Fringe reviews #13: You took the flyer from the mime; there's no turning back now

Winnipeg Free Press

a day ago

52 STORIES
Dave Morris
Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fifty-two cards are the key to Dave Morris' exotic, unpredictable memory palace, which the Victoria storyteller generously unlocks during this hilarious and heartfelt homage to mnemonics. 'It's a pretty weird place,' he says.
A few years ago, Morris stumbled upon the high-stakes world of memory competitions, deciding to take on a challenge that suited him best: rapidly recalling the exact order of a standard deck from front to back. Using a system called person-action-object, Morris encodes three-card sequences into codon-sized chunks that reveal not just how the comedian remembers, but which parts of his life he's been unable to lose in the shuffle: the queen of spades is Maleficent, the two of hearts is his grandmother, and the three of diamonds is a symphony.
Each card unlocks a story that will lodge its way into your own hippocampus: that's what happens when you're in the hands of a masterful player.
— Ben Waldman
AFTER AUGUST
Thinking & Feeling Theatre Company
Tom Hendry Warehouse (Venue 6), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Eve Ross Moore's 70-minute drama, her first fully finished script, is exceptionally moving, featuring an impressive trio of young actors that will leave a lasting impression.
The show opens with Avery (Moore) and her brother August (played by Ben Robertson) getting in a car accident that kills August. Wracked with guilt and longing, Avery is haunted and taunted by August for what she has done. She's a mess, leaning hard on August's best friend (now her boyfriend) Elliot, played by Samuel Benson. As Avery's downward spiral accelerates, her relationships with August and Elliot become increasingly fraught before she dramatically takes matters into her own hands.
The performances by this Winnipeg outfit are exceptional: Moore's thrilling portrayal conveys Avery's range of emotions brilliantly, Robertson slinks around interjecting with equal parts venom and compassion, while Benson harbours secrets that are gradually coaxed out into the open. The production is slick and well thought out, and aside from a couple of expository, repeated and unnecessary lines, the script is tight, moving along briskly.
— Ben Sigurdson
THE BIRDCAGE
Crosswalk Productions
Tom Hendry Warehouse (Venue 6), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The daughter (Sadie Kornovski) of an ultra-conservative senator (Kevin Birkholz) and his status-obsessed wife (Pamela Roz) falls in love with the scion (Ethan Stark) of drag-club proprietors (Mat Pilgrim and Corey Quintane) in this wildly enjoyable, well-cast staging of Elaine May's treatment of La Cage Aux Folles. This is the fourth time Crosswalk has returned to the Goldmans' club in South Beach, but the production, directed by Mitch Krohn, still feels as fresh, topical and crowd-pleasing as ever.
As the extravagant Albert, Pilgrim alone is worth the price of admission, playing the role with the self-pity of 30 Rock's Jenna Maroney while playing up his height to rewarding ends. Ditto for Albert's manservant Agador, whose Harvey Fierstein growl and toddling saunter are enough to send you spilling into the aisles and asking for seconds of sweet-and-sour peasant soup.
— Ben Waldman
BRAIN
Blair Moro
Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐
In this new comedy, two affable young actors — Marissa Sauve and Jillian Burke — play the right and left brain; the right brain knows something bad has happened to the owner of the brain but the injured organ needs to figure out what is going on. It can sort it out with the audience's help. Get ready to be a part of the show!
Brain borrows heavily from the Pixar movie Inside Out, but in this case, the trauma is physical rather than emotional.
The information given by Vancouver playwright Blair Moro (Cabaret of Murder) at the end of the show about the intention of the production makes it more clear and might be better off the top.
More genuine information on how the brain works would make the show more 'educational,' but it's a lot of fun and given the show is a work in progress, the shorter-than-promised run time is just fine.
It's sloppy and messy, but so are we all.
— Lara Rae
DOG
Ross McMillan Again
Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐
Ross McMillan, one of Canadian theatre's lovable elders, is a charming raconteur. After last year's fireside chat on his Scots roots, he returns with a new work about dogs.
Eschewing the fireside format, he opts for the addlepated lecturer, replete with vintage slide screen and a projector he works from the stage.
There are many lovely stories, some moving, some melancholy, some amusing, interspersed with interesting factoids and tales of human canine relationships extending back tens of thousands of years.
Audience members seated on the side near the door won't be able to clearly make out the slides. Quirky pauses of five to 10 seconds make it hard to parse if the 'character' or the actor is struggling to maintain the sequence of events.
Despite the charm, some oddball jokes and the insertion of some theatrical quirks, it is difficult to know what's dazzle and what's being ill-prepared.
For dog lovers, it's a small treat, but given the technological marvels and slickness abounding at this year's 21st-century fringe, to return to a hand-made tale means the actor must be the fireworks; there is more work to be done before this work bursts into distinction.
— Lara Rae
