rendition of Phil Collins already hateful “In the Air Tonight.” Most of the tunes keep your toes tapping while the violin leads take you into pensive retreat.

This spirited journey takes you on a high and the inevitable crash. Running time clocks out at 45 minutes, a bit short of the advertised hour slot.

Ray Yuen

The Merkin Sisters

Stephanie Morin-Robert—PTE – Colin Jackson Studio

This is a reprisal of last year’s smash hit. I really didn’t expect them to have time to put together something totally new, as ‘sister’ Stephanie Morin-Robert was busy with another major production, a beautiful, five month old baby girl with partner Jamesy, from the beloved James and Jamesy duo. She is adorable, and favours her mom.

The show was worthwhile seeing again, as they bounce off the audience and play with written suggestions from us, so each show will be different. Plus, not everyone got tuned into just how special these gals are last year, and had a chance to take them in. I love their choice of music, from the intriguing reggae intro, to their theme “I Love My Hair”. They are out playing with the audience pre-show; and continue to bounce off, and in some cases harass their audience. The old Fringe trick of not sitting in the front row will not save you; as they crawl all over the theatre and the crowd throughout the show. They work so seamlessly and gracefully together; like two parts of a whole. They obviously have dance backgrounds, as each movement is so precise and perfect.

This is a very fringey show, weird, wacky and wonderful. They are very strange, yet manage to be heartwarming at the same time. Their synchronization makes you believe they are sisters. Their interaction has the teasing warmth and, yes, brutality, that really close siblings can have. If you don’t know what a merkin is, look it up before you go. You will never look at hair, or sweaters in the same way! This show pushes the edge, so if you are really prudish you may be offended. One part had us literally gagging. You will also never get to see Riverdance performed by puppets in bathing suits! This may be your last chance so don’t let yourself down and miss it!

The gals are also busy putting on other intriguing shows at this year’s Fringe, so check them out in their many different formations!

Lisa Campbell

The Wilds

WONDERHEADS—MTYP – Mainstage

The WONDERHEADS return to Winnipeg with a world premiere of a brand new show. The new story features two main characters, an old man and his wife, in their signature big head masks. Though the masks do not move and there is no dialog, the performers’ physical movements clearly convey all the emotion in the story.

Their staging uses a few key props, moved around while the cast is dressed in black, to set the various scenes of the main story line. The husband is on a journey into the Wilds to find his wife who has gone missing along with a tree from their yard. He meets a number of interesting characters through his quest which add some humour, magic, and fills out the story which will also tug at your heart strings. Excellently done.

Murray Hunter

Darwin vs Rednecks

Stewart Huff—Creative Manitoba

I was told by fellow Fringe Performer Rob Gee to go see this ‘Merican…and in this Trump era history, sure glad I finished the nite with this comedian. He tells it like it is, coming from down south in Kentucky touring on boat cruises and now Fringe festivals, where he concludes it is right for his humorous look at particular lifestyles. He felt refreshed to be in nice leftist country (Canada) for a while, and shared his stories of rednecks and the human entailment of how we as a society can be so good or bad at the same time. He finished with a wonderful childhood story he read about on one of his tours, it left me holding my gut, and remembering what it was like to be a child. A very funny ‘Merican.

Kevin Campbell

Pretending Things are a Cock

Jon Bennett—Dragon Arts Collective

The title tells you literally what this presentation covers. You know how people like to visit monuments and do cute things like pretend to pinch them, or hold them up, or lean on them? That’s Bennett’s angle, except he poses with them as his cock. Some of his depictions stand hilariously tall and some fall limp (sorry). However, the pictures only provide the setting as the stories dominate the entertainment. Similarly, some of the stories leave you howling while others left me holding my shaking head (my big head, and in a good way)! I doubt the authenticity of some of the stories but hey, they’re dick stories—how many can you actually expect to be true!

Many of the images look cute, and some of them almost look real. The poses with Jesus as a cock evoked some gasps but if you attend a show called Pretending Things Are a Cock, you should expect a measure of irreverence.

There are some minor issues. At times, Bennett speaks very quickly—coupled with his Aussie accent, it can be a bit tough to understand sometimes. You need to climb >50 steps (three floors) to get to the venue but once there, powerful air conditioning should cool you off.

One of my favourite aspects of his performance? His expressions! Look at his face as well as his “cock” in the photos! Fringe always offers a myriad of silly shows—this one isn’t as silly as the title implies, but it’s entertaining and a lot of fun.

Cock! Bennett! Cock!

Ray Yuen