Duds & studs
Winnipeg fringe festival, until July 30, various downtown venues
Reviews by Joff Schmidt and Bertram Schneider, courtesy CBC Radio One

A
Flamenco con Fusion 2
Ricardo Garcia’s Flamenco Flow
Venue 6
(Reviewed at Toronto Fringe)

Ricardo Garcia is a remarkable talent. He’s a great guitar player and he composes fabulous flamenco music. Add an excellent flamenco dancer and the audience settles back in their seats for what looks like a really good night of Spanish dance. But wait — suddenly a hip hop dancer wanders onto the stage, and it looks as though he’s going to try to subvert Garcia’s music to his own needs. What’s going to become of this juxtaposition of musical styles? It turns into a bizarre interdisciplinary mating dance, with the hip hop dancer and the flamenco dancer engaging in a wild dance-off. Can you hip hop dance to flamenco music? Turns out you can. As an added bonus, the hip hop dancer brings a surprising amount of humour and lots of irreverent charm to the stage. There’s nothing confused in the show — just cleverly delivered dance fusion. — BS

B
Audible
Saucy Fops
Venue 7
(Reviewed at Toronto Fringe)

Just when you think you’re walking into another light comedy, Saucy Fops sneaks in this intelligent, provocative little piece of theatre. It starts out innocently enough. Kate and David are a young couple, very much in love. David works as a DJ at a local radio station, where a number of calls on the request line signal an unwelcome revival of the Jon Bon Jovi fan club. Kate lives for music and loves to engage in witty repartee with David. Sound fuels the laughter in their lives, so the laughter stops when Kate experiences a sudden hearing loss. Audible is a compelling and humorous look at a tough subject, and although it occasionally stumbles and sounds preachy, it always regains its footing to deliver its message loud and clear. — BS

A
The Evelyn Reese Show
Miss Reese Productions
Venue 11
(Reviewed at Toronto Fringe)

Everyone knows an Evelyn Reese. She wears a bit too much lipstick, her shorts are too tight, and her mink is a tad on the musty side. She’s not aging gracefully. But as far as she’s concerned, the world revolves around her — and she loves it. In this one-woman tour de force, Evelyn brings us into her world. She’s hilarious, offensive and prides herself on her ability to out gay men — “After 20 minutes alone with me, any guy who doesn’t try to jump my bones is either gay or a paraplegic.” If Marg Delahunty wrote a fringe show, this would be it. Totally fun. — BS

C
Switchback
Jolene Bailie/Cuppa Jo Solo Dance
Venue 9
(Reviewed at Toronto Fringe)

Jolene Bailie is clearly a gifted dancer. This program, which consists of five distinct pieces of choreography, showcases her range as a performer, but it’s a disjointed hour of dance. Between each piece, the house lights come up for a couple of minutes, completely destroying the mood. The least satisfying of the five pieces comes in the form of a curious film that has Bailie wandering through a wheat field and writhing about in a pile of dead leaves. What’s contemporary dance like when the stage floor is swapped for desiccated organics? Loud and not very graceful, it turns out. There is some good work here, though. Bailie's most compelling piece depicts women in pre-Nazi Germany who used cross-dressing as a statement of independence. Here, Bailie’s storytelling skill and lively choreography combine to deliver a highly entertaining piece of dance. If she dumped the film and tightened up her transitions, this show could work really well.
— BS

D
Scratch
Rapid Fire Theatre
Venue 13
(Reviewed at Toronto Fringe)

I laughed — once. But I was clearly in the minority. The sold-out show of college-aged Torontonians I sat with were laughing their asses off. There’s some broad humour and perfectly competent performance in this ‘improv’ show, but it’s improv only in the loosest sense. The two actors ask for audience suggestions at the top of the show and pretty much ignore them thereafter. They spend the rest of the performance delivering a highly structured set of sketches that may or may not be improvised. The company is obviously sensitive to the criticism. In the show’s program they promise that “every show is about 95 per cent unique.” The problem is that as an audience we’re not getting a really good improv show, nor a refined sketch-comedy production. With improv we get a kick out of watching the actors struggle to find creative ways to incorporate the audience’s wacky suggestions. Good sketch comedy can be polished and hilarious. This show lives as a mutant hybrid, simply failing to satisfy. — BS

C
Jesus Christ: The Lost Years
Monster Theatre
Venue 16
(Reviewed at Toronto Fringe)

