Fringe reviews #4: You attempt to sneak out but the exit is now part of the set
Martin Dockery
RBC Polytech (Venue 11), to July 27
⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½
A kidnapping, a car accident, a duffel bag of cash and an injured deer being dragged by a middle-aged theatre performer on a kid's sled through rural New York — the taut contours and whimsical details of New Y0rk performer Martin Dockery's hour-long, one-man noir bring to mind the Coen brothers.
Screenshot
Is it also 'a true story,' as Fargo's opening credits dubiously promise?
'People ask me this,' says Dockery. 'The answer is … it doesn't matter.'
It almost feels as if he's flashing part of his formula for producing a crack fringe show. This seems deceptively simple: a few evocative music and lighting cues and the charisma and courage to stand tall and tell a damn good yarn, real or not.
Make the best of your fringe experience and see Dockery at least once.
— Conrad Sweatman
ALANA AND KAIBO
Hijinx Drama Club Inc.
Tom Hendry Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 26
⭐⭐⭐
This 40-minute (not 60 as in the program) performance features a colourful set, creative life-size puppets and a local cast made up of young performers. The effort and imagination behind the production are clear, and the show offers some fun and memorable visuals.
The story follows a young girl, Alana, who refuses to leave her sinking island homeland. Around the island is a group of sharks who share surprisingly thoughtful underwater conversations. The play touches on themes of climate change and environmental loss, but the message sometimes gets lost in a storyline that feels a bit disjointed and hard to follow.
That said, the young cast brings enthusiasm to the stage and there are some genuinely creative moments. The show ends with a Q&A, which is a nice way to engage the audience and show the cast's excitement and pride in their work.
It's not perfect, but it's heartfelt and imaginative.
— Shelley Cook
THE APRICOT TREE
Yellow Pie Productions
Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to July 26
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Chance Sabados's madcap 30-minute (not 45 as in the program) solo performance about mortality and apricots (the show is the fruit of four Manitoba artists) lives in a frequency shared by few fringe shows.
Its springboard is a thought experiment: according to neu-ro-scientists (why does he pronounce it this way?), your noggin fires off brainwaves for six seconds after your heart peters out. What memories would you summon in that window to mark your most cherished moments?
This becomes an excuse for Sabado to bounce around the stage telling loosely connected stories from his 20-something years. He has some of the absurdist sensibilities of avant-garde playwright Ionesco ( Cartoon Network's Adult Swim may be the bigger inspiration) with the theme of mortality intruding in an existentialist key. Yet the best moments are not the philosophical ones, but when he goes bonkers just because he can: hurling swears at the audience, doubling back on a memory to admit he made it up — like that his girlfriend burned down his house — and other craziness.
There's a daring freedom on display here. Why not push it further?
— Conrad Sweatman
BERLIN WALTZ
Devon More Music
Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (Venue 10), to July 27
⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½
Devon More can make a 75-minute Cold War history lesson fly by.
The multitasking musician from Vancouver uses a half-dozen instruments and a live looping board to build a cinematic one-woman cabaret about her years-long sojourn to Germany — during which she biked the footprint of the Berlin Wall looking for traces of division.
Berlin Waltz is a busy, colourful show despite its grey, gritty setting. Beyond the instruments, there are patriotic sock puppets, audience props and a video montage supporting the musical storytelling.
The narrative cycles past at a blistering pace. It goes so fast, you'll probably miss a stoic German punchline or two.
Save for a few audio-visual hiccups — forgivable in such a complex production — the show was tight and immersive.
More is a talented storyteller and performer who manages to fuse the past with modern political commentary, while highlighting a poignant example of collective victory in the face of oppression.
— Eva Wasney
EGGSHELLS
M.P.M.M Productions
Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to July 27
⭐⭐⭐
Joel Passante's autobiographical one-man show — subtitled The Spectrum of Fatherhood, Imposter Syndrome and Finding My Light — is local theatre about local theatre. Over his 70 minutes, he relates his struggles as a neurodivergent, bullied kid, his salvation in high school theatre and ultimately the Winnipeg fringe, and his withdrawal from theatre and community as he parries with the challenges of fathering an autistic son, divorce and the loss of family and friends.
All this is told candidly, gently and with humanity. Passante is an empathetic figure who mines his awkwardness and stalled theatre career for some shining moment, and Eggshells announces his happy, tentative return to creativity and the theatre community after a 14-year fringe hiatus. But that's also reflected in material and a performance that feels as if it's still finding its footing. Let's hope it does through this run — and that Passante comes back next year with bolder, less self-conscious work.
