Mason King – Mind Control Edinburgh Fringe Festival 4 Stars This is a family-friendly hour of mind reading, psychological influence and lie detecting.  Mason King is friendly and approachable, which is disarming enough to make his mind-reading tricks even more impressive. At the start of the show, King immediately connects with the audience, and this […]

Promise and Promiscuity Edinburgh Fringe Festival 4 Stars In Jane Austin’s day, her literary works were full of irony, with modern references, and cutting social commentary.  Also, a lot of fun. New Zealand’s Penny Ashton has taken the works of Jane Austin (in particular, Pride and Prejudice) and has modernized them, with music, popular references, […]

  Countermeasure: 14 Characters Edinburgh Fringe Festival 5 Stars There are thousands of different shows at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.  However, there are very few shows where the audience is moved from delighted laughter to genuine tears in the course of a song. Countermeasure: 14 Characters is a gem of a show, featuring some of […]

Melanie Gall is a consummate performer, whose commanding stage presence and operatic voice lights up a stage.  In this year’s Fringe offering, she presents a cabaret based upon the knitting songs of WWI and WWII.  These songs are, in turn, quirky, funny and poignant, and Gall captures the historic style, while imbuing the music with […]

Hitler’s L’il Abomination (Annette Roman) Winnipeg Fringe Festival 4.5 Stars Annette Roman shines in this Autobiographical exploration of home, family, and the question: who exactly is the enemy? In her (true) story, Roman’s Hitler Youth mother is loving and supportive.  Her concentration camp-survivor father is borderline abusive.  And Roman?  Well, if WWII had never happened, […]

A Bicycle Built for Two (Theatre of the Beat) Winnipeg Fringe Festival 3.5 Stars Theatre of the Beat’s four-hander, “A Bicycle Built for Two,” explores couples’ relationships at various stages, and the communication (or lack thereof) in their lives. It is a solid, well-written show, with clever dialogue, adept character changes and an actual vintage […]

The Inventor of All Things (Jem Rolls) Winnipeg Fringe Festival 5 Stars Jem Rolls is known throughout the Fringe circuit for his performance poetry.  He does what he does very well, and people generally know what to expect.  That is, until now. Instead of using his own life as inspiration for his poetry (indeed, instead […]

Nothing to Declare (Eric DeWaal) Winnipeg Fringe Festival 5 Stars After 60 minutes of listening to Erik deWaal relate his travel adventures (and woes), I was exhausted.  Like everyone who’s ventured overseas, I have my fair share of travel stories.  But… being held at gunpoint?  Hitchhiking?  The leg story? Erik deWaal, you officially win travel.  […]

Adam Bailey is on Fire (Adam Bailey) Winnipeg Fringe Festival 3.5 Stars This one-man personal monologue, about growing up as the gay son of an evangelical music director, is definitely worth seeing.  Adam is a likeable actor, and the story – while yet another of the personal monologues that we see with alarming regularity on […]

Are My Hands Too Big (Leland Klassen) Regina/Saskatoon Fringe Festival 4.5 Stars A funny, well-performed show, starring a Canadian comic who has hands as large as his sense of humour. Klassen’s 1-hour stand-up comedy routine is centered around his (admittedly) overly large hands, from a hand-head comparison (which had many people in the audience following […]