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Winnipeg Free Press

Fringe reviews #2: Your destiny awaits in a warehouse basement

ADAM BAILEY: MY THREE DEATHS Still Your Friend Le Studio at Theâtre Cercle Molière (Venue 20), to July 27 'Rumours of my death have been wildly exaggerated … by me,' says Adam Bailey at the top of his latest hour of well-woven storytelling at the fringe. Since his first solo show (Adam Bailey is on Fire) in 2015, the Toronto performer, who was raised against his will in Belleville, Ont., has alternated between deeply personal tales of coming of age as the gay son of an evangelical minister and richly detailed histories of notable figures both well-known (Henri Rousseau) and obscure (19th-century suffragette Victoria Woodhull). In My Three Deaths, Bailey returns to the character he knows best. The result? A well-composed, smartly lit and intermittently moving story about losing and becoming lost after the blackout. ⭐⭐⭐ ½ — Ben Waldman CONTROL Jurasco Le Studio at Theâtre Cercle Molière (Venue 20), to July 27 When Wayne James was 16 years old, he declared at the dinner table that nothing surprised him anymore. Raised on a farm in Lydiatt, in the R.M. of Brokenhead, James saw by 1966 that while his world revolved around the sun, the moon, the water and the soil, the rest of society instead sought to strike paydirt. Throughout this civic-minded, hour-long treatise on chemical warfare, inherited wealth, corn silage and intergenerational responsibility, this hippie Sam Elliott gets on the audience's level, frequently proving his teenage self wrong by making unpredictable choices. 'In show business, this is what we call a change of pace,' he says before plucking an original folk tune in the vein of Pete Seeger. A similar warning might have been recommended before James is cast in a red light to recite a version of Chief Seattle's 1854 address to 'the Great White Chief in Washington.' ⭐⭐ ½ — Ben Waldman EMERGENCY OPS Illustrium Creations RRC Polytech (Venue 11), to July 26 This 45-minute one-man workplace comedy about institutional incompetence in the civil service will surely resonate with anyone who's quietly fumed as supervisors make bad decisions, suck up to management or scream at subordinates. Local playwright/performer Hayden Maines dons a rainbow of different coloured safety vests to play five members of an Emergency Operations Centre team dealing with a train derailment. Maines has nailed the office archetypes — including Jamie, the new operations chief whom no one has time to train and Kelly, the reluctant HR person-turned-logistics chief who can't handle pressure — and he's an appealing actor. However, the writing here needs to be much sharper and tighter (there's a lot of filler dialogue and unnecessary yelling), with more care taken to delineate the characters. While the pace is manic, the potential for madcap farce isn't quite attained. It's far from a disaster, though; with some tweaking, it could get the job done. ⭐⭐ ½ — Jill Wilson HOOP AND HAT: VAUDEVILLE SHOWDOWN Hoop and Hat John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 26 Winnipeg acrobats Chris Without the Hat and Carla Cerceau are apparently more accustomed to working outside as street performers, where the spectacle of, say, Chris juggling machetes feels a little more immediate and dangerous. Deprived of that direct contact with the audience in the hardtop venue of RMTC, the pair contrive to deliver something like a plot, playing the two vaudeville performers drawn into a competition to see whose act is more dangerous. 'Contrive' is the operative word here. Both performers have talents in their fields, Chris as a juggler/magician and Cerceau as an aerialist, performing a perilous routine from a hoop dangling a few metres above the stage. But attempts to flesh out the proceedings just seem random, including Chris singing the song Mr. Cellophane from the musical Chicago, expressing a sentiment that should feel alien to any self-respecting vaudevillian. The promised hour-long run was closer to 45 minutes. ⭐⭐ ½ — Randall King AN IMPROVISED JOHN HUGHES MOVIE Tectonic Improv Centre culturel franco-manitobain (Venue 4), to July 27 The goal of newly formed improv troupe Tectonic's first fringe offering is to pay entertaining homage to the lasting style of John Hughes, the director of such classic fare as Uncle Buck and The Breakfast Club. But while the local performers — Kristen Einarson, Dewey Parker, Kim Laberinto and Scott Angus — are likeably silly and committed as improv artists, it was clear on opening night that this hour-long feature could stand to refer more directly to its sources: a deeper development of archetypes, a greater sense of geography and a few choice props would work wonders. The pieces, suggested by an audience member, were all there for a lively coming-of-age tale: a naive teenage girl who's never been on an airplane headed to a friend's wedding in Wales. There are cheesy, sappy and snappy beats to keep in any Hughesian tale and Tectonic struggled to keep the rhythm, especially when overloud, obtrusive '80s music was piped in sporadically. Still, the audience laughed loudly and often, pleased by the wacky performance if not by the adherence to the form mastered by the great cinematic poet of suburban Chicago. Hughes got better with time: one assumes the same will be true from show to show for Tectonic. ⭐⭐ ½ — Ben Waldman LIFE, LOVE, AND LACK THEREOF Hiljames movement Asper Centre for Theatre and Film (Venue 