— Conrad Sweatman
I FUCKED UP AND I'M SORRY
Spriteli Family Productions
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 26
⭐⭐
As an audience member for this unoriginal attempt at satire, you're attending an anger-management class led by smarmy self-help author Daniel Miyagi (Neil Reimer, who also wrote the script).
This falsely modest guru claims to be inspired by the martial-arts sensei in The Karate Kid. You can see from a mile away that he'll be exposed as a rage-filled hypocrite.
The script has long, laboured, unfunny stretches that feel pointless, made worse by stilted acting from the five-person Winnipeg cast. Reimer's initial concept seems to be that the class can't get rolling because of interruptions and outbursts by 'students' (planted cast members).
When one of his planted accomplices turns on Miyagi, the show awkwardly morphs into heavy drama, hammering home that apologies mean nothing if behaviour doesn't change. Too bad there's no apology for audience members who would rather have held the karate 'crane stance' for 45 minutes than take this disjointed trip to the dojo.
— Alison Mayes
JACK GOES TO THERAPY: A (SOMEWHAT) ROMANTIC COMEDY
Zac Williams
Theatre Cercle Moliere (Venue 3), to July 27
⭐⭐⭐
Ontario-based Zac Williams' 60-minute sentimental comic solo show is about Jack, a late-20s gay kindergarten teacher in the throes of emotional distress due to his beloved boyfriend leaving.
Inevitably he goes for therapy.
Performing all the characters in the show (except for a voice at the start), Williams is skillful as writer/performer giving us some good sit-com laughs and touching sentiment, but he wants an audience to like Jack rather than have it concentrate on what is distasteful about his often self-absorbed 'heartbreak.' For example, every character's revelatory moment doesn't illuminate the play's theme of overcoming loss but seems there only as fodder to bolster Jack's emotional life.
The ending, however, with Jack's realization that his need for healing begins with a period of solitude is quietly charming. Williams' performance is certainly worth a look despite some shakiness in his writing.
— Rory Runnells
THE REDEMPTION OF HERACLES
Chronically Ch(ill) Productions
Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 9), to July 26
⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½
This one-person show is a searing and scornful 50-minute performance that tells the dark, horrifying truth about Heracles, the so-called Greek hero who was, in reality, pretty terrible.
Writer/performer Hailley Rhoda delivers a raw and powerful retelling of the myth from the perspective of a scathing Hera, the goddess who despised Heracles and set him on the path of his 12 infamous labours after he murdered his wife and children in a fit of madness.
The show blends storytelling with inventive stagecraft. Rhoda makes clever use of handmade props, including a paper puppet of Heracles and a beheaded paper dragon, which add a creative visual layer to the performance. The pacing drags only slightly at first, but then it turns sharp and relentless.
This is an intimate, creative production that flips the hero narrative on its head and really showcases Rhoda's depth as an actor and storyteller.
— Shelley Cook
TIL DEATH: THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII
Monster Theatre
PTE — Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 27
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vancouver's Tara Travis is absolutely sensational in this furiously funny one-woman comedy written by Ryan Gladstone in which she plays all six wives of Henry VIII.
Henry's wives — variously divorced, beheaded and neglected — meet in purgatory after each of their deaths. Only one can be the king's consort in Royal Heaven after dear Henry kicks it, and they must decide among themselves which wife is most deserving.
Playing six very different women over the course of 75 minutes is no small feat of endurance, especially since poor Anne Boleyn is just a severed head, but Travis more than rises to the task. She is an incredible physical comedian with the energy to match, able to seamlessly transform into each woman without confusing the audience.
There are no costume or even scene changes on which to rely; Travis uses her body, face and voice to truly become each wife. (Special mention must be made of her portrayal of fifth wife Catherine Howard, who is reimagined here as Katie Howard: a horny Valley Girl with the vocal fry to match.)
You don't need to know your royal history to understand or appreciate Til Death, but it doesn't hurt, either. All you really need to know is that Henry VIII suuuucked and the bonds of sisterhood are thicker than royal blood.
— Jen Zoratti
WUTHERING FRIGHTS: AN IMPROVISED GOTHIC PLAY
The Kinkonauts
John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 27
⭐⭐ ½
A long-form improv troupe devoted to dark Gothic material, skirting on horror and the supernatural, is a great idea in concept. In reality, well, it has its challenges, evident in the first performance by Calgary's improv troupe the Kinkonauts.
