Reviews

  • Vancouver’s Kevin Kraussler and Ming Hudson wrote and perform the show. It alternates between two separate stories and time periods: the first recorded case of schizophrenia, James Matthews, hospitalized in London’s ‘Bedlam’ asylum in the late 18th century and a current story of a delusional woman and her daughter that was drawn from the real-life exposure of the cast.

    The play opens with a male physician speaking to our audience as if we were a professional jury. He presents a patient suffering from delusions who has been hospitalized for many years. They are reviewing his mental status in order to...

  • The whole set of this play takes place in the bar. The story is not very original to start with. It is about a guy who is pretending to be a widower in order to hook up with an attractive girl at the bar. The play's forty minutes consist of them going back and forth with standard pleasantries just in time for him to agree to go back to her place and – you guessed it – that is when his “deceased” wife appears to bust him. Somehow, I saw that coming—wouldn't you?

    The story does not end quite yet and takes you a...

  • And Bella Sang with Us is a play about the first women police officers in Canada. Set in Vancouver in 1912, these two women: Constable Harris, played by Leanna Brodie, and Constable Miller, played by Sarah Louise Turner, try and make it in the “men’s” world of policing. This is a serious drama that authentically portrays some of the issues that the city still grapples with today. With raw emotion, splendid music, and uncomfortable issues, And Bella Sang with Us is an intriguing fictional history of Vancouver.

    Directed by Sarah Rodgers, And Bella Sang with Us is performed...

  • What happens when a coworker goes rogue? Specifically, what happens at a Canadian network’s children show when one of their clowns goes rogue? Does Not Play Well with Others, written and performed by Pick of the Fringe winners Adam Francis Proulx and Kira Hall, explores how the aftermath of a PR crisis involving a tropical fruit effects two puppeteers.

    There is a lot going on in this show and since props feature heavily, let’s start with them. The puppets themselves are for the characters of Oomph and Bae, they are the stars of the show within the show and give Hall...

  • Having seen one of the other shows in this series, I came to this show with great expectations. I was nearly bouncing in my seat to see another one. I even brought a friend this time! The show was comprised of two different plays, starting with The Lilacs That Come a Month Early Are Still So Beautiful and followed by Cosmic Justice.

    The Lilacs That Come a Month Early Are Still So Beautiful starts with a man named The Last of His Kind moving through a blue sheet that I thought was water, maybe. As the story progresses several...

  • Aiming to Float is the first dramatic reading in the series, Advance Theatre: New Works by Women. Written by Janet Hinton after having experience both as a patient and an instructor at a pain clinic, Aiming to Float examines a number of common themes against the backdrop of life altering pain.

    Seven months after ‘the accident’ Seamus is not the man he used to be and Chris is still on the waiting list for therapy at a pain clinic. Unable to function as a mother, wife, money-earner, or school volunteer, pain and dysfunction have become the norm for Chris....

  • Piaf and Brel is a one-woman show performed by internationally acclaimed vocalist Melanie Gall. While being seated behind individual cabaret-like tables, prepare to be taken away by the power and clarity of Melanie Gall’s incredible vocals.

    She tells the interesting story of the life of the French singer Edit Piaf and the Belgian singer and songwriter Jacques Brel. Both are iconic musical figures and exceptional singers. Gall mixes the story of the two musicians with facts from her own biography, bringing the audience closer to her and her performance.

    You are guaranteed to be taken away by the extreme professionalism and quality...

    Melanie Gall
  • Pay attention, it’s fast! Steve Larkin is a British spoken-word artist who has written and performed several poems and songs pertaining to many topics that people could easily get offended by. The name of his show relates to a poem he reads about women’s magazines and their obsession with fat and sex. This poem goes on for quite a long time in a psychotic mantra-like style. Much of the content is lost because his northern English accent is a little thick and he’s speaking so fast that you can miss some of the words.

    When Larkin is just...

  • This three part fusion of digital and live-action visual manipulation is stellar in its conception, but varied in execution.

    We’ve all seen something of the latest in motion capture technology, most likely on the screens of the latest Hollywood blockbuster movies. In a short introduction producer, director, and performer Athomas Goldberg informs audiences that the result of motion capture that we see on the Hollywood screen arises from the immense effort of teams of digital artists and technicians. He says this process takes a long time in film post-production because a single minute of motion capture performance creates many...

  • Mrs. Barbour's Daughters by AJ Taudevin is inspired by a true story around a very real Mrs. Barbour, a Scottish housewife and political activist who invoked change in the early 20th century. Mrs. Barbour is known for gathering women to fight against increased rent, her organized protests quickly leading to the Rent Restriction Act in Europe. Taudevin's story takes place years after, focusing on 87 year old Mary, played by the magnificent Barbara Ellison, who is facing eviction from her building that is set to be demolished. Mrs. Barbour's Daughters uniquely unfolds with flashbacks to Mary's past as songs...

Pages