The title bodes well and promises a glimpse into Jesus’ formative years, that chunk of time between 13 to 30 that is so conspicuously absent from the New Testament. The cast of Monster Theatre — well known to Fringe audiences for a solid history of children’s performances — are clearly comfortable in this adult show as they flip seamlessly through a host of biblical characters. We meet the punky teen versions of Peter, Paul, Judas and messiah-wannabe John the Baptist. There are lots of clever moments and some pretty good laughs, but we crave a bit of substance. Monster Theatre has some rich historical material to mine here, and rather than digging deep to take us on a journey they choose to skim the surface, going for light gags and delivering an unsatisfying story. — BS

B
The Excursionists
Baronspieler
Venue 9
(Reviewed at Toronto Fringe)

What would any good Englishman do if his country sank to the bottom of the sea? Why, set out to conquer another land, of course. That’s the premise of this Jules Verne-inspired epic underwater adventure story, where you’ll be treated to a fantastical walk on the ocean floor, an underwater train and, of course, the obligatory giant-squid attack. The two-man, four-flipper cast offers bang-on performances in the very clever, quirky comedy. British colonialism never looked so good. True fringe. — BS

D
Rebel Without a Niche
Too Much Free Time Productions
Venue 11
(Reviewed at Toronto Fringe)

A wannabe filmmaker gets stuck in a series of uninteresting jobs. He meets some bizarre people along the way, any one of whom might make an interesting story. Unfortunately, the story’s about this boring guy and his boring life, and we’re… well, bored. Actor and writer Kurt Fitzpatrick fails to engage his audience with either his performance or his script, and attempts at raunchy humour (a song about a cat-riding cowboy called The Outlaw Pussy Rider, for example) leave us feeling embarrassed for the performer. Best to stay in the beer tent. — BS

B
It’s not you... it’s me
Solid State
Venue 1
(Reviewed at Montreal Fringe)

If your familiarity with breakdancing begins and ends with people in bright neon fashions spinning on their heads or doing the worm, you may want to give the ladies of Solid State a look. This all-female breakdancing collective from Montreal delivers a lively show highlighting what they call “urban dance theatre,” combining breakdancing with more traditional styles. If all that sounds a little too high-concept, relax — one of the most noteworthy aspects of this show is the sense of humour the five dancers display in their pieces. From the frenetic movement of Breakdance Dream to the outstanding grace and control of Slow Freeze to a very funny take on sports in And then there were two..., Solid State successfully blends high-impact dance numbers with sketch comedy. Sure, their dance is a little better — OK, a lot better — than their acting, but it’s all good fun. — JS

C
For the Love of God
Hunin and Munin Theatre
Venue 8
(Reviewed at Montreal Fringe)

For the Love of God is an ambitious two-hander about... well, actually it’s hard to pin down exactly what the point of the show is — and unfortunately you won’t likely care that much by the end. It’s too bad, because there is an interesting concept here. The standard strangers-meeting-on-a-plane scenario becomes a vehicle to explore the big picture of human sexuality, and if you give it time there is a point to be found. But getting there is tough. The show begins with the overused ‘simultaneous speech’ approach, which drags on into a maddening fugue that runs waaay too long. After that, things don’t get a lot better — the two characters (uptight David Christianson and voraciously sexual Anna) are pretty thin, and the production gets swallowed in its own earnestness. In driving to their point, Matt Josdal and Tiffany Markwart give themselves some pretty clunky dialogue, which is always tough to perform. It’s an unfortunate case of a good idea mired in heavy-handed production. — JS

A
Drumheller
The Ice Box
Venue 3
(Reviewed at Montreal Fringe)

This pitch-black comedy is a fringe gem you won’t want to overlook. There are no whiz-bang production values to the show, just a sparsely dressed stage complimented by sharp writing, strong gags, tight direction and fantastic performances. The show intertwines the lives of six characters — Midwestern missionary Joe and his hapless partner Sancho, museum curators Edna and Fenton, and clueless gumshoe Tom McManus and his long-suffering assistant Margo — all played by Leah Bowen and Darcy Bruce and all introduced within the play’s first five minutes, establishing a breakneck pace that doesn’t let up until show’s end. Sure, the characters are stock types but the skill with which Bowen and Bruce play them elevates the play from shtick to a beautifully hilarious — albeit very, very dark — piece of theatre. To say too much more may ruin the surprise of the show’s ending; suffice it to say you’ll come away with a new take on the Dinosaur Capital of Canada. — JS

C-
The Ballad of Monish
Marty Green Productions
Venue 11
(Reviewed at Montreal Fringe)

