The ADHD Project

Squirrel Suit Productions—The Cinematheque

Thank you for the personalised acknowledgment of Treaty 1, and the Treaty governing Hamilton. These acknowledgements mean a lot more when they’re discussed, rather than recorded or worse, omitted.

Thanks for the show and thanks for sharing. I used to work with a person with ADHD and I have (non-immediate) family members who have ADHD. As well as highly entertaining, this is an excellent learning experience for the layperson. The insight provides a great window into understanding the neuraldiverse more.

Sometimes provocative, sometimes comical and thoroughly enjoyable, I highly recommend catching this experience.

Ray Yuen

Bleak Expectations, Dickens’ First Draft

Stories Alive—Planetarium

I will start by saying my knowledge level of Dickens’ work is mediocre at best, I could name most of his books and some of the characters, but I am largely unfamiliar with the main plot arcs of all but a couple of his works. This means I am certain I missed a number of references to various plot lines and character in-jokes that were included in this Dickens mash-up. However, even as someone with a more casual acquaintance with the source works, I enjoyed this quick twelve chapter story by Eden Ballantyne and his performance was top-notch in his reading and portrayal of Charles Dickens and a baker’s dozen of his characters.

Murray Hunter

Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four

By the Book Productions—Planetarium

Fast-paced (lightning fast!) and energetic, this role-swapping depiction of a mystery rolls through the hour without a chance to take a breath. The solid actors do a great job of telling a complicated story in a short timeframe.

Complicated and fast are the key words here—as a viewer, you cannot afford to miss any part of the dialogue or you miss a huge chunk of the plot. As exhausting as it must be for the actors, it’s equally demanding on the viewer to maintain full attention for the entire hour. If you can though, you’re rewarded with an entertaining and amusing account of the world’s most famous sleuth.

Ray Yuen

Twelfth Night

Indifferently Reformed—MTYP – Richardson Hall

One of Shakespeare’s lighthearted, romantic comedies, featuring a shipwreck, a love triangle and cross-dressing. The company, specializing in Shakespeare, manages to tap into the deeply comedic aspects of Shakespeare, with extremely well done slapstick and timing. For any fan of Shakespeare or comedic theater, this is well worth the watch.

Josh Fidelak

THROWBACK!

Outside In—The Gas Station Arts Centre

Throwback! was an incredibly amazing show that left the crowd on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. World-class circus acts that captivated the audience matched with comedy and an amazing soundtrack that left you in awe. Make sure to add this to your “must see” list as it’s one show you won’t want to miss!

Zachary West

JULIET: A Revenge Comedy

Monster Theatre—The King’s Head Pub

This smart show plays with the premise “What if some of Shakespeare’s more tragic female characters became self-aware?”, the answer is: they probably wouldn’t be too happy about their fates as written by Shakespeare. Monster Theatre always puts on a good show, and this is no exception. The acting is superb with Pippa Mackie in the lead as Juliet and Carly Pokoradi amazingly playing all the other Shakespeare leading ladies (including Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Cleopatra, and Miranda) often all at the same time, and if that wasn’t enough, all the other characters from Romeo and Juliet. Ryan Gladstone appears as Shakespeare, who must try and deal with the revolt. Great fun! Be sure to come early as the King’s Head opens before the usual 15 minute door opening time and the show has been selling out.

Murray Hunter

God! The One-Man Show

Rich Potter—Son of Warehouse

Part stand-up, part situational, part gags, part audience interaction and part divine intervention (uh-em), this variety show barrels along producing smiles and yuks. As an anti-theist, I still enjoyed the show as it was devoid of anything preachy and everything is in good fun.

It changed my life!…

…in that there are 70 minutes fewer than before the show started. Still, it was 70 minutes well spent.

Ray Yuen

Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

Hamdad Productions—Kids Venue: MTYP – Mainstage

Characters you know and love performing stupid fairy tales stupidly. Simply put, this is an extremely funny kids show. If you’re looking for something dark or gritty, this is not for you. If you have a kid? Definitely your show. And if you’re just in the mood for a light hearted comedy, and a throng of children does not bring dread to your heart, definitely something you should check out.

Josh Fidelak

Stephen Hopwood Is Not Dead

Pengwin Productions—Asper Centre for Theatre and Film (U of W)

This dramedy follows Stephen Hopwood (Luke Falconer) as he wakes up from a bender in a place called “The Rooms”. With the help of a guide (Leith Clark) it is meant to be a place where you can fix your problems, aided by the way you can control what happens in the Rooms with the power of your imagination. There are a number of vignettes of Stephen’s past including his time in university with his roommate (Giovanni Navarro) and him falling in love with and his obsession over Anna (Alexis Silver). His baser instincts are represented by a sock puppet (Shawn Kowalke), which surprisingly enough, was the second jizz sock- sock puppet I’ve seen this Fringe (the other being in the Container). It can be a little crude at times, but overall a good show with good performances, and a good ending.

Murray Hunter

Throne Life

The Electronic Gospel Experience—The Rachel Browne Theatre

If you were forced to either undergo a proctologic examination or sit through this “show,” you should choose the former. Yes, I would rather have things stuck up my butt than have to go through this again.

I hate writing bad reviews for a number of reasons. First and foremost, most actors try, and they try hard to produce something that everyone can enjoy. Just because they fall short, I don’t want to bash
them for their earnest efforts. Instead, I try to be constructive; I try my best to offer some advice with every bad review to help the actor(s) improve their show.

Sadly, that does not apply here because Christopher James Van Heyst doesn’t want to put on a good show or entertain you; he has one mandate and it has nothing to do with entertainment.

After the show started, I wondered at about 20 minutes in what I can write. The major problem so far was that he spoke so slowly. This 90-minute outrage could have been shortened to 20 minutes if he spoke at a normal pace. Instead, the entire outing
w………e……..n………t
s………o………m………e………t………h………i………n………g
l………i………k………e
t………h………i………s

Every word was dragged out to take forever to say. I wanted to write something along the lines of, “enunciating a few words slowly emphasises a thought, enunciating everything slowly just becomes tedious.” Afterwards, I realised that he’s doing it to drag this thing intentionally.

About 50 minutes into it, I starting thinking to myself, “Did you ever rehearse this in front of friends or family? Did no one have the nerve to tell you that this stinks?”

An hour into it, I actually felt bad for Van Heyst because people were giggling in the audience. They laughed at him, not with him. I could see people mocking him. Eventually, someone not so discreetly
shook their head and left.

Speaking of audience, there were a total of seven people in this audience, including myself. Of the seven at least three that I could see fell asleep at various times, including the person center-front who
likely and mercifully missed 60 minutes of this disaster.

At 75 minutes in, I understood that this entire outing was his homage to his god and his attempt to recruit us as viewers. Then I got mad. If I want to watch Sunday morning gospel, that’s my choice, but I
want to watch Fringe entertainment. This is the polar opposite of entertaining.

Van Heyst, you are why I went from being an atheist to being an anti-theist. You love your god. I get it and I respect that—but don’t try to recruit me under a guise that I’m at an artistic show; that’s
despicable.

At the end of the debacle, Van Heyst thanked the Fringe for allowing anything, and pretty much
everything goes. He used the Fringe as a medium to spread his word. Under false pretenses of putting on a show, he hijacked the audience’s time to preach the gospel of his god for 90 minutes.

I have seen hundreds of Fringe shows in my reviewing career. Honestly, this was the WORST show I’ve ever seen—and Van Heyst doesn’t care. He got to spread his word, and that’s all he wanted.

If there is a hell, watching this show is it.

Ray Yuen