Tasked by the audience to tell a ghost story set in the Bahamas, the troupe meandered through a tale of murder and betrayal in a beachfront hotel where the term 'Deluxe Package' is code for 'please murder my spouse.'
Over 50 minutes (10 minutes less than promised, no complaint), we bounce among three couples caught up in the deadly intrigues.
Possibly the troupe was overwhelmed by the cavernous RMTC mainstage venue, which hampers the give-and-take of improv. Bahamian setting notwithstanding, there was a whole lot of freezing.
Yet, one shouldn't be put off if your interest is piqued by the premise. The cast did impressively manage to somehow rescue a neat resolution from the narrative seaweeds in which they were entangled. A brighter future for the show is possible.
— Randall King
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Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
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Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Fringe reviews 8: You decide to exit, pursued by a bear
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The wittiest improvisations and funniest lines came when the cast was able to stretch out and explore a scene without interruption. — Eva Wasney INESCAPABLE Concrete Drops Theater PTE — Colin Jackson Studio (Venue 17), to Sunday ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fringe vets Martin Dockery and Jon Paterson team up again for this hilarious, anxiety-riddled and brain-bending cyclical show that takes the audience to the brink of madness and back. Jon Paterson and Martin Dockery in Inescapable (Vanessa Quesnelle photo) Before things even kick off, Let it Snow plays on a loop over the PA, setting the tone for the lunacy to come. Taking a break from a holiday party, Dockery and Paterson are examining a mysterious small box the latter dug out of the former's closet. Seemingly stuck in some sort of time loop, every few minutes Dockery's character frantically asks versions of the same questions about the box. 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You won't find anything about this stateless ethnic group at Folklorama next month, so take this opportunity to learn more about the Hmong's rich culture and nearly lost language in a thoroughly enjoyable show that honours their perseverance. Yang beautifully examines how to navigate identity in a world obsessed with labels. If you've ever felt like too much — or not enough — this show is for you. And in a story about belonging, it's clear Yang belongs on the fringe stage. — Jeffrey Vallis HOCKEY STICKS AND BEAVER PIE Melanie Gall Presents Théâtre Cercle Molière (Venue 3), to Sunday ⭐⭐⭐ Vocalist Melanie Gall returns to the stage for her 13th year at fringe, delivering a performance filled with a history lesson for — and love letter to— Manitoba. Kicking off the 60-minute musical with a sing-along, the Alberta-born songbird breezed through and belted out Manitoba's most memorable moments, local landmarks and iconic figures, while inserting stories about growing up in oil country and living in Brooklyn, N.Y. Endearing and witty, Gall embraces the monumental moments that put this province on the map (If Day, Gimli Glider), while acknowledging the complex legacy of others (Hudson's Bay Company). Although Gall's vocal range is wider than the history she covers, her performance does feature a surprise — her banjo. This feel-good, family friendly show will keep your toes tapping, and heart warm for this beautiful province. — Nadya Pankiw A LESBIAN IN THE KITCHEN Willow Roots Productions The Output (Venue 12), to Sunday ⭐⭐⭐ In Willow Rosenberg's kitchen, there's no obligation to follow the recipe. In fact, doing so is actively discouraged. This hour-long cooking show is about adapting, bucking tradition and finding your own flavour. And like any good cooking show, there's personal storytelling and live demonstrations. Sporting a Julia Child-esque frock, Winnipeg's Rosenberg shares her late mother's recipes for challah and hamantaschen, while discussing Jewish culinary traditions and her trans lesbian identity. There's a lot on the table, including obvious nerves, but the concept is sweet and fans of food memoirs will likely enjoy a live take on the genre. The set is also well-conceived and made to look like a TV cooking studio with a top-down camera and a real (Easy-Bake) oven that infuses the room with the aroma of freshly baked cookies. — Eva Wasney A MYSTERY AT MURDER MANOR Chris Gibbs Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 9), to Sunday ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Barnaby Gibbs, the bumbling Dr. Watson-like right-hand man of Sherlock Holmes-ish sleuth Antoine Feval, is back to narrate a brand new, hilarious investigation. The large, enthusiastic crowd out for opening night of the one-man show speaks to the success of British-born Torontonian Chris Gibbs' 2024 shows (Not Quite Sherlock: The Tunnel of Terror and The Gaslight Detective). In Murder Manor, Barnaby recounts how he and Feval dealt with the appearance of a mysterious ghost in the sprawling manor of the uncle of one of Barnaby's former classmates, which is rivetingly unpacked in due course. This