FAKESPEARE'S MACBETH
Jack&Marlowe
Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½
Patrick Hercamp's one-man Shakespeare play may be the shortest production you'll see this year, clocking in at just over 30 minutes (advertised as 45). But what he packs into the hilarious, rapid-fire monologue will stay with audiences long after he's exited stage left.
The American vaudeville comedian recently jumped from his long-running, fast-paced Hamlet synopsis into Shakespeare's 'cursed play' (whose name he won't even speak, referring to it as 'Mac-b' throughout), which he sums up (in modern English) with great gusto and with loads of fun audience interactions for the packed house.
Hercamp's delivery is blistering (how else can you do Mac-b in half an hour?), and his comedic timing and wit razor-sharp; the crowd ate up his uproarious Coles Notes version of the Scottish play. Despite the show's brief length, the audience got their money's worth and more; Hercamp hung out chatting with folks in line before the doors opened, then bantered onstage with the crowd before the show proper. You needn't be a die-hard Shakespeare fan to leave fully satisfied and with a huge smile on your face.
— Ben Sigurdson
LITERALLY AGAINST ALL ODDS
Inspired I Theatre
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐ ½
Over the course of 40-ish minutes, Grade 1 teacher Ms. Thompson is pushed to the brink in this 'new play in development' written by Winnipeg's Alissa Watson.
Played by Spenser Payne, the sweet Ms. Thompson takes the students/crowd through how to deal with small, medium and big problems, pushed to her wit's end in art class by the need to help kids craft stuff for their parents. After some basic math, she details the lives of caterpillars in a biology lesson, where things get decidedly dark in a wild, unhinged scene.
Near the show's end we get a Class of 2034 graduation speech from one of Ms. Thompson's former students detailing the class's first wave of teacherless education (thanks, AI) hammering home just how brutal educators have (and have had) it.
Payne charms and eventually terrifies as Ms. Thompson; anyone in (or who knows someone in) education will find plenty familiar in her woes. It's a well-written (so far) and well-acted, play bringing both laughs and gasps (and a few cutting haikus), and is sure to only get better.
— Ben Sigurdson
SUGARBOYZ: A BOY BAND MUSICAL
JHG Creative
The Gargoyle Theatre (Venue 25), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐ ½
When Spinal Tap composed Lick My Love Pump, the title was hilarious because it so closely spoofed heavy metal.
When the SugarBoyz, a parody boy band, refer to their hit Nocturnal Emissions, there's no sharp mockery of the genre. It's just one of many sophomoric jokes in a musical by Winnipeg's JHG Creative (The Mail Room, World's Fair 1876) that needs stronger comedic writing, especially since boy bands have been previously sent up in the clever BoyGroove and Altar Boyz.
Monique Gauthier (Play Boy), Ian Ingram (Baby Boy), Connor Joseph (Good Boy), Cuinn Joseph (Nasty Boy) and Ben Krawchuk (Schmancy Boy) are terrific vocalists, though the backing tracks at times slightly overpower them.
Not every boy nails the urban choreography with equal confidence, but a moony 'emotional dance break' is a highlight of the hour-long show. Gauthier is the acting standout as the raunchy Play Boy. Video segments vary, some marred by unprofessional lighting.
Though the boys croon, 'You're eatin' good tonight,' SugarBoyz isn't quite the feast of musical silliness it's aiming to be.
— Alison Mayes
WORLD PEACE THRU HUMOR — A GERMAN 101
Paco Erhard | German Comedy International
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to Sunday
⭐⭐⭐ ½
In the past, German-born, New York-based comic Paco Erhard has imparted his homeland's sensibilities in 5-Step Guide to Being German; in his new 75-minute standup show, he looks to the country of his birth to offer guidance through the world's many problems.
Erhard draws parallels between fascist Germany and today's America, recounting his own U.S. border horror stories. Urging folks to lose their ego and 'dare to look stupid or stay stupid,' he offers funny and insightful observations about Canada, AI, resisting nationalism and more with solid timing and delivery and just the right amount of stronger language.
The nearly full house responded positively to Erhard's pointed but slightly rough-around-the-edges show, with plenty of chuckles throughout as well as a couple of legit belly laughs. He may not bring about world peace, but Erhard is sure to have audiences leaving with smiles on their faces and plenty to think about.
— Ben Sigurdson
YESTERDAY REIMAGINED
Phoenix Productions
John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to Saturday
⭐⭐
Two couples who low-key hate each other get together for their weekly card game, but this Saturday night's alright for fighting after they begin having a provocative philosophical discussion: if you could go back in time and change one pivotal decision in your life, would you?
This locally produced dramedy, written by Liz Farler, has enough tension to keep the audience engaged, but it never really moves forward, hampered by tedious, circular dialogue and characters so one dimensional that they border on caricatures — although Daniel Cormier is excellent as Curtis, the smug, right-wing husband of conflict-avoidant Denise (Leslie Boardman).
There's no real growth or insight to be had, no surprising or interesting revelations. The baddie is bad, the goodies are good, which makes for boring theatre.
— Jen Zoratti