Well, judging by the number of people in attendance at the Bus Stop Theatre on Saturday afternoon, it seems that Queer Acts is giving Tall Ships a run for their money.

I took in the two shows that I hadn’t previously seen: A sampling of work from DaPoPo’s Acting Out! Queer Youth Theatre Workshop and Fluffer Theatre’s staged reading of Love Me Always.

The Acting Out! pieces introduced Halifax to a fresh and formidable new voice on the Halifax theatre seen. Aisha Sommer Zaman is a young playwright/actor with something to say. The first piece starred Sommer in a monologue about how the magazine industry contributes to negative body image in teen girls. Sommer has poise, presence and personal magnetism that will take her far as an actress. The second piece was performed by local professional actors Keelin Jack (who also stars in the fabulous Touch) and Rhys Bevan-John. The work, presented as a staged reading of a work-in-progress, explored the persecution of gays in Iran. The writing is powerful and beautiful and I look forward to seeing it fully-formed on stage.

The second show starred Hugo Dann as the brilliant and urbane Oscar Wilde. The piece knits together portions of Wilde’s actual writings to bring to life the story of the author's love affair with a selfish young Lord and his subsequent incarceration for gross indecency. Dann is outstanding as both the tortured Wilde struggling to remain sane in intolerable circumstances in prison and the romantic, condescending Wilde musing on love and passion. The text is dense, but Wilde’s words shine, even more than a century later.

For more information on show times and costs, go to: http://www.halifaxpride.com/index.php/pride-week/queer-acts

The house was full for all four shows that opened the Queer Acts Theatre Festival last night, and were we ever grateful for The Bus Stop’s new cooling system. Even packed cheek to jowl, the theatre was cool and comfortable.

The plays themselves covered a wide variety of topics from masturbation to polyamory, yet each (perhaps excluding the campy and demonically-driven rock opera Sissydude) sent the message that love, no matter how messy and painful, is ultimately worth it.

Sissydude is a delightfully over-the-top musical that begins as a kind of love letter to life on Gottingen Street and ends at the fiery gates of Hell. Ian Mullan stars as the fey and fickle Jamie, a hoarder of all things beautiful. When two would-be subletters (Jack Black look-alike Connor Purdy and rockin’ chick Michelle Skelding) come knocking, secrets are revealed and much rock and roll music ensues. Fun, fast and fabulous, this show was a real crowd-pleaser.

Tanya Davis was up next with her one-woman show Nonmonog and the Gray Scale Dwellers. Davis is one of those rare performers that holds the audience in the palm of her hand from her very first line. She positively bubbles over with ideas about love, framing them in poetry, song and hilarious understatements. This show is about embracing non-traditional love in a very traditional world. Davis strives to express the beauty and challenges of polyamorous relationships, and in the process the audