May & Alia do Pirates! (of Penzance) Edmonton Fringe Festival 2 Stars I love Pirates of Penzance.  With a passion. And that makes it very hard to be objective in this review.  Because on the plus side, I can’t help but be completely chuffed to hear this music, and to see it being done onstage.  […]

Gordon’s Big Bald Head (The So-Be-It Union) (Rapid Fire Theatre) Edmonton Fringe Festival 5 Stars You can’t make this stuff up. Except… these men do.  And do it wonderfully. Gordon’s Big Bald Head has become an annual tradition at the Edmonton Fringe, and their random choosing and then impromptu mounting of one of the other […]

Aiden Flynn Lost His Brother So He Makes Another (Theatre Howl) Saskatoon Fringe Festival 4 Stars This was a beautiful piece of theatre.  A clever and effective mix of music, movement and shadow puppets were employed in telling this modern Frankenstein story. Danielle Spilchen was wonderful as the ‘created’ brother, and Morgan Murray was a likeable […]

Red Hot Mama: A Sophie Tucker Cabaret (Sisterscene) Saskatoon Fringe Festival 5 Stars For decades, Sophie Tucker was a musical institution.  Her double-entendre jokes, bawdy songs and larger-than-life presence pervaded popular culture from the 1920s all the way into the 1960s.  Sophie Tucker was a ‘personality’, and Melanie Gall’s impressive performance in Red Hot Mama, Erik […]

The Middle of Everywhere (Wonderheads) Saskatoon Fringe Festival 4.5 Stars An existential exploration of life, a commentary on the minutiae of the world, and…a visit from a giant bear monster.  Poignantly expressive characters, a full gamut of emotion, and all from masks that don’t actually move, speak or physically alter expression. They are, of course, […]

jem rolls ATTACKS THE SILENCE (Big Word Performance Poetry) Saskatoon Fringe Festival 5 Stars Jem Rolls is a poet.  A Fringe institution and a poet. Just consider that for a moment: a poet as institution.  Because living poetry is extremely rare nowadays.  How often does one walk around with a book of modern poetry in […]

Singing at the Edge of the World (Randy Rutherford Presents) Saskatoon Fringe Festival 4 Stars At first, this seems like a perfectly pleasant personal monologue.  Young Randy works in Alaska…he’s a musician…he’s in love…and then he begins to lose his hearing. Music, Love and Hearing Loss are themes that run through many of Rutherford’s shows.  […]

Never Own Anything You Have to Paint or Feed (Howard Petrick) Saskatoon Fringe Festival 3 Stars This is a personal monologue tale with a twist: It all may (or may not) be true.  In Never Own Anything You Have to Paint or Feed, Howard Petrick shares a slice of his youth: of working in the […]

2 for Tea (Life & Depth) Saskatoon Fringe Festival 3 Stars First of all, if these two actors are from Sussex (as the Fringe booklet claims), I’ll eat my teacup.  It’s a good enough publicity stunt, but…I’ve been to Sussex, and I bet you a star that neither of these actors hail from that city […]

I Hate Bill Pats (Bessie Jean Productions) Saskatoon Fringe Festival 2 Stars The personal monologue.  It’s a Fringe tradition, and at many festivals it seems that everyone – everyone – has a tale to tell.  The questions is:  Do they all really need to be told? I Hate Bill Pats is Bill Pats’ new personal […]