Red Light

The Barbarian Bombshells—Red River College Polytechnic

I struggled to remember this show only a few hours after seeing it. A problem I didn’t have with any of my other shows and it was my first, so I was fresh. After a lengthy warning about content by recording, Dana Graham took to the stage in a lovely red gown only to repeat word for word the same message. Besides being a waste of time, the warning was unnecessary, with the most scandalous thing occurring during her tale being a penis plopped in her hand. Rather tame by Fringe standards.

This supposedly true story is sold as a tale stranger than fiction. I call it a fairly normal weekend in my younger years. Dana is a competent actress, well rehearsed, but she came across as a disembodied voice due to her strange choice to be unlit during the show. I talked to the tech afterwards so as to be sure it wasn’t a glitch but he shrugged and said it was her choice.

Lisa Campbell

“34 of 36”

Is the number of years I’ve been attending, volunteering, and reviewing out of the 36yr of Fringe experiences.

I have enough stories for a play on its own. Back in the summer of 1990 I walked onto the Old Market Sq., a friend said something’s going on (Fringe started in ’88). Living on Bannatyne, I figured I’d check it out. Chinese cultural ctr, 2 magicians performing real hokey gross tricks, then a screen came down, and a film flickered, with one person pulling down their pants, then proceeded to put shaving cream on their naked posterior, followed by a shaving! I was hooked.

I came back in 91′ as volunteer (My volunteer# was…..101!), 16 yrs later running the beer tent with a ton of stories…another script on its own. The King’s Head was a one floor bar and unbelievably cramped. As it expanded, they would later take on letting the Jenny Revue, and hosting the Jenny Award’s in the wonderfully top floor dark venue, there were many other historic venues for the Jenny Revue awards show in the past, but the King’s Head would become their home, for over 10 years.

After my volunteer tenure ended, I was asked to join the wacky Jenny Revue show. After 12 days of reviewing, We’d meet at King’s Head on the last Saturday to make fake categories list in order to be nominated for an honorable and much cherished Jenny award.

The Jenny Revue was also involved with the Dr. Caligari’s Midnight Cabaret, (usually right in the middle of the fest) where you saw some cream of the crop talent along with some wacky amateurs and til this day is lit by flashlights in this 2 hrs. Cabaret.

One other highlight was when the early Fringe pioneers, Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, doing a benefit for Wpg. Fringe Festival, where Tim Hogue(master of King’s Head) and I (Capt. of the beer tent) were on stage at Tom Hendry sitting in a mock beer gardens on stage as patrons as Wes and the gang did a hilarious parody of the “Fringe circuits”.

There are treasure trove of mind boggling, hilarious, riveting and emotional stage plays that will be permanently burnt in this ol’ memory banks. Along with some amazing talent through the decades, and some who I’ve gotten to know, that come to entertain us Winnipegers year after year! Add in the kinship with the volunteer core, the vets who keep coming back year after year. This community that has been in me heart for 12 days in July for the last 3 decades.

Now go Fringin’

Kevin Campbell

The Kid Was A Spy

big word/ jem rolls—Creative Manitoba

It would appear that Jem Rolls has kind of a thing for somewhat obscure nuclear physicists that have played an oversized role in history, but are now largely forgotten. That is a very good thing for us. This story involves the covert transfer of the plans for the Atomic bomb to the Russians. Using his spoken word poetry background to accentuate parts of the story by use of repeated phrases and word selection you are completely drawn into the story. It really is an amazing story and the choice Ted Hall made truly changed the world.

At the end, after laying out the story and the pros and cons of Ted’s decision, Jem does an informal poll, “Was Ted right or wrong to share the bomb?” It does really make you think. The venue was sold out, so you will probably want to book in advance.

Murray Hunter

Erika the Red

Monster Theatre—The King’s Head Pub

Oh my dear Tara, we missed you so! Travis is my favourite Canadian actress and I have really missed her. When you hear the other actors speaking of how excited they are to see her, that’s high praise indeed. Monster Theatre and the esteemed Ryan Gladstone as producer, never disappoint!

Her amazing physical ability fills the stage as she carries the enrapt audience along on this hilarious historical adventure. Her costume is perfection! One young English scamp can do it all and become more of a Viking than any man!

It’s always nice to end the show with an excited and delighted audience trailing out, chattering in amazement at what they’ve just seen. My favourite so far. Don’t miss it!

Lisa Campbell

Meteor Shower

Hill Party Productions—PTE – Colin Jackson Studio

Inane irritating couple meets absurd annoying couple—then the mystery begins. I’m not the kind of person who watches a murder mystery and tries to figure out who-did-it through the show. I take things in as they occur. In Meteor Shower, the hints are very in-your-face, so you know there’s a twist to come; it’s a matter of figuring out what it is.

Listed at 90 minutes, the actual run-time is about 75 minutes and I suggest it could have been tightened to 60 minutes. There was enough to keep you engaged most of the time but a couple of scenes dragged a little longer than they needed to be.

