The Club Soda Improv Show

Club Soda Improv—The Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (U of W)

These folks are always a highlight of the Fringe for me. As always improv represents a variable and unpredictable format for a show, and thus rather difficult to review, with the quality of the show being more of a range than anything else. But over the years of watching them perform, it’s extremely clear that they’re just really good at what they do.

Replacing last year’s theme of a manic director with a more accessible format of a loosely connected hour long improv session structured with improv games was a good decision, if only to keep things fresh for repeat viewers. Always worth a watch, especially for any fans of improv as a genre.

Josh Fidelak

Extreme Players

Power Grab—Planetarium

A workplace where seemingly every reasonable request by workers is coldly denied without consideration by a manager who seems to be experiencing personal AI glitches. A church after a hypothetical “Vatican III” where you have to maintain a certain number of “Penitent Points” in order to be able to receive full services from it, where if you can’t do this by living a good, clean life, maybe you can do it with dollars. Another workplace that claims to be healthy having policies whose implementation definitely undermine its healthiness for workers. Being told where to stand and what you can or can’t purchase in a store during the height of the pandemic, creating new tensions and conflicts between people that may have been created by government rules. And finally, imagining life on Mars where as a worker you have no rights or means of escaping a potentially cruel employer.

Come see our show! It is an anthology of stories, full of interesting situations and ideas regarding the abuse or misuse of power in our modern or near future world, that will also hopefully make you laugh!

The Condo Down Under

The Old Elmwood Radio Theatre—John Hirsch Mainstage

This Greco-Roman Winnipeg-set retelling of Dr. Faustus will delight members of its target audience, but may not be a good fit for those unimpressed with parochial humour that relies on ‘Transcona’ as a weak punchline on multiple occasions. Those inclined to Manitoba Health hip-replacement waitlist humour will have a grand time, although the radio play format seems to have been selected as an excuse to remain on-book for an extremely minimalist musical production, rather than a celebration of the elements typically associated with the golden age of radio (e.g. Foley artistry) which are conspicuously absent.

While the live music is a welcome component, even the script admits that the songs are largely arbitrary; they do little to enhance or propel the very basic plot. The otherwise gamely receptive weekday-matinée crowd’s enthusiasm for the musical numbers was notably lacking, as the lead actor took the time to chide them for their generic response to the equally low-energy tunes.

Ashley Frantik

Shadow Necropolis

Mochinosha Puppet Company—The Rachel Browne Theatre

The stories and worlds that Seri and Daniel of Mochinosha Puppet Company create are always amazing with beautiful shadow puppets and projected scenery. Shadow Necropolis builds off the characters from their 2022 show Shadow Kingdom, but you do not have to have seen that to follow along. Their trademark humour is still there, with some cultural and meme references thrown in.

The story is what really grabs you, as it both literally and metaphorically deals with battling anxiety. It is handled so well you can almost miss that you are learning about different kinds of anxiety and how to cope with it.

What could be a heavy topic becomes an adventure story with challenges and conquests and plenty of laughs and suitable for a general audience. Very well done.

For those who saw Shadow Kingdom, don’t worry, DJ Slug makes a few appearances as well.

Murray Hunter

Nuclear Family

MaxQ Productions—The Studio at Le Théâtre Cercle Molière

MaxQ returns to Winnipeg Fringe with a refreshing departure from their traditionally dense biographical works. The scene is set by eerily wholesome PSA-style civil-defense advice that the overall narrative fails to live up to. The convoluted plot tends to drag, weighed down by competing themes of theory vs. practical realism, preparedness as a trauma response, and family values at the end of the world. The aesthetically pleasing alt-history period piece seems to lose its own thread as it struggles to tell the audience every story that an apocalyptic nuclear threat might possibly generate while drawing no specific conclusions.

Ashley Frantik

HerPlease

Three Gallows Theatre—The Rachel Browne Theatre

Loose lips may sink ships, but Kate Tobie of Three Gallows Theatre lets all four of her lips speak for themselves. Immediately entering the theatre I adored the proscenium stage at Rachel Browne Theatre. Used effectively and hearing the pleasure of the audience as we all discovered and uncovered what was beyond the velvet curtain.

Caverns. Troves. Levels of relationships unfold.

A touch of bouffon clown and a sprinkle of puppetry exposes some fallacies which will leave some participants more wet than others.

This play is not a tease. It fully delivers.

Stephanie Adamov

Happy Go Lucky

Shoshinz—The Studio at Le Théâtre Cercle Molière

These whimsical, well-executed puppet vignettes are particularly relatable to those familiar with the norm-navigating societal expectations of femininity. The one-woman puppeteer from Japan highlights the juxtaposition of what a woman feels and what she ought to say to keep the peace, and be well liked, in her charming split-personality opening. She returns to this struggle when an internationally and timelessly famous Little Red Riding Hood literally reconstructs her personality to please the audience. While thematically linked, this delightful show comes to a rather abrupt end that might have been less evident in a more unified piece.

Ashley Frantik

Stand-Up Science Presents: Volcano

Ben Miller—The Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (U of W)

Ben Miller uses a bit of self-deprecating humour to talk about life, his Hawai’i experience, and volcanoes. This show is both factual and funny. It was around 25% science and 75% comedy, with most of the science leading into more comedy.

His crowd work was pretty darn good, especially for an 11:15 am Thursday show. He uses a video slide show to accompany his performance which helps make the science part more interesting as well as show off his photoshop skills for some of the visual humour.

Murray Hunter

Barry Potter and the Magic of Wizardry

Dirk Darrow Investigations—Tom Hendry Warehouse

I always make sure to see Tim Motley at the Fringe; an old habit. I still miss his old film noir detective shows. They were hilarious but he won’t listen to me and bring them back.

If you haven’t seen him before, do. He’s a very good magician and is wonderful in his kind and thoughtful treatment of those who participate. He’s especially heartwarming with kids and he had a doozy of a natural in a well filled opening night show. This is definitely one to bring the kids to. You won’t regret it!

Lisa Campbell

project pigeon

COMMANDO: The Radio Play—The Park Theatre

Commando takes the action, kill lines, and bombast of the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster and adds a little radio play razzle dazzle. The talented voice actors will immerse you in the world, while the sound effect artist recreates the explosive action with a hot water bottle, cookie tin, and celery. *Seeing the original is not a requirement