A Sad-Ass Cabaret

TJ Dawe—Dragon Arts Collective

TJ hooks up with singer Lindsay Robertson to tell versions of well, sad songs by sad artists. He tells the woes of Hank Williams and Judy Garland, to name a few entertainers who have horrible and sad life stories. Lindsay sings the songs with a beautiful voice and strumming guitar to poignantly spell out the sadness and pain these artist wrote about. TJ elegantly tells the stories in his wonderful style as Lindsay compliments with song. Nice to see TJ play off someone, which lead me to this show.

Kevin Campbell

2201: A Sex Odyssey

The Thing Is… Productions—The Cinematheque

Polished in his delivery, Will Glenn tells a good tale.

Sorry, that’s the only good thing I have to say about this show. The ludicrous premise (not in a good way) drags to its eventual conclusion, which the dialogue forecasts right from the start. There’s no thrill, excitement or twist to the plot, resulting in an insipid battle to stay awake.

Ray Yuen

Horrible Histories: Putrid Pirates and Groovy Greeks

The HamDad Players—Kids Venue (MTYP Mainstage)

History jam packed into an hour presented in sketch form. This cast had a lot of energy. For 10 am I was impressed by the amount of oomph they bring to the material. Lots of the jokes were groaners but I still laughed. Being that this is a kids show I was obviously not the target demographic but I appreciated the energy and pace they brought.

Your older children will love this. Younger ones are going to have a bit of a rougher time. By the end of the play I had trouble hearing what was going on because every child around me was so fidgety and the chairs so squeaky. The play was a little too text heavy for the little ones. A cute take on history with a kid-centric view. Definitely worth bringing older kids to.

Kaitlyn Kriss

Fool Muun Komming!

The Invisible Theater of Minneapolis—MTC Up the Alley

By his own words Sam Kruger says his show is hard to describe and that is the case, but here goes. He is an alien visitor from an asteroid spacecraft who after aeons of lonely intergalactic travel intercepts transmissions from the Earth and has to meet us.

Throughout the show the voice of his ship acts a kind of foil prompting him to tell us why he is there and why his ship is headed to Earth. The reason for this prompting is he seems to be easily sidetracked on imaginative journeys while trying to tell his story. It is a great mechanism to transition between stories, and sometimes echoes questions the audience is asking internally. My favorite one of these stories is a typical day onboard his ship which is told through great physical theatre that is perfectly timed to the supplemental sound effects.

It might be a little out there but it is really a great ride.

Murray Hunter

I ‘Effed’ Up and I’m Sorry

Angry Productions—Dragon Arts Collective

This show sucks.

Oops, I didn’t mean that. I effed-up and I’m sorry.

You try to help people by conducting an anger management course. The most annoying people in the world end up in your class. All you want to do is bash their heads in. Hilarity ensues.

Then the plot turns…

I laughed uncontrollably for 45 minutes—then I stopped. You’ll have to see the show to see why.

Ray Yuen

Martin Dockery: Wide-Eyed

Martin Dockery—Creative Manitoba

Martin Dockery has been coming to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival for ten years now. Although he is still energetic and engrossing in his storytelling, it seemed to me that the level of sheer manic energy he displayed during earlier shows like The Bike Trip, some years ago, was not quite so during this show. Maybe it was because he was older and maybe it was because this was a different kind of show.

At the start of Wide-Eyed, he admits to having been vague in his Fringe Festival program description. He says this was so because he didn’t quite know at the time he submitted what material he would be presenting. He knew he would be going on a trip – somewhere – and he knew his wife would be having a baby, but he had not yet experienced these things and didn’t know what interesting things might come from them.

So he talks about his trip to Beijing, particularly to Tiananmen Square and its next-door attraction the Forbidden City. He spends a lot of time focusing on his frustration with the Forbidden City audio guide, returning to this topic often, and suggesting that he doesn’t have anything more interesting to relate from this famous site. In this, he treads the line between beating a dead horse and poking fun at himself, but safely lands on the side of being amusing.

During this show, Dockery frequently goes into digressions, some lengthy, but he always eventually comes out of each to return to the topic that spawned it. For example, when talking about the Forbidden City, he begins to talk about the friendly Chinese people he met there, the tea ceremony they invited him and his wife to, and then somehow he makes a bridge to talking about how one’s YouTube history can define oneself. Later on he reveals what the tea ceremony was really all about, and it is not so friendly. He also introduces the topic of his wife’s pregnancy, slowly at first, but it becomes one of the main topics by the end of the show. It could be easy for anyone to be lost in the details but Dockery’s enthusiasm, despite not being quite so manic anymore, and the way he fills the space in this rather small venue, keep the audience quite awake.

