Nashville Hurricane

Chase Padgett (2)—PTE – Mainstage

I don’t care if this is a reprisal from last year’s Fringe. Major heart concerns prevented our friend Chase from from bringing us the brand new production he wanted to. I can’t get enough of this man, and Winnipeg obviously feels the same. You’d better get your tickets early as this Portland native tends to sell out. He is a master on two fronts, something rare to find. You can have the musician who can play his heart out; but can’t attempt a line. And the actor who can perform but has no musical talent. How lucky we are to have someone who has mastered every style of music, and can mesmerize an audience with his storytelling? He also takes time to interact with the audience, which adds a warm and different atmosphere for a part of the show. He also ad libs very cleverly and with a sharp sense of humor. I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t thouroughly enjoy this.

This is a fascinating tale of a child prodigies journey from what he is forced to do moving toward what he wants to do. Along the way you meet a cast of interesting characters; from the trailer park trash mom who gave birth to this idiot savant, to a villainous manager and a kindhearted, drunk of a blues musician who takes this young man under his wing.

Many people go up to him after his shows (Chase is also doing 6 Guitars in this venue) to ask to buy a recording of his incredible talent. The answer was, not available. But don’t despair, you can sign up for a mailing list and be the first to be notified of its release post September. Please don’t miss this. In fact, the whole set of 3 PTE theatres are packed with winners, so just stay all day and night in this comfy, AC’d location and pick off some great performers.

Lisa Campbell

Flute Loops

Devon More Music—Onstage at Pantages

What a cute, quaint and delightful show! If you didn’t know better, you would think that this is a musician sitting at home in a basement studio mixing together tracks to crank out a tune. With an elegance of ease, More shows us how easy it is to put together a catchy tune—well if you’re talented like her. If you’re like me, you’ll have a cacophony of ill-conceived noises. Every song plays nicely pitched with the topic, backed by a toe-tapping rhythm.

About the topic, I took intro to physics 30 years ago. I’ve forgotten a lot more than I learned (including the construction of E=MC2) but I do remember the fundamentals. What More delivers to you in a quasi-music backed lecture employs actual and accurate depictions of physics fundamentals (don’t let that scare you off!). Either More has some actual physics background or she did some good research before putting together this program. Either way, the outcome is wonderful.

As the lecture progresses, it turns away from academia into a world of introspection and finally contemplation. As with theoretical physics, we just don’t have all the answers. Or do we? If I end up seeing More’s show again tomorrow, I’ll know! Or is that today?

Ray Yuen

Drops in a Broken Fountain

Geodesic Productions—Tom Hendry Warehouse

To say it was a touch stilted would be an understatement. Dialogue was forced and often the delivery of it didn’t help, and while it perhaps was intentional the intention didn’t help. I wasn’t taken in, and it felt to me something that missed a workshop before production. There were long stretches of silence that not only broke the flow of the show, but slowed it down. One song was used throughout the entire show, which generally I wouldn’t have an issue with, however in this case it was clearly a stock ominous music track, and it got tedious very quickly. In light of all this, it was fine, the message is there, but needs work.

Arden Pruden

A Midsummer Night’s FEVER 20th Anniversary

Leithelle Productions—John Hirsch Mainstage

From the name alone, I walked into this show excited, having a deep and long-standing love of Shakespeare and Saturday Night Fever. A stage set up with glittery sign, disco ball and 70s favourites playing on the theatre speakers set the scene perfectly. This is the first time I’d seen anything from Leithelle Productions, and I was interested to see how they blended these two popular but different pop culture and theatre phenomenons.

Queue the stage lights, and energetic dancers took the stage in dazzling costumes, singing a rendition of “We are Family”, with the audience immediately clapping, singing along and dancing in our seats. The fast-paced show moved through a great selection of tunes from Elton John to the Bee Gees to Errol Brown, all written into the screenplay right where it made sense with the plot, and some slightly adapted to fit this show.

It was a very fun, clever and period appropriate adaptation of Shakepeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, as they changed the context of the drama, inserted a plethora of pop culture references, puns, and physical comedy that had us all howling with laughter. The characters that many of us know from the original play found themselves in a new scenario of a dance studio production, with the drama and comedy of young love, potions and scheming by Puck played out in a wild and hilarious fashion.

The only part that I feel could have added to the performance is the projection and volume of the singers’ wonderful voices. The John Hirsch Mainstage is a larger venue, and without any amplification or mics, some of the song lyrics and dialogue were a bit too quiet and difficult to hear, even from my spot in the third row.

