For a highly comedic yet bitingly critical take on the good old days of high school, one need look no further than Alli Harris’ one-woman musical High School High, directed by veteran theatre artist AL Connors. Based on the performer’s own experiences, the show takes the viewer on a not-so-whimsical tour of all-too familiar situations (including being numbly bored in class and the school assembly which goes wrong) and characters which mark this period. What sets this production apart from similar works is the fact of it being entirely performed by one person. Harris is a duly talented performer not only in portraying multiple characters, but also in remaining coherent while singing fast-paced songs. Special mention also goes to her competency at strumming the guitar. …

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Anishinaabe artist Josh Languedoc’s story-telling drama Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land (produced by Indigenized Indigenous Theatre of St. Albert, AB) is easily one of the most imaginative offerings at this year’s Fringe. Centering around the frame narrative of the play around  the relationship between Nakota, a young boy who has fallen ill from anxiety attacks, and his grandfather Rocko, Languedoc incorporates a rich trove of traditional Indigenous stories to advance the growth of the relationship and characters. These traditional stories, which Rocko says that he used to tell his grandson before he grew tired of them, are simultaneously instructive and engagingly performed by Languedoc (who also portrays both grandfather and grandson). …

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An emotional storytelling solo show, This is Step One tells a highly personal story of sexual assault and abuse, and a direct response to the Me Too movement. The story that Jess McAuley unweaves for an hour is disturbing but, unfortunately, not atypical. An updating iPhone kicks off the story, as Jess clicks the wrong button and uploads all her old pictures and texts from her old phone to the new one. Now older and having made it through an incredibly rough patch in her life, Jess has the courage to dive into her dark past, and she brings the audience along as we experience a brutal story of serial sexual assault, abuse, drug use, and depression and anxiety. …

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Red Bastard is an interactive show about love, lies, and lust. A show that’s more interactive than most, it also gets you to confess to some love-related secrets—or just lie. The titular Red Bastard is a bit of a crazy jester character, dressed in bulging red pyjamas and whiteface, and sermonizing on our affection towards lies and lying. That is, we like to lie, but we don’t like to be lied to. Early in the play, the Red Bastard—the beastly jester-like alter ego of performer Eric Davis—has the audience all stand up. As he lists off common lies, audience members who have told that lie must sit down. This is his icebreaker game, to get the audience into the mindset that we are all compulsive liars. Lying makes the world go around. …

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With the voice of a young man calling out “Hello?” against the backdrop of a completely darkened stage, Paris, France-based company 1919’s production of 25 immediately piques one’s curiosity. It only takes a few moments for another voice (that of a young woman’s) to answer the man. Back and forth, the two debate the whereabouts of the man’s long-lost parents. Yet what at first seems to be a child’s quest to find his parents turns out to be much more, as soon as the scene ends and the lights come on, enabling the actors to present an altogether different scenario. In this play, two actors (Elliot Delage, also the creator; and Anastasia Wells) take on the roles of 12 characters in total together, who each have one thing in common: being young adults who are faced with difficult choices and circumstances. According to the Fringe program and Delage himself, each of the characters are attempting to find purpose while at the “crossroads of life.” …

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Beginning with a chair, table and a woman anxiously waiting for her date to arrive, Phoebe Webber’s new self-created work The Date starts off promisingly, genuinely piquing the viewer’s interest. ‘How will it go?’ is indeed the question to be asked of the play. The answer, however, is never given-all that the audience is given is the woman’s numerous questions and imaginings of her date’s potential flaws. Initially coming off as indecisive about the type of man she’s looking for, Webber’s character soon spirals into coming up with paranoid scenarios (such as whether he still lives in his mother’s basement) about the guy she’s never even met yet. …

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