10), to July 25 Winnipeg's Hilary James, Brooke Hess, Emma Beech and Naomi Wiebe peel back the existential layers of the human condition with all its foibles and frailties in this 60-minute (billed as 75) contemporary dance show featuring three solo world premières. These Things Take Time begins with choreographer Hess preparing a meal in a steaming rice cooker as an ode to mundane routines of day-to-day life. Note, created by Beech and Wiebe, features the latter performing angular, highly gestural movement vocabulary as she explores connection through repetitive motion. However in the abstract program's strongest offering, Solitude Salsa, show producer/choreographer James truly dances like no one's watching during her kaleidoscopic mash-up of styles that further showcases her versatile artistry. It's impossible to take your eyes off her as she wrestles with the gnawing ache of loneliness and its flipside, freedom, her final expansive leaps and spins across the stage ringing as true as a late-night phone call from a desperate, yearning soul. ⭐⭐⭐ ½ — Holly Harris NO DIE! Fedor Comedy Pyramid Cabaret (Venue 15), to July 26 Written and performed by Dutch comedian Fedor Ikelaar, this hour-long standup/storytelling show is a madcap travelogue detailing his hilarious (and harrowing) misadventures in Sierra Leone and Thailand. You know what they say: what doesn't kill you makes you funnier. Ikelaar is a bit slow to get going (there's quite a bit of filler in the beginning), but once he does, he's on fire. The Sierra Leone story is so full of twists and turns and mistaken identity — and so well written and well told — that it could likely hold this show on its own; the story from Thailand that gives the show its title isn't quite ready for prime time. Still, Ikelaar is a likable stage presence and knows how to spin a yarn. With some editing and a tighter ending, No Die! could really kill. ⭐⭐⭐ — Jen Zoratti PLAN V: THE RISE OF REVERENCE Dance Naked Creative Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (Venue 10), to July 27 What's soft, pink and shimmers in the light? Mama V (Eleanor O'Brien) at her latest Plan V meeting, focusing on the celebration and power of the canal we all came from. Clad in a hot-pink, bedazzled velour track suit, the Portland, Ore.-based actor reflects on the #MeToo movement, the reversal of Roe v. Wade and historical shame surrounding women's sexual satisfaction — calling on attendees to 'come together,' listen to their inner goddesses and reclaim their power through pleasure. The 60-minute sermon-style delivery is reminiscent of church (including some moments where one looks at one's watch). Amid the heavy topics, the sex-positive comedy is filled with witty dialogue and complemented with pre-recorded video featuring other meeting attendees (brilliantly played by O'Brien) on 'Zype.' Plan V brings levity and humour to the timely issue of bodily autonomy and is unapologetically feminist. It's brazen and bold with room for laughter, reflection and rebellion, although its message may resonate more deeply with audiences in need of reminders about self-empowerment. Despite its slower start, Plan V leaves you wishing this was your high school sex education class experience. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Nadya Pankiw THE ROYAL SPEAKEASY All About Theatre Adults Pyramid Cabaret (Venue 15), to July 26 While there's certainly talent to be found in Winnipeg's All About Theatre crew, this 60-minute cabaret-comedy about the goings-on at a Prohibition-era speakeasy never rises to their level. It starts with a bang. Molly Helmer's sultry, operatic version of Florence Desmond's wistful 1933 song Cigarettes, Cigars as club performer Rose is absolutely stunning. Anika Price, playing club owner Flo, also turns in a pair of showstoppers in the form of jazz-inspired covers of Britney Spears' Toxic and Tove Lo's Habits (Stay High). But an incoherent plot with too many characters sucks the life out of this show. The vocal performances are often too quiet (likely a venue issue, not a capability issue) and the choreography is frequently lacklustre. Remembering the steps is important, but the backup dancers need to remember their faces: some of them look as if they are being forced to perform at gunpoint. ⭐⭐ — Jen Zoratti TOMATOES TRIED TO KILL ME BUT BANJOS SAVED MY LIFE Quivering Dendrites PTE — Colin Jackson Studio (Venue 17), to July 20 Keith Alessi returns for his third run at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, following successful, mostly sold-out runs in 2019 and 2022. It's the same show he's brought twice before and it's just as endearing and funny (and banjo-filled) as previous appearances. In the hour-long performance, the Virginia-based Alessi, onstage with a bowl of fake tomatoes and four banjos, details the way he went from a successful CEO to pursuing his love of the banjo before an esophageal cancer diagnosis (from eating too many tomatoes as the child of Italians) and a seven-hour surgery, which changed his take on life. Alessi recounts his journey through cancer (and learning the banjo) with humility, endearingly corny humour and a whole lot of pickin'. His competent banjo playing comes through crisp and clear, but his voice suffered slightly on opening night from a slightly muddy, too-low vocal mix. Still, the sincerity and charm of his moving story roused the sold-out crowd to a standing ovation by show's end. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Ben Sigurdson