The Ā鶹“«Ć½Ó³»Fringe Festival runs until Sept. 14. Details at .
Peter ān Chris and the Kinda OK Corral
Performance Works
Sept. 10-12
These guys ā Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson ā are Best of Fest award-winningly funny. This is an all-new show with some hilarious physical comedy: imagine Peter āmilkingā Chris who masquerades ā sometimes ā as cowpoke Pete Erpās beloved cow Winifred. Throw in a wicked oil baron (Peter again) and his upper-crusty English hired killer (Chris again) and you have a recipe for a gun-totinā, cow milkinā, citrus fruit destroyinā romp somewhere in Alberta. Heck, thereās even sagebrush rolling around as the gang of two set out to shoot the bad guy in ācold bloodā or āC.B.ā Yep, theyāre tough, more than a bit clueless and very, very funny.
... Didnāt See That Coming
Performance Works
Sept. 10, 12 and 14
Beverley Elliott disparages her big-boned body but let me tell you, itās all heart inside. On a cold winter night you could warm your hands on this show. āAunt Bevā is, undoubtedly, everyone in the familyās favourite aunt but her luck with men, she admits, is ācrappy.ā With a teenaged daughter but never married, Elliott goes looking online for love but didnāt see what was coming: 47 (!) coffee dates looking for āMr. Right.ā Not all the material is about finding romance, however; one scenario relates falling in love as a teenager with the Guess Who and discovering thereās more to the world than her Presbyterian parents had led her to believe. With a show created from episodes, itās tough to build an ever-increasing arc and this show feels as if it has several endings. Elliott is at her best when sheās in a rage; she can lift the finish off a laminate floor when she gets going ā all that curly red hair ablaze. And although itās clear sheās trying for some balance, the quieter bits feel somewhat sentimental by comparison. But itās a terrific show by an amazingly generous performer. Icing on this cake is her gorgeous voice.
Jesus Made Me Funny
Toast Collective (Fraser and Kingsway)
Sept. 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13
Writer/performer Craig Erickson has an intensity that keeps directors casting him in serious, often villainous roles. Who knew he could be funny? In a āknow thyselfā moment, Erickson penned his own show to showcase a completely different side of himself: a lighter, goofier Erickson, flexible enough to play Calvin (an insurance salesman), Calvinās wife Sarah, Sarahās old boyfriend Skip, nerdish Bruce, evangelical Josh and even a ventriloquistās dummy. When Calvin joins a support group for closet comedians, his world changes: Calvin gets serious about being funny. Jesus Made Me Funny sends a good message: āGo with your gutā and if youāre a praying sort of person, āPray for the best.ā Funky little venue on Kingsway and Fraser; entrance is off the well-lit alley, parking is free and easy.
The Dark Fantastic
Waterfront Theatre
Sept. 11, 13 and 14
Mesmerizing. Storyteller Martin Dockery begins in the dark, his deep voice breaking the silence: āImagine. Imagine.ā And then he takes you on a mysterious journey across the desert to a house with an old man sitting on the front porch. Backwards and forwards through time. Itās a bewildering yet somehow fascinating tale. Lines like, āIām not the man you think I am,ā āI am not the woman you think I amā and her son, āhalf man, half child, two heartsā repeat and repeat like a mournful tolling bell. And just when you begin to feel you, too, are lost in the desert, Dockery wraps it up in a moment so poignant itās almost painful. Iām not sure where Dockery intends us to go but I went to my motherās story: abandoned as an infant by her mother, she spent her entire adult life wondering why. In Dockeryās tale, the half man/half boy, āa child without a nameā who never knew his mother, is given to violence and vomiting as an art form ā surely a reference to compulsive storytelling. With his hands flying like pigeons on speed, Dockery is a riveting spinner of tales. This one feels painfully, cathartically personal.
Moonlight After Midnight
Waterfront Theatre
Sept. 9, 12 and 14
Back-to-back Martin Dockery for me. A surreal experience. But heās not alone in this show. Billed as a āpuzzle piece,ā Dockery shares the stage with Vanessa Quesnelle. As with The Dark Fantastic, Dockery wraps it all up in a surprise ending. Along the way, however, thereās lots of parry and thrust between the two characters. It appears the male character has phoned for āa brunetteā to come to his hotel room. Sheās been instructed to pretend to be his wife. He denies the phonecall but is prepared to go along with her, to āgo with the flow,ā an expression he says heās never used but, later, uses. He also says he never āriffs,ā but does. Thereās terrific chemistry here; Quesnelleās character gets feisty, Dockeryās gets defensive. Thereās huge pain buried here somewhere and we donāt find out why until the very end. It all makes sense is a crazy, fantastical sort of way.
Greenland
Aboard SS Master
Sept. 8-14
Fact: Greenland is 83.1 per cent water ā most of it in glaciers. Written by Nicolas Billon, Greenland begins and ends on the bow of SS Master with 14-year-old Tanya Morrisey (Kirsten Slenning) preparing a fact-filled report for school. We get lots of information but whatās even more interesting is the mystery at the heart of the play: Tanyaās twin brother has died and an island ā emerging as a consequence of global warming ā has been named for him in Kalaallisut, the language of Greenland. In Part 2, on the stern of the boat, we meet Tanyaās Aunt Judith (Lindsay Drummond), unhappily married to glaciologist Jonathan (Billy Marchenski). His first love is ice; Judith doesnāt even come close. In the wheelhouse in Part 3, Jonathan ā heavily into his scotch on, what else, ārocksā ā describes his love of glaciers and how the history of the planet can be read in them. Back on the bow for the epilogue. All is not exactly revealed but what we do, finally, discover is how young Tanya learns to cope with the tragedy of losing her sibling.
No Tweed Too Tight: Another Grant Canyon Mystery
Waterfront Theatre
Sept. 8, 11 and 13
Thereās no mystery here: writer/performer Ryan Gladstone is super-skilled as he takes us along with Grant Canyon (an insurance fraud investigator for the Des Moines Trust Insurance Company) whoās hot on the trail of the recently stolen Bombay Sapphire. Tied to a chair, heās being beaten when we first meet him. With each blackout, Canyon remembers more of how he ended up where he is. Imaginary bodies eventually litter the stage as Canyon fumblingly solves the mystery and pockets the Bombay Sapphire in his tweed suit jacket. Film noir-ish, the cast includes the obligatory femmes fatales, a Mexican drug lord, crooked insurance company president and a host of others ā all played by Gladstone. Thereās lots of goofy wordplay: āblood pouring outta me like jelly at an all-night cafĆ©,ā āwrapped tighter than a burrito at a Grateful Dead Concert.ā Terrific performance and lots of fun. Can-yon!
Dirty Old Woman
Studio 16
Sept. 9, 11, 13 and 14
And here I thought actor Susinn McFarlen was spilling the beans. But playwright Loretta Seto really exists and she really wrote Dirty Old Woman. McFarlen, however, so completely embraces this 50-something mother of two grown kids, youād swear it was her own story. And congratulate her on her good fortune. In the play, Nina (recently dumped by her husband of 27 years for a younger woman) goes looking online for Mr. Right Enough. Itās a bust and she ends up taking a course in expressive dance. She ājumps the bonesā of the 20-year younger teacher (Robert Salvador) and ends up in a relationship fraught with the disapproval of her kids, her ex and even some friends. This is rich territory for McFarlen who not only has great comedic chops but an air of wry wisdom about her. Emmelia Gordon plays Ninaās daughter and Alison Kelly is Ninaās protective ā and envious ā friend. Hot as the sex weāre led to believe Nina is having are the tickets for this show. Hustle.
