Suitcase of Wonders

Magician Ryan Pilling has created a highly entertaining magic show based around fate and the extent to which we control our own lives or are instead controlled by forces beyond us. It’s also a funny show with a lot of audience participation, and Pilling is able to easily carry us from trick to trick by setting them within a story—no silent magic show here. It’s a perfect combination of easygoing theatre and exciting magic. …

Read More Read More

 

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ODD JOBS? is a decent solo show form actor Andrew MacKinnon about his personal journey as an actor. It falls into the category of confessional storytelling and uses as its frame the number of odd jobs a young actor has to take while trying to kickstart their career. The show had a few flaws but was decent overall. …

Read More Read More

 

 

Timmy, the Dog, Disappears is a dark absurdist Fringe sitcom about a family failing to stay normal

Black Sheep Theatre’s Timmy, the Dog, Disappears is a bit of an absurdist sitcom—a play that messes with the conventions of 1950s suburban family television, creating a world that feels almost dystopian and more than a little troubling. It’s also hilarious in its nonsensicalness, a zany comedy from frequent Fringe creator Martin Dockery. …

Read More Read More

 

Sam Kruger is a gifted creator and performer. In front of a full house for his first performance at this year’s Fringe, Kruger lived up to the hype set by his incredible show last year, Fool Muun Komming. This year’s Bat Brains or Let’s Explore Mental Illness with Vampires proves once again that Kruger is one of the best and most idiosyncratic physical theatre/solo artists out there. He captures everything that Fringe should be about. …

Read More Read More

 

 

Ghosts are totally a myth, of course, but demons—well those are 100% real and getting ready to plunge a small Ontario town into the apocalypse. That is, if the EXDEMONators don’t manage to save the day. If only their demon blasters were as powerful as their comedy is funny they’d be able to take on any Level 30 demon no problem.

From Ottawa’s Leaping Mammal Collective, ExDEMONators brings to the stage three demon hunters who might be better off just switching into comedy full-time. Already the laughingstock of the town, the trio have to fight demons and fight for recognition in a town that doesn’t really want them around. …

Read More Read More

 

 

Sarah Haley prefaces her solo show exploring her culture through cooking by saying that she’s normally behind the stage and gets pretty nervous on stage. That’s hard to believe in this endearing show that ends with a delicious meal for the audience. Haley understands better than most the intersection between culture, diaspora, and food and has crafted a charming cooking show that explores her background while commenting on international relations. …

Read More Read More

Ludwig(a)

Playwrights and actors Adam Linton and Amy Cachero on the task of queering European history in their short play about Empress Elisabeth of Austria and King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Ludwig(a). The play follows an evening with Ludwig and his cousin the empress during and after a court ball and explores Ludwig’s queer identity and Elisabeth’s stifled role as a royal wife. …

Read More Read More

 

Solo shows are Fringe’s bread and butter and offer an excellent vehicle to explore in-depth a singular, idiosyncratic character. With the Yukon Artists Collective Theatre from Whitehorse, playwright and actor Doug Rutherford does exactly that in The Last President of Canada, a monologue delivered by Paul Chartier, the real-life figure who tried to blow up the House of Commons in 1966. …

Read More Read More

 

Stick or Wizard? is an old-school theatre clown show that brings the audience onto the stage for an endearing story-telling show that will have you leaving happy.

London, UK-based theatre creator Oli Weatherly hits all the marks on good theatre clowning—the audience laughs at him and with him, but we’re also left laughing at each other and ourselves. The show is highly participatory, and Weatherly, through his wizard-clown persona, knows how to bring out the hidden comedian in each of his audience members who come up on stage. He’s a funny guy on his own—his opening bit, when he repeatedly poses the question “Is there a wizard in the room? Why yeeees!” in a lovely sequined outfit had the audience laughing in the first minute of the show. But he knows how to make his audience funny too. …

Read More Read More