The blend of rhymes, jokes, music, poetry and comedy resulted in a thoroughly enjoyable, hilarious, and at times unexpected production that I would highly recommend for a good laugh and nostalgic visit to a time that some of us remember fondly and others wish we hadn’t missed. As intended by the writer, it makes the material from Shakespeare a lot more relatable, accessible and fun in a new way! The costumes were terrific, the disco was fab, and I was on my feet at the end and I’m still grinning ear to ear! Great show!

Calantha Jensen

INTERSTELLAR ELDER: Badass Grandma in Space

SNAFU—PTE – Colin Jackson Studio

The audience knew it was in for something special when the show opens with a greeting from a perfectly robotic robot to ease us into our cryosleep. The spaceship we are in is orbiting Earth, which has suffered an unusual ecological disaster, and will stay in orbit until the Earth has recovered enough to be repopulated by its frozen passengers (the audience). Ingrid Hansen stars as Kitt who is taken out of cryosleep early to tend to the ship and its important cargo.

Her portrayal of Kitt, using her amazing physical comedy abilities, was a treat to watch as Kitt comes to realize what her life has become. I won’t spoil the ending, but just be prepared to follow along. All in all a great adventure and fun show, well done!

Murray Hunter

Delightfully Rude

Elaine Orion—The Cinematheque

Delightfully Rude? Perhaps slightly rude but not delightful. Orion was off and struggled to find material, often hushed in segments of silence while she pondered what to say next. This performance was somewhat of a disaster and I don’t think it’s fair for me to slam this show because I honestly do not believe that today was an accurate portrayal of what Orion’s show is normally like.

Elaine (I hope you’re reading this): you looked uncomfortable right from the beginning. I sense your hesitation in broaching sensitive topics, perhaps for fear of offending the audience. Your show’s description says that the act is “rude”; feel free to be rude. No one will be offended; and if they are, what are they doing here? They read your description and this is Fringe after all.

For some reassurance, America is a lot (A LOT) more religious than we are in Canada. We are less likely to take religious jabs to heart (I saw a show yesterday where someone portrayed Jesus as a penis). As well, Fringe folk generally are not shocked by sex jokes. Your toilet skit was very funny; you should have built on it.

I could feel you searching for material that you believed to be appropriate for the audience. Instead of a cogent and coherent delivery of gags that are scripted to build on each other, the show ended up being a mish-mash of content that had no connectivity. You should go with your designed act and stick with it. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience today and I look forward to seeing a future performance from you where you hit your potential. Best wishes and best of luck to you for the remainder of the Fringe.

Ray Yuen

6 Guitars

Chase Padgett—PTE – Mainstage

Back with his sold-out hit, Chase cannot fail to delight. He masterfully plays six different musicians, each with their own distinct style of music. Thus the title. He apologizes for not bringing us the new shows he planned as he was recovering from a heart attack he had in March while working a cruise.

I was most blown away by how he managed to replicate the Spanish classical style always played on an acoustic guitar on his electric one. But it’s hard to choose a favorite. He moves seamlessly from one character and style into another, always distinct, different and true to each performer. The personas are real, engaging and heartwarming in their own right. This shows checks the right boxes as both an entertaining musical performance and a play with a totally engaging story. The 90 minutes fly by, leaving you sad it’s over so soon. You would be six kinds of a fool to miss it.

Lisa Campbell

The Ballad of Johnny Boy

Walk&Talk Theatre Company—MTC Up the Alley

If you can’t stand indie music, while I would say there’s more to it than that, this one probably isn’t for you. The songs were excellent, though I found some of the segues to be a touch stilted. All three performers were very funny, their line delivery was nearly perfect, and when they had to bring it down to a more serious level they were more than capable. They seemed to have a theme going of which character liked which story more, and while it wasn’t referenced much, I feel they could have played more into it. All in all though, more than worth your 10$.

Arden Pruden

Naked Theatre Productions

Luna’s Suitcase—The Rachel Browne Theatre

Not all 9 year olds have miniature stages in their attics. But little Luna isn’t like other kids. She’s a bit odd, definitely precocious and has an affinity for performing sock puppet sex simulations for her audience of Teddy Bears.

Enter Luna’s attic, become a Teddy Bear, and watch her world renowned cabaret!

Kiss the Giraffe Productions

Journey to Kalcedon Island: A Steampunk Adventure—John Hirsch Mainstage

Meet vile and rakish rakes, tremble at an atrociously atrocious supervillianess, see some steam-powered aeroyachts fly, and watch airship pirates defy death with death-defying feats.

Also, there’s fantastic singing and dancing and a lot of really cool steampunk costumes. Something for everyone! Suitable for all ages. (Seriously – this is totally kid-safe, but isn’t a “kids show” specifically.)

Music and lyrics by Joseph Aragon; book by Heather Madill and Joseph Aragon, directly directed by Leith Clark.