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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