new show saw a couple of lines slightly flubbed, but Gibbs was quick to poke fun at himself, garnering big laughs. And despite a mic issue, he easily projects his voice across the packed house as he jumps between characters (including a fight scene between a half-dozen characters where he showed off his impressive physical-comedy chops.) At 60 minutes, the show's tighter than last year, and Gibbs' nimble, charismatic delivery and ability to connect with the crowd (often via asides) leave folks in stitches. — Ben Sigurdson ODDS ARE Good Grief Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (Venue 10), to Saturday ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Never tell me the odds.' — Han Solo Let's just say New York artist-storyteller Smita Russell is very un-Han-like in her 60-minute solo show (not counting a cellist accompanist). She is fascinated by odds, and at first, the predilection is benign, beginning with coincidental Anne Hathaway sightings in New York immediately after she has watched Anne Hathaway movies. The wife of a scientist, Russell has a number of scientist friends whom she can consult on the odds. But the stakes are raised when applied to her own tragic history of losing late-term pregnancies. Her actuarial obsession is mixed with an earlier love of Greek mythology — as a child, she designed a Halloween costume depicting fertility goddess Demeter — and Russell feels obliged to come through the crisis for the sake of her successfully birthed son. The writing here is very elegant, but not so cerebral that it doesn't give play to an unfathomably difficult emotional journey. (At the beginning of the monologue, she is sitting demurely at a desk. By the end, she's standing on it.) Russell is a New Yorker, but the show has a local element: she was brought to Winnipeg by producer Jacquie Loewen, who directed an earlier iteration of the show. — Randall King SHIT: THE MUSICAL Misty Mountain Music Théâtre Cercle Molière (Venue 3), to Saturday ⭐ Winnipeg performer Donnie Baxter's one-man musical feels like a '90s after-school show gone horribly wrong — like if Barney sang about bowel movements instead of friendship. Set in a university lecture hall, Dr. Eaton Fartmore teaches a class on the semantics of poop through stories and off-key songs that drag on like a bad bout of constipation. As the title suggests, the show is packed with relentless bathroom jokes that are about as funny as they are original. The music — available on SoundCloud via a QR code in the fringe program — has to be heard to be believed, though you probably won't want to hear it twice. The 45-minute runtime was a slog, proving too much for three audience members who walked out before the end. When Baxter sheepishly waved and backed offstage without taking a bow, it felt like even he knew: this shit was a real stinker. — Jeffrey Vallis THE TEMPESTUOUS: A SHREW'D NEW COMEDY Penash Productions John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to Sunday ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½ But soft, what blazing ball of energy and brilliant stagecraft descended upon the John Hirsch Mainstage stage? Why, it's award-wining triple-threat Penny Ashton, who returns to the fringe after an eight-year hiatus. Tempestuous: A Shrew'd New Comedy (Supplied) The Auckland, New Zealand-based performer, who last appeared here in Promise and Promiscuity, unleashes her latest torrent, er, one-woman musical, co-written with the Bard, about 'stroppy spinster' Princess Rosa, who rails against belching stepfathers and cocksure suitors to realize her destiny as a newly empowered, validated queen. Ashton scarcely misses a beat as she morphs among a dizzying array of Shakespearean-styled characters during the 90-minute comedy, crafting each one with distinct vocal inflection and physical mannerisms. Not only can she belt out numbers and dance like no one's watching, she's also a crackerjack improviser, with her audience participation sections adding even more mirth to this roiling cauldron of feminist fun — including one particularly pointed political barb. While it's admittedly tricky at times just to keep up, this force of nature is back with an Elizabethan bang. — Holly Harris
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Fringe reviews #4: You attempt to sneak out but the exit is now part of the set
1 SMALL LIE Martin Dockery RBC Polytech (Venue 11), to July 27 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½ A kidnapping, a car accident, a duffel bag of cash and an injured deer being dragged by a middle-aged theatre performer on a kid's sled through rural New York — the taut contours and whimsical details of New Y0rk performer Martin Dockery's hour-long, one-man noir bring to mind the Coen brothers. Screenshot Is it also 'a true story,' as Fargo's opening credits dubiously promise? 'People ask me this,' says Dockery. 