There weren’t a lot of gags but the ones they had were giggly-cute.

Ray Yuen

7 Minutes In Kevin

Wackatoolis Incorporated—Red River College Polytechnic

Well, being Mr. Gillese name is “Kevin”…I was obliged to attend. Kevin, has stepped out of his improv shoes, and finally decided to do a solo show…nervously I might add, but looking like he was having ball, sharing his sometimes demented dark hilarious POV, with which he expects us to agree, positively or negatively! He had us all holding our collective guts as we bent over in laughter with his life’s slightly twisted tales of opinion.

He had a keyboard player for ambience, not that the show required it, but it was a nice bounce off for material.

I particular like the segments on one liner observations, much in the comedian Steven Wright style of delivery.

Even if your name isn’t “Kevin”, by all means, attend and visit the mind of Kevin. “the Horror, the horror…”

*Side note: Kevin is/has been performing with the “Whose Line”..star Colin Mochrie at his sold out 3 shows (in PTE) and informed us Mr. Mochrie will be attending this Sunday’s “7 Minutes with Kevin” performance. If you don’t have tickets for Mochrie, you may see him at Kevin’s show, if you show up!!

Kevin Campbell

Queen Shmooquan. The End Times Show!

Queen Shmooquan—PTE – Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage

Weird- Fringe comedy- sexy jazz- rock and roll -political weird-Fringe fun.

As a random fellow audience member said to me walking out…that was perfect Fringe!

This show both made me very happy and whisper what the F? in such a good way. Sexy end times indeed. Go experience what Fringe is about.

PS: look for the Statler and Waldorf (my interpretation) Boobs. Noticed them too late to appreciate them as they deserved.

Veronica Ternopolski

Bloodsuckers! The Musical

Kiss the Giraffe Productions—Tom Hendry Warehouse

Wonderful! Simply perfect! This show is a bargain as it is the quality you would expect at a pricy MTC performance. All the actors in this large ensemble were perfectly cast, excellent dancers, strong singers and always on point. I should mention it’s also extremely humorous. The time flew by for the obviously delighted audience and the hardworking cast were rewarded with lengthy, thunderous applause. I was so pleased to have been able to take this gem in. You should as well.

Lisa Campbell

New Wave Your Behaviour

Hamilton 7—John Hirsch Mainstage

I went to this show opening night on a lark, mostly because I’m firmly in the Gen X demographic the show is aimed at (although I hasten to add that I don’t think you need to have lived through that era to enjoy the show). By the midpoint it had me examining my recent life choices and thinking “sheesh, I need to quit my job” over and over – when I wasn’t laughing my arse off.

I imagine for most people, the main selling point of this excellent show will lie in the way writer/performer Tor Lukasik-Foss (hereafter TLF) perceptively and sometimes hilariously breaks New Wave artists down into four archetypes. Though he doesn’t name-check a single act, each archetype has a distinctive and instantly recognizable approach to singing, writing lyrics, and even dancing, and TLF does justice to all of them and switches between them effortlessly. (And toward the end of the show, you might realize there’s a good reason for that.) Each of these characters even gets to perform and/or be the subject of a pretty credible original song. In particular, with the first one, The Authority, TLF has Dave Gahan (of Depeche Mode) absolutely dead to rights – though of course, it’s not just Gahan, but a recurring set of tropes of which he happens to be a great example.

That said, the main thrust of the show is TLF’s struggle with dissociative episodes, documented in ways I found relatable and deeply thought-provoking. Even for viewers who don’t feel a personal stake in this aspect of the show, like me, it offers some real emotional heft, especially as you start to see how these struggles parallel the musical aspect that might, at first, seem unrelated.

This is an excellent show that a lot of people seem to be sleeping on. See it now and you get to have some bragging rights when it becomes a hit late in the festival.

Jeff Heikkinen

Editor Note: Jeff had this addendum to the review:
Interestingly, both Jen Zoratti of the Free Press and myself thought one of his New Wave archetypes – The Authority – was a dead ringer for a specific musician, but not the same one! (I named Dave Gahan while she went for Ian Curtis.) After reading her review, I find both choices about equally valid; the point of the archetypes, after all, is that they’re *not* specific musicians, but recurring sets of tropes.

Bremner sings How to Pack A Revolution In Your Suitcase

Big Empty Barn Productions—CCFM Salle Pauline-Boutal

This is a historical musical journey through the songs created during the Wiemar Republic in Germany from the late 1920s through its eventual fall due to the rise of the Nazi party. Bremner’s smooth baritone sings the songs from a period of artistic and personal freedom created in part by the artists that fought for it. Songs by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht feature prominently, with a bit of story telling in between that uses a bull horn to deliver quotes from various leaders of the art movement of the time.

He juxtaposes the rise of Fascism 100 years ago to our current environment that is eerily similar. It can be perhaps a bit dour at times, but he provides a little gleam of hope with his last two songs, and notes that the Fascists could not kill the art as it managed to escape and still survives today.

Murray Hunter