CIVILIZED

By the Book Productions—One88

Civilized is ESSENTIAL VIEWING.

Expertly crafted, poignantly written–well-researched, truthfully stated– MASTERFULLY performed.

GO.

Kim Zeglinski

Everleigh and the Magic Book

Melanie Gall Presents for Kids—Kids Venue

This is our favorite opera singer’s kids production. She’s also doing ‘A Toast To Prohibition’, obviously adult, at this Fringe; which I’m looking forward to.

She’s charming in her lush robe and witches hat from Germany, portraying a nine year old aspiring sorcerer who just can’t seem to master the craft. Smart woman, she tailors this half hour romp precisely to suit the attention span of the wee ones. I took four of my grandkids and they all enjoyed the show. Her sincere love of kids is obvious, and she even shared her real age with us! And included the crying baby in the audience in her show.

The true test of a kid’s show is how much wiggle in restless bums. None here, just engagement and participation. As she relates the young lass’s misadventures after finding a wondrous book, she shares her beautiful voice, and captivates us all. Like all fairy tales, this one has a happy ending.

Lisa Campbell

The Great & Powerful Tim: Magic Tonight

The Great & Powerful Tim—The Cinematheque

If you’ve ever wanted to see a robot menace the crowd mid magic performance, this is the show for you. The definition of a family friendly magic variety show, Tim has turned the performance into his audition to become a late night host in a rather thin device, with audience participation throughout. With strong crowd work and comedic timing the show maintains a solid pace, and for anyone, especially families with kids, looking for a magic show this would be an excellent choice.

Josh Fidelak

Underbelly

Aaron Malkin—Tom Hendry Warehouse

Weird, wacky, awesome. At times beautiful, at times hilarious. This show puts the fringe in Fringe Festival.

If you want to see something fringy, go see this show.

Rick Borchert

Grumplestock’s

Eleventh Hour—The Clock Tower – Portage Place

Listed as a dramedy, this dark fairy tale would be more accurately described as a drama paired with dance or physical theater than comedy, which isn’t to say that’s a downgrade. Lines are delivered in hypnotic harmony or dissonance, and aside from explicit moments of dance the performers are just as kinetically engaged as anything else. While some scenes overstay their welcome, and some characters don’t land as well as could be hoped, strong energy and themes keep the show moving and engaging.

Josh Fidelak

A Thousand Words

C. Neil Parsons—The Rachel Browne Theatre

This very moving performance by C. Neil Parsons is also a very personal one. It weaves together stories and pictures from his father’s time serving in Vietnam with some of his own stories of injury and trauma that he has experienced, with an interpretive dance and musical performance on trombone after each story.

A lot of thought has gone into the structure, he has taken the phrase “a picture is worth one thousand words” and broken down his own stories so the sum of all their words adds up to that number. The combination of the two sets of stories with the artistic interpretation arranged into separate chapters was really well done. The photographs from his father also provide a unique look into life as a soldier.

A fascinating look at the effects of trauma and how it can shape your life.

Murray Hunter

Macabre Tales of Horror and Macabreness (kinda?) 10 Year HELLebration

Puppy in Pants Productions—Tom Hendry Warehouse

Even before the show started, zombies weaved their way through the audience, creeping among the audience members. One of the zombies edged up to me and menacingly hinted that I should turn off my phone. This was 10 minutes to showtime, but ok, I’m not attached to the phone anyway. Curiously, the zombies did not bother any other viewer looking at their phones. Still, it’s best practice to turn your phones off—ESPECIALLY HERE!

Another hint before the show begins: sit in the middle section for the best viewing experience!

I didn’t count the number of speakers in the theatre but I imagine the Warehouse Theatre would have state-of-the-art surround sound systems. Unfortunately, it sounded like all of the sound came out of the centre, like
the old mono and it was a bit tough to hear for those of us off to the side.

Being the first show, there was some slight timing issues, and a couple of prop issues, but the cast managed to cover them up quite well and delivered a smooth show despite them. They probably could have hammed up the “broken headlight” but it still worked.

Even though the show is titled Macabre Tales of Horror and Macabreness, it could easily have been titled “Tales of Horror and Cuteness.” There was a lot of cuteness to go around. And dancing skeletons? Yeah.

The show started a bit slow but picked up speed fast. When I say “slow,” I don’t mean the content was slow; it just seemed the actors’ enthusiasm needed some time to pick up. By the time the first skit was dismembered, we were at cruising speed.

Ray Yuen

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Studio Accelerando—The Rachel Browne Theatre

The physicality of live mime theatre is something that was missing over the streamed content of the past couple virtual Fringes. What a treat to see an incredible one-man show with someone as talented as Robert Feetham. He starts with a short intro going through the process of evolution which is amazing and really lets the audience know we are in for a great performance.

He then takes the audience on a wonderful visual adventure (based on Jules Verne’s book) using just his ability at physical performance, a few self-generated sound effects, and some minimal narration by his Director Colin Bruce Anthes. Fantastic!

Murray Hunter

Are You Lovin’ It?

Theatre Group GUMBO—John Hirsch Mainstage

As people were leaving the theater, I heard someone behind me exclaim “Wow, that was such a Fringe show”. I could say it was hilariously unhinged, I could say that the show perfected audience harassment to the point where I was recruited to hold someone’s bouncy rotten intestines and another audience member established world peace in a samurai costume. But I think I’m just going to steal that quote. Wow, that was such a Fringe show.

Josh Fidelak

Murmurs of Earth

MaxQ Productions—The Rachel Browne Theatre

In this play they tell the story of the creation of the gold-plated record that was put on the Voyager space probes. The record was an attempt to create a way to describe the Earth and its inhabitants to any future beings that might come across the probes as they travel through deep space after exiting our solar system.

Jacques Leger is quite convincing as Carl Sagan, the leader of that project and its forerunner, the plaque that was added to the pioneer probe. In addition to the scientific and bureaucratic trials and tribulations that are featured, there was also the story of the relationships between Sagan, his wife Linda, and the other people on the project. An interesting look at Sagan’s life before he became one of the first celebrity scientists.

Murray Hunter