It’s impossible not to like Marty Green. Yes, he’s that Marty Green, remembered best by Winnipeggers for his cable-access Math With Marty show. No doubt about it, Green’s a very smart guy and a talented musician. Here he brings us a retelling of the Jewish legend of a young talmudic prodigy tempted by the devil. It’s all told through stories and songs, with the latter in both English and Yiddish (don’t worry if your Yiddish is as weak as mine — Green translates). He works on the fly a lot, chatting with his audience in a natural, easy manner. The trouble with the show, though, is that in spite of Green’s good nature and some toe-tapping tunes, it ends up being more academic lecture than engaging theatre. In Montreal, Green threw in some wonderfully fun bits, like a rendition of the Dukes of Hazzard theme and a Yiddish version of My Way. If The Ballad of Monish had a bit more of that sense of fun , it’d be a much stronger show. Those who have the attention span and curiosity to stay with Green will be rewarded with an interesting lesson in Jewish folklore. But for most Fringe-goers, it may be a test of patience.
— JS

B
Jem Rolls off the Tongue
Big Word Performance Poetry
Venue 14
(Reviewed at Montreal Fringe)

Because this is the first Jem Rolls show I’ve seen, I was disabused of a few Fringe myths: Jem Rolls is not the messiah, he does not turn water into wine, and he doesn’t make performance poetry fans out of those who don’t have much of a stomach for the art form. The fact that he earned a tremendous round of applause in Montreal just for stepping onstage tells me that I was likely in the minority in an audience of true believers. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll confess that I fit into the category of people who don’t have much interest in performance poetry. That said, it’s impossible to deny that Rolls is a remarkably talented performer, a clever wordsmith and exceptionally good at what he does. His performances have been described as “verbal gymnastics,” and the description fits as Rolls races through evocative, pulsating poems with manic energy. Indeed, some of it is too blindingly fast to follow but, as with Shakespeare, you don’t have to catch every word to be able to absorb the intent. There are a lot of fine pieces in this show, including the painfully honest and self-effacing Wrong Direction Man and the timely and amusing A Cool and Trendy Mom is Rubbish. Rolls does sometimes get a bit too sweetly clever (e.g., “that poem is possibly called ‘Thesaurus Rex’”). However, while he may not turn performance poetry into gold for the non-believer, fans of his previous work will be very pleased with the latest from Jem Rolls. — JS

C-
Sunny-Side Up!
Tiny Tuna
Venue 8
(Reviewed at Montreal Fringe)

Sketch comedy is a tough biz. It’s a venerable theatre form that everyone’s seen a lot of, so if you’re going to take it on you’ve gotta be really, really good at it. Sadly, Tiny Tuna didn’t quite hit the mark with its latest collection of sketches. Sunny-Side Up! opens promisingly enough, with an amusing dance number to the Black Eyed Peas’ My Humps. But a lot of the sketches rely too much on cheap ‘naughtiness’ which really isn’t that funny (or, actually, all that naughty) on its own, and a few other bits suffer the sketch pitfall of ‘good premise with no payoff.’ That said, the three women of Tiny Tuna are skilled enough performers even though they looked a little shaky with some of their material at the Montreal Fringe. Those are issues will likely have been smoothed out in Winnipeg, given that the performers display solid comic chops. But the women are ultimately let down by their sketches. There are a few moments that come close to hitting the mark — a woman fighting her own personified biological clock or a couple adopting an ‘orphaned’ senior — but the laughs are too few and far between to sustain. — JS

B
So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!
Awkward Moment Productions
Venue 7
(Reviewed at Ottawa Fringe)

If your summer camp included activities like ‘A Nature Walk With Moses’ and ‘The Ancient Biblical Art of Macrame,’ you’ll relate to Amy Salloway’s tender and very funny coming-of-age comedy. Heck, you’ll relate regardless of summer-camp experience or religious persuasion — Salloway’s story is universal and charming enough to win anyone over. The premise is simple. Fifteen-year-old Amy is shipped off to Camp L’Chaim, a conservative Jewish (or “freakishly Jewish,” as Amy says) summer camp. In the process she learns lessons about loneliness, love, smooching and misplaced affection. Sure, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, and it’s all pretty sweet — probably a bit too much for some — but it’s sold by Salloway’s energetic and hilarious performance. She’s the type of performer who can draw a laugh with a simple roll of her eyes, and she can draw in an audience with her honesty, good nature and spot-on take on the trials of teen angst. Her writing is very sharp as well. At times it’s quite poetic, although at 70 minutes the script could stand a bit of a trim. However, So Kiss Me Already... is almost sure to bring a smile to any but the grumpiest Fringer’s face. L’Chaim indeed. — JS

For a complete schedule of Fringe events visit www.winnipegfringe.com, or visit the Winnipeg Fringe Festival headquarters in Old Market Square, where live entertainment can be seen throughout the day on the Old Market Stage.
Be watching for Uptown’s July 27 and Aug. 4 issues, which will include reviews of all 121 adult productions at this year’s Fringe.