'The answer is … it doesn't matter.' It almost feels as if he's flashing part of his formula for producing a crack fringe show. This seems deceptively simple: a few evocative music and lighting cues and the charisma and courage to stand tall and tell a damn good yarn, real or not. Make the best of your fringe experience and see Dockery at least once. — Conrad Sweatman ALANA AND KAIBO Hijinx Drama Club Inc. Tom Hendry Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 26 ⭐⭐⭐ This 40-minute (not 60 as in the program) performance features a colourful set, creative life-size puppets and a local cast made up of young performers. The effort and imagination behind the production are clear, and the show offers some fun and memorable visuals. The story follows a young girl, Alana, who refuses to leave her sinking island homeland. Around the island is a group of sharks who share surprisingly thoughtful underwater conversations. The play touches on themes of climate change and environmental loss, but the message sometimes gets lost in a storyline that feels a bit disjointed and hard to follow. That said, the young cast brings enthusiasm to the stage and there are some genuinely creative moments. The show ends with a Q&A, which is a nice way to engage the audience and show the cast's excitement and pride in their work. It's not perfect, but it's heartfelt and imaginative. — Shelley Cook THE APRICOT TREE Yellow Pie Productions Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to July 26 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Chance Sabados's madcap 30-minute (not 45 as in the program) solo performance about mortality and apricots (the show is the fruit of four Manitoba artists) lives in a frequency shared by few fringe shows. Its springboard is a thought experiment: according to neu-ro-scientists (why does he pronounce it this way?), your noggin fires off brainwaves for six seconds after your heart peters out. What memories would you summon in that window to mark your most cherished moments? This becomes an excuse for Sabado to bounce around the stage telling loosely connected stories from his 20-something years. He has some of the absurdist sensibilities of avant-garde playwright Ionesco ( Cartoon Network's Adult Swim may be the bigger inspiration) with the theme of mortality intruding in an existentialist key. Yet the best moments are not the philosophical ones, but when he goes bonkers just because he can: hurling swears at the audience, doubling back on a memory to admit he made it up — like that his girlfriend burned down his house — and other craziness. There's a daring freedom on display here. Why not push it further? — Conrad Sweatman BERLIN WALTZ Devon More Music Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (Venue 10), to July 27 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½ Devon More can make a 75-minute Cold War history lesson fly by. The multitasking musician from Vancouver uses a half-dozen instruments and a live looping board to build a cinematic one-woman cabaret about her years-long sojourn to Germany — during which she biked the footprint of the Berlin Wall looking for traces of division. Berlin Waltz is a busy, colourful show despite its grey, gritty setting. Beyond the instruments, there are patriotic sock puppets, audience props and a video montage supporting the musical storytelling. The narrative cycles past at a blistering pace. It goes so fast, you'll probably miss a stoic German punchline or two. Save for a few audio-visual hiccups — forgivable in such a complex production — the show was tight and immersive. More is a talented storyteller and performer who manages to fuse the past with modern political commentary, while highlighting a poignant example of collective victory in the face of oppression. — Eva Wasney EGGSHELLS M.P.M.M Productions Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to July 27 ⭐⭐⭐ Joel Passante's autobiographical one-man show — subtitled The Spectrum of Fatherhood, Imposter Syndrome and Finding My Light — is local theatre about local theatre. Over his 70 minutes, he relates his struggles as a neurodivergent, bullied kid, his salvation in high school theatre and ultimately the Winnipeg fringe, and his withdrawal from theatre and community as he parries with the challenges of fathering an autistic son, divorce and the loss of family and friends. All this is told candidly, gently and with humanity. Passante is an empathetic figure who mines his awkwardness and stalled theatre career for some shining moment, and Eggshells announces his happy, tentative return to creativity and the theatre community after a 14-year fringe hiatus. But that's also reflected in material and a performance that feels as if it's still finding its footing. Let's hope it does through this run — and that Passante comes back next year with bolder, less self-conscious work. — Conrad Sweatman I FUCKED UP AND I'M SORRY Spriteli Family Productions MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 26 ⭐⭐ As an audience member for this unoriginal attempt at satire, you're attending an anger-management class led by smarmy self-help author Daniel Miyagi (Neil Reimer, who also wrote the script). This falsely modest guru claims to be inspired by the martial-arts sensei in The Karate Kid. You can see from a mile away that he'll be exposed as a rage-filled hypocrite. The script has long, laboured, unfunny stretches that feel pointless, made worse by stilted acting from the five-person Winnipeg cast. Reimer's initial concept