Konrad Antony

Two White Guys Solve All the World’s Problems

Quondam Dreams—Planetarium Auditorium

Every Fringe seems to have at least one show that angers people and stirs up controversy; and Two White Guys Solve All the World’s Problems appears to be THAT show this year. The plot is simple; two ageing old friends spend some time together at the cottage. Lucas is the owner of the cottage, a relaxed, easy-going fellow content to isolate himself from the world’s problems and enjoy life. His friend is Mark, an uptight, increasingly angry and frustrated man who becomes more repellent as the show goes on, as he reveals more and more of his misguided attitudes. It’s Mark’s expressed opinions and inappropriate, racist, bigoted, and biased commentary that triggers the anger and controversy towards this show. What the playwright (Deejay Dayton, who also plays Lucas) is doing here is exposing the ugly reality behind so much of the world’s problems, expressed in the uncensored ramblings of Mark (an astonishingly courageous performance by Jeff Whyte). I’ve known many people just like Mark, unfortunately, content to blame the world for their problems rather than turn their gaze inward and realize that the real problems are within themselves. This show is funny, insightful, nostalgic, explosive, maddening, and thought-provoking, all at the same time, thanks to its hard-hitting script and gutsy portrayals of two very diverse characters. Shows like this are what Fringe Festivals are made for. Go and see it, especially if you feel like being challenged by something daring and unconventional. You owe it to yourself.

Mike Seccombe

Tumbling After

MTYP Summer Studio—MTYP – Richardson Hall

“Tumbling After” is a great opportunity to catch up with your favourite fairy tale characters just as they are about to graduate high school. They have all grown up, except perhaps the Frog Prince who is still more frog than prince. Their last days at school are fraught with drama. A wolf-related lockdown interrupts Captain Hook, the shops teacher, as he struggles to teach a sex-ed class (mostly hand holding).

Fast forward a few years and trouble is brewing. Many questions need answers. Who is killing all the Jacks? Who puts a well at the top of a hill? Who cleans Puss in Boots’ litterbox? All is revealed at a spirited and hilarious clip by MTYP’s Theatre School Summer Studio. Solid comedy chops from all in this company!

Barbara Fawcett

Squeeze My Cans

Squeeze My Cans—PLATFORM Centre

Scientology: L. Ron Hubbard writes a science fiction novel. Then by a series of unbelievable circumstances, a cultish hoard embraces it as their religion. They recruit weak-minded celebrities and those celebrities (Tom Cruise, John Travolta for two) give it legitimacy.

As a thriving cult, scientology victimises average, normal people and somehow seduces them to give up their freedom and their souls—oh, and all their money. How does this happen?

Cathy Schenkelberg tells a gripping story of how she got into this trap, how she finally got out—and what it cost her (you wouldn’t believe it). If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the doors of Scientology and what lies at the promised land, you must see this show. You even learn the meaning behind the volcano on the cover of Hubbard’s novel. It’s an incredible story.

Ray Yuen

The Neighbourhood Watch Improv

The Neighbourhood Watch Improv—Asper Centre for Theatre and Film – U of W

The champs of long form improv are back again with a new set of zany neighbourhoods created by us the audience. Since I saw the 11:45pm show, I was treated to ‘the sexy special’!

The slightly racier show was still as fun as ever with some dirty bits thrown in for kicks. I loved watching them flesh out this entire world.

The cast each take turns setting scenes and creating characters. I found their descriptions both hilarious and helpful as they were explained to the audience in great detail.

While they all seemed to be enjoying themselves, there were a few moments of artistic tension. One of the actresses seemed to dislike the rest of the cast poking fun at her and she seemed to shut down a lot of ideas. Having no personal connection to the actors I’m not sure if this was part of the show or if it was grounded in reality. While it might be nothing, I haven’t seen in group fighting (fake or real) from an improv group and it seemed to slightly take away from the experience.

At the end of the day the rest of the audience and myself howled at the jokes and everyone left the theatre smiling! A joy every time I see them, this is improv at its finest. Set your watches now to watch the neighbourhood watch!

Kaitlyn Kriss