Old-ish

GoodSide Productions—Red River College – Roblin Centre

I have a personal motto which I say all the time, and live by: “Life’s too short…” followed by whatever phrase I deem appropriate. Examples include, “Life’s too short to drink shitty wine”; “Life’s too short to eat shitty food”; “Life’s too short to worry about what other people think”; and a plethora of others. Honestly, life IS too short to have regrets.

That’s the essence of this dialogue as the actor journeys through the golden years of life. Susan Freedman delivers her message easily and smoothly—and it’s a message we all should heed. While the message is wise, the show itself is rather limited in humour. There’s no real plot development, twist, then denouement. Essentially, it’s a series of personal stories with a wrapper that life’s short, don’t waste it—like the kind of advice you’d tell your grandkids before they go to bed.

Ray Yuen

This Might Help

Garçon!—Pantages Studio

Trina and Sam are here to help! These two best friends are here to teach the audience some tools that might help with anxiety. Tapping into the different characters memories, Trina and Sam show us how to rewrite our past to help our current state.

This show is exactly what it says it is. It’s a self-help seminar where a new anxiety tool is presented to the audience. The whole point of the show was to try and help as many people as possible.

The pair were very charming and reassuring throughout the process. You could tell that these two girls really cared and truly believed in what they were talking about. They through in some super silly jokes and references to try and make themselves as relatable as possible.

As someone who does not like ‘self-help’ concepts, I actually quite enjoyed this piece. I have a new tool I’ll definitely use going forward and I feel like I’ve made two new friends. A cute show with not much depth but a lot of heart.

Kaitlyn Kriss

Death – A Romantic Comedy

Rob Gee—Planetarium Auditorium

I’ve seen all of Rob’s previous shows and always enjoy the way he incorporates his spoken word style into the plays he writes. This was a premiere of a brand new show, so it wasn’t quite as practiced as some of his other work in the past, but that didn’t take away too much from the performance. It is essentially a comedic love story focusing on a half-dozen or so characters (of a few different age groups) played out with scenes from the perspectives of the various characters. This is interspersed with little monologues about ageing, death, love, life, and hangovers as well as the back stories of each of the characters.

There are a lot of keen insights in all the monologues and many very funny moments that had the audience laughing. A great show.

Murray Hunter

Inauguration Vacation

Annette Roman—Onstage at Pantages

Annette Roman probably hates Donald Trump more than me—and that’s a tough feat to achieve (because I absolutely loathe the bastard). Through Roman’s show, she describes the multitude of protests she attended and her efforts to bring light to Trump’s disgusting ways.

Protest after protest leads to the same result—nothing. The ‘murican redneck’s no wiser and Trump continues to destroy his country and the world. So what’s the point of protest?

Roman continues her search for answers in Europe and India; she eventually reaches a measure of satisfaction. What’s the answer? Keep fighting.

You can feel the hate in Roman’s words, but you don’t see it in her delivery. When I have this much hate, I yell and scream and throw things (not really). Roman remains calm and sedate through the show. I would like to see some of the fire of the emotion come out. You’re mad as hell and we’re probably mad as hell because we came to see your show. Let’s be mad together and let the world know! Trump’s a lying, bullying, sexist, racist, stupid, ignorant asshole. Most of the world already knows it but it still feels good to vent.

Ray Yuen

Horrible Histories: Vicious Vikings and Rotten Romans

Hamdad Productions—Tom Hendry Warehouse

It seems that two companies this year had the exact same idea. Take the popular children’s book series Horrible Histories by Terry Deary and turn them into an hour of sketch comedy. This is a fantastic place to start for a script.

Unfortunately this adaptation missed the mark. It felt like I was watching an early rehearsal for a fringe play. The costumes were street clothes with towels for togas. The props were Dollarama schlock. The set changes were long and had no music. Worst of all there was so much talking backstage and frantic running that I could tell things were going horrifically bad.

The cast was clearly very new to acting, with the exception of two actors. I felt bad because these two had to over compensate for the lack luster performance of the others. Better luck next year folks.

Kaitlyn Kriss

A Sad-Ass Cabaret

TJ Dawe—Dragon Arts Collective

TJ hooks up with singer Lindsay Robertson to tell versions of well, sad songs by sad artists. He tells the woes of Hank Williams and Judy Garland, to name a few entertainers who have horrible and sad life stories. Lindsay sings the songs with a beautiful voice and strumming guitar to poignantly spell out the sadness and pain these artist wrote about. TJ elegantly tells the stories in his wonderful style as Lindsay compliments with song. Nice to see TJ play off someone, which lead me to this show.

Kevin Campbell

2201: A Sex Odyssey

The Thing Is… Productions—The Cinematheque

Polished in his delivery, Will Glenn tells a good tale.

Sorry, that’s the only good thing I have to say about this show. The ludicrous premise (not in a good way) drags to its eventual conclusion, which the dialogue forecasts right from the start. There’s no thrill, excitement or twist to the plot, resulting in an insipid battle to stay awake.

Ray Yuen

Horrible Histories: Putrid Pirates and Groovy Greeks

The HamDad Players—Kids Venue (MTYP Mainstage)

History jam packed into an hour presented in sketch form. This cast had a lot of energy. For 10 am I was impressed by the amount of oomph they bring to the material. Lots of the jokes were groaners but I still laughed. Being that this is a kids show I was obviously not the target demographic but I appreciated the energy and pace they brought.

Your older children will love this. Younger ones are going to have a bit of a rougher time. By the end of the play I had trouble hearing what was going on because every child around me was so fidgety and the chairs so squeaky. The play was a little too text heavy for the little ones. A cute take on history with a kid-centric view. Definitely worth bringing older kids to.

Kaitlyn Kriss

Fool Muun Komming!

The Invisible Theater of Minneapolis—MTC Up the Alley

By his own words Sam Kruger says his show is hard to describe and that is the case, but here goes. He is an alien visitor from an asteroid spacecraft who after aeons of lonely intergalactic travel intercepts transmissions from the Earth and has to meet us.

Throughout the show the voice of his ship acts a kind of foil prompting him to tell us why he is there and why his ship is headed to Earth. The reason for this prompting is he seems to be easily sidetracked on imaginative journeys while trying to tell his story. It is a great mechanism to transition between stories, and sometimes echoes questions the audience is asking internally. My favorite one of these stories is a typical day onboard his ship which is told through great physical theatre that is perfectly timed to the supplemental sound effects.

It might be a little out there but it is really a great ride.

Murray Hunter

I ‘Effed’ Up and I’m Sorry

Angry Productions—Dragon Arts Collective

This show sucks.

Oops, I didn’t mean that. I effed-up and I’m sorry.

You try to help people by conducting an anger management course. The most annoying people in the world end up in your class. All you want to do is bash their heads in. Hilarity ensues.

Then the plot turns…

I laughed uncontrollably for 45 minutes—then I stopped. You’ll have to see the show to see why.

Ray Yuen