Reviewed by Ryan Pepper

It’s taken four hundred years since the Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed Richard III for a damning look at Richard’s wife and former queen Margaret of Anjou to appear on stage. The Lady Chamberlain, a troupe of young actresses, have given the English queen and wife of Henry VI a not-entirely-flattering portrait as a queen who fails to stand against the usurper Richard’s villainy. …

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Crowning Monkey, with Rachelle Elie. Stand-up Comedy clown solo

Reviewed by  Ryan Pepper

MAL helps us all feel the magic, with the help of corny dance numbers and a lot of butt jokes. A world premiere by Rachelle Elie, MAL is a solo show that tries to bring magic into people’s lives. The magic is definitely there, coming to us through raucous, irreverent comedy from the New Age, overbearing, mostly insane, approaching-old-age Susan, and her bitter, clownish new boyfriend Joe. …

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Once upon a time, in a coffee shop probably around the corner from you, a young woman spends her days in a state of ennui. Not depression, let’s be clear, no, Faris is feeling ‘lukewarm’ about life. But this is a tepid existential crisis no one in her circle has the power to alleviate. Not customers, co-workers, and not her somewhere in the clouds therapist. And no wonder, for as Faris succinctly states: “You know how when you tap on a youtube video to see how much longer it’s going to take? I do that with people.” …

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PrettyUgly Theatre Productions. By Hannah Gibson-Fraser and Jodi MirdenDirected by Alain Chauvin. Cast: Hannah Gibson-Fraser, Jodi Morden and Dan DeMarbre.

Bold, sassy, smart, sexy and very funny, Rachel and Zoe delivers. As the lights come up on the inevitable centre stage piece of furniture, the bane of so many minimal Fringe sets, don’t be fooled. No one who has seen this show will ever be able to look at that couch again without thinking of Rachel and Zoe, always uncorked and courageously uncensored. …

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Often, it is the perspective of pets which proves to be the most humorous and oddly insightful. The story of a family dog  adjusting to the arrival of a new puppy in House Rules is definitely no exception in this regard. The show, a new work created and directed by Mark MacDonald, is a thoroughly competent and funny workshop piece on the canine mind. The story starts off with Waffles (portrayed by Nick Wade) still getting over the move of his older brother Duke to the farm. Unexpectedly, a new puppy arrives; Waffles is at first suspicious of this new arrival, whom he thinks is the family replacement for Duke.  As he grudgingly spends more time with the puppy and trains him in the ways of the house, however, Waffles comes to eventually accept him as one of their own. …

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Reviewed by Ryan Pepper.

Ottawa theatre legend Pierre Brault returns to Fringe Fest with a comedic solo show about an ancient Spartan who just wants to enjoy art, and maybe create some too. Kaphalos is an amateur historian in a society that hates writing, and a disgraced Spartan warrior, one of the 120 Spartiates to surrender to Athenian forces at the Battle of Sphacteria in 425BC. Living in Sparta years after the battle and now working as a tanner, he is asked by Lysander, legendary Spartan admiral, to act as defence lawyer to an irreverent playwright charged with sedition and breaking Sparta’s strict laws involving what can and cannot be said in art. The play follows Kaphalos’ struggle to defend the only great playwright Sparta’s ever had, and his increasing disillusion with Spartan society that values death on the battlefield as the greatest thing in the world, and is vehemently opposed to all forms of art and culture. …

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#Faustus                   Photo Andrew Alexander   William Beddoes as Faustus

The first shock that lands from #Faustus is the language. Against the backdrop of a visual barrage of what looks like a WikiLeaks spill of internet data mixed with images and headlines Faust, William Beddoe, plunges into a poetic narrative, courtesy of Christopher Marlow. And herein lies the superior strength and the challenge of this intriguing show. The signal conveyed by all that computer imaging is that we are in modern times. So it takes the ear a few moments to adjust to the poetically packed verse. One asks, where are we? Where is Faust? Aha, he’s in front of the computer screen of the world, contemplating the meaning of life. Human kind is devolving into chaos and Faust wants answers.  At any cost.

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Reviewed by Ryan Pepper

Drunk : Text gives audiences a musical theatre love letter to Broadway

It’s not surprising that Drunk Text from Miltonbone Productions started as creator Mathieu Charlebois’ graduation recital at Carleton University. The play comes across as a young person’s love letter to Broadway, complete with all the tropes that Broadway fanatics love. Over the course of the hour-long production, there are songs about following your dreams to New York City, a song about an ex-girlfriend plotting her revenge on her almost-fiance, love songs, and songs about seizing the moment. This earnest musical fully embraces the Broadway cheesiness of musicals like Dear Evan Hansen, a world full of people bursting into feelgood show tunes. …

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In a small empty space illuminated by several enlarged computer screens, a shadowy figure sits contemplating the lists of glowing symbols, mathematical signs, and strange calculations whizzing along in front of us. This is the current knowledge of the world enticing the ambitious Faustus who wants to meet Mephistopheles  as he vows  to give his soul to the devil. …

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