seems to be that the class can't get rolling because of interruptions and outbursts by 'students' (planted cast members). When one of his planted accomplices turns on Miyagi, the show awkwardly morphs into heavy drama, hammering home that apologies mean nothing if behaviour doesn't change. Too bad there's no apology for audience members who would rather have held the karate 'crane stance' for 45 minutes than take this disjointed trip to the dojo. — Alison Mayes JACK GOES TO THERAPY: A (SOMEWHAT) ROMANTIC COMEDY Zac Williams Theatre Cercle Moliere (Venue 3), to July 27 ⭐⭐⭐ Ontario-based Zac Williams' 60-minute sentimental comic solo show is about Jack, a late-20s gay kindergarten teacher in the throes of emotional distress due to his beloved boyfriend leaving. Inevitably he goes for therapy. Performing all the characters in the show (except for a voice at the start), Williams is skillful as writer/performer giving us some good sit-com laughs and touching sentiment, but he wants an audience to like Jack rather than have it concentrate on what is distasteful about his often self-absorbed 'heartbreak.' For example, every character's revelatory moment doesn't illuminate the play's theme of overcoming loss but seems there only as fodder to bolster Jack's emotional life. The ending, however, with Jack's realization that his need for healing begins with a period of solitude is quietly charming. Williams' performance is certainly worth a look despite some shakiness in his writing. — Rory Runnells THE REDEMPTION OF HERACLES Chronically Ch(ill) Productions Planetarium Auditorium (Venue 9), to July 26 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½ This one-person show is a searing and scornful 50-minute performance that tells the dark, horrifying truth about Heracles, the so-called Greek hero who was, in reality, pretty terrible. Writer/performer Hailley Rhoda delivers a raw and powerful retelling of the myth from the perspective of a scathing Hera, the goddess who despised Heracles and set him on the path of his 12 infamous labours after he murdered his wife and children in a fit of madness. The show blends storytelling with inventive stagecraft. Rhoda makes clever use of handmade props, including a paper puppet of Heracles and a beheaded paper dragon, which add a creative visual layer to the performance. The pacing drags only slightly at first, but then it turns sharp and relentless. This is an intimate, creative production that flips the hero narrative on its head and really showcases Rhoda's depth as an actor and storyteller. — Shelley Cook TIL DEATH: THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII Monster Theatre PTE — Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 27 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Vancouver's Tara Travis is absolutely sensational in this furiously funny one-woman comedy written by Ryan Gladstone in which she plays all six wives of Henry VIII. Henry's wives — variously divorced, beheaded and neglected — meet in purgatory after each of their deaths. Only one can be the king's consort in Royal Heaven after dear Henry kicks it, and they must decide among themselves which wife is most deserving. Playing six very different women over the course of 75 minutes is no small feat of endurance, especially since poor Anne Boleyn is just a severed head, but Travis more than rises to the task. She is an incredible physical comedian with the energy to match, able to seamlessly transform into each woman without confusing the audience. There are no costume or even scene changes on which to rely; Travis uses her body, face and voice to truly become each wife. (Special mention must be made of her portrayal of fifth wife Catherine Howard, who is reimagined here as Katie Howard: a horny Valley Girl with the vocal fry to match.) You don't need to know your royal history to understand or appreciate Til Death, but it doesn't hurt, either. All you really need to know is that Henry VIII suuuucked and the bonds of sisterhood are thicker than royal blood. — Jen Zoratti WUTHERING FRIGHTS: AN IMPROVISED GOTHIC PLAY The Kinkonauts John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 27 ⭐⭐ ½ A long-form improv troupe devoted to dark Gothic material, skirting on horror and the supernatural, is a great idea in concept. In reality, well, it has its challenges, evident in the first performance by Calgary's improv troupe the Kinkonauts. Tasked by the audience to tell a ghost story set in the Bahamas, the troupe meandered through a tale of murder and betrayal in a beachfront hotel where the term 'Deluxe Package' is code for 'please murder my spouse.' Over 50 minutes (10 minutes less than promised, no complaint), we bounce among three couples caught up in the deadly intrigues. Possibly the troupe was overwhelmed by the cavernous RMTC mainstage venue, which hampers the give-and-take of improv. Bahamian setting notwithstanding, there was a whole lot of freezing. Yet, one shouldn't be put off if your interest is piqued by the premise. The cast did impressively manage to somehow rescue a neat resolution from the narrative seaweeds in which they were entangled. A brighter future for the show is possible. — Randall King
