Mental health

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...

I mistakenly thought that The Lion, The Bitch and The Wardrobe would be some kind of C.S. Lewis parody, but things are not what they seem at The Vancouver Fringe Festival. The lion in this story is not some omnipotent God-like figure, but Sharon Mahoney’s crippling anxiety. Mahoney shares her own battles with anxiety and panic attacks in her hilarious and deeply personal show The Lion, The Bitch and The Wardrobe. She honestly discusses the stigma around mental health and that no matter how creatively talented, no one is immune to mental illness.

I do not usually enjoy street...