Okie Dokie

Physically Speaking—Cre8ery

Often the best humour is the kind where no words are required (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, etc.). This is where the clowning talents of the actor carry the action, and the humour emerges. This is the case with “Okie Dokie”, a largely non-verbal bit of physical comedy from the talented and enthusiastic Ardyth Johnson. Using only a few words of dialogue, sound cues, and her amazingly adept facial expressions, Ardyth tells the story of a lonely woman inadvertently assigned the task of raising a completely unseen (but nevertheless very present) alien baby. Madcap insanity abounds, and she takes us on a journey which is both frantic and endearing, all without ever leaving the confines of the intimate stage setting. It’s difficult to sustain this sort of thing over an extended period of time, but Ardyth is a seasoned performer with fantastic skills; it’s hard not to become wrapped up in the (deliberately) cartoony adventure. There’s even a surprisingly touching and heartfelt conclusion. Just like its hapless heroine, “Okie Dokie” deserves some love. Go and check it out.

Mike Seccombe

Epidermis Circus (Ingrid Hansen’s Spicy Puppet Show)

SNAFU—PTE – Colin Jackson Studio

This is one of those shows that Fringe regulars rave about. This is my first outing and I have no idea what to expect. The black outfit and ominous intro music suggested it would be a dark outing. I’m not sure I would call it “dark” in the theatre sense of the word, but it sure is twisted.

This is the wildest take I’ve seen yet done to The Blue Danube Waltz, and the antics to Carmina Burana are just outrageous. The Bolero comes on and that piece is somewhat warped itself.

All the skits are ludicrous, but they’re meant to be, and they’re also ludicrously funny. I’m sure glad (and so is my partner) that I don’t wear a mustache.

Ray Yuen

Hooked?

All About Theatre Kids—Kids Venue: MTYP – Mainstage

Peter Pan and Captain Hook are at it again in a retelling of the classic story of Peter Pan. It’s a simple story told with some witty one liners. This all child cast brought their ’A-game’ for this delightful Kids Fringe show. The acting was quite good and believable. The dance numbers were enjoyable and the singing was great! There were moments were the acting was a bit over the top. Our main villain often favoured scream-acting their lines for a laugh. This made it difficult to understand what they were saying. There also were numerous points of audio feedback unfortunately. Stand outs were a sassy Tink and witty Smee who both at points stole the show with their excellent deliveries. A great show to bring the kids for an afternoon of fun!

Kaitlyn Kriss

Long Night of the American Dream

Concrete Drops Theatre—Alloway Hall – Manitoba Museum

This play, like Waiting for Godot, goes in circles and the plot, if there is one, is muddled and takes the form of an ongoing argument between two brothers about the play itself and each other’s roles and failures. The alleged play never happens, unless what we are experiencing IS the play, which seems more likely after one of them finds a manuscript about two brothers having an ongoing argument about a play which they are meant to be following. It’s like being in a chamber of mirrors. You’re not sure if what the actors are saying is what they are saying as actors discussing the play they are about to perform, or it is part of the newly discovered script they are now following. In fact they don’t seem to know themselves. This weird uncertainty, and the brothers’ sibling rivalry leads to a lot of dark humour and lots of laughs. But references to the divisions within American society start sneaking into the back-and-forth between the brothers, topics like immigration, abortion, guns, and contested elections. The brothers start to resemble the irreconcilable poles of American society. They sort of reconcile at the end, but not really, which seems to be the point.

Throughout, the actors are amazingly able to maintain our uncertainty about whether they are actually acting in a play, or not. They tease the audience with pregnant pauses which falsely promise a return to an actual script and theatre norms, which never happens. In the end we have to accept that what we have witnessed is a play, the essence of which is a glancing critique of American society. And as in Sartre’s No Exit, it suggests that Americans have made their own kind of hell.

Jeremy Hull

An Evening of Magic & Illusion

Horus Eye Productions—John Hirsch Mainstage

Sitruc James takes you on a journey of magic and fun tricks to entertain you for an hour. The show had one or two tricks that were very flashy, one at the beginning and one at the end. The middle was filled with all very basic tricks I had seen many many times before. While most of the tricks were slick, there were one or two times I saw how the trick was done. That definitely took me out of the show. Not the greatest magic show I’ve seen by a long shot, but a good show for some first time fringe goers.

Kaitlyn Kriss

Okie Dokie

Physically Speaking—Cre8ery

This is a nice break from heavier emotional one person plays. Sort of an amuse-bouche for your psyche. Utilizing physical theatre, clown (no makeup or red nose, so hopefully no Coulrophobia triggers) and well performed mime to tell Margaret’s story of becoming an unwitting mother to a baby alien. There is still plenty of emotion involved, which shows how good Ardyth Johnson is at her craft.

Murray Hunter

The Magician’s Apprentices

Comedy Illusions of Greg Wood—Calvary Temple

I attended this fun show with my 10 year old. We went to the shows and this was by far his favourite. Greg was professional and funny and his love of entertaining was apparent. The young apprentices (Wynter and Tanek) were well rehearsed and professional as well.

The show had several tricks- an amazing escape, tricks with ropes/scarves/cards, a mind- reading type trick, and some larger tricks I’ll leave you to experience yourself. The show had a great ending reminding everyone to be kind to each other.

This show was fast paced with lots to keep both me and my son entertained!

Laura Magnusson

The Family Crow: A Murder Mystery

The Pucking Fuppet Co.—PTE – Colin Jackson Studio

Preface: Read my letter in The Jenny, “A Review of Venue 17.”

Adam Francis Proulx is a strong performer with a great aesthetic (from what I could see from the upstage left corner of The Colin Jackson’s side audience seating) but I was left wanting so much more. The Family Crow: A Murder Mystery, is a solo show with a cast of multiple characters and one fabulous puppet.
Why?
If you are a puppeteer then doesn’t it follow that you eliminate the barriers of a typical solo show? Doesn’t a puppeteer have the ability to play multiple characters by incorporating multiple puppets?

What an odd and disappointing choice. I didn’t go to a puppet show to see one puppet playing the lead, while its puppeteer took on multiple characters using the tired tropes of imprecise head turning, standing at various places along an imaginary line-up, and poorly executed voice work.
I went to a puppet show to see puppets.
Puppets with an s.
Plural.
If time and expense in acquiring additional puppets are an issue for the artist, I’d have happily accepted crudely constructed puppets—socks, gloves, paper bags, popsicle sticks with mounted heads, repurposed utensils, crap from people’s purses, clever knuckle-costuming on Proulx’s painted hand…
I just wanted more.

The lighting did not make use of the venue’s installed overhead lighting plot. Proulx used adjustable goose-neck desk lamps arranged in a sloppy arc on the floor, operated haphazardly from a tangled mess of foot switches. In a partial thrust theatre, the show should be staged with the angle as centre line. Had Proulx made these minor blocking adjustments then the lighting would probably have worked. Instead, the let’s pretend they don’t exist, side audience got the frustrating pendulum-swing experience of,
“I-can’t-see-it’s-way-too-dark,” and
“Ah!-it-burns!-too-bright!”
As a Neurodivergent “AuDHD” person the lighting felt assaulting, often aimed right into my eyes. (Ugh. I miss the old incandescent lightbulbs.)

If I wasn’t instantly agitated by blinding light and feeling excluded, I might’ve enjoyed the show. Wordsmith to wordsmith, Proulx’s cheesy crow-puns were well-written but sometimes not well-paced or well-articulated, so many were easily missed. They got a lot of laughs from much of the enthusiastic sold-out crowd.

My autism & ADHD affect my communal experiences, because I’m busy processing sensory input before I can fully engage with, and appreciate, people & places. I am fully aware that, especially as I age, I am often having a completely different experience from the rest of the audience. Under different intersectional conditions: environmental, sensorial, emotional, and physiological, I might’ve loved The Family Crow.

Why do I bother going to the theatre if it makes me so grumpy? Because I fell in love with the art form from the very first mesmerizing play I attended as a five-year-old, “Glooscap’s People” by Evelyn Garbary, a Mermaid Theatre production that toured to Winnipeg in 1975. Incidentally, it was my first exposure to puppetry, mask, and physical theatre. Theatre-going & Theatre-making, for me, is like chasing a rare gem—a perfect, shared, immersive communion of human minds and energies—I felt it in 1975 and many times since, and I continue to seek it out with faithful and hopeful attendance.

Kim Zeglinski

Theatre Enthused

Influenced—Theatre Enthused

INFLUENCED opened to a sold out crowd in Toronto in June. The show got Nominated for Exceptional Clown Show at the Montreal Fringe. Here’s some audiences, critics and performers have had to say:

“Sam Chaulk is a psychopath. I was afraid for my safety.” – Cliff Cardinal

“It will rock your world…her humour is relentless. ” – Montreal Rampage

“Some moments will make you fall off your chair laughing. Some moments will hit you like a train.” -Steven Elliot Jackson

Conquest of the Air

jurasco—The Cinematheque

From a childhood looking longingly towards the sky to an adulthood lovingly rebuilding a civilian aircraft by hand through multiple mishaps, writer and performer Wayne James’ love of flight is clear to see. Interwoven with the political and interpersonal dramas that animated the early history of manned flight, you can really see the passion Wayne brings. Unfortunately, during the show I attended, there were a number of missteps requiring the technician to call out some lines, but even with those the entire experience was extremely enjoyable, both to learn this history and the personal story he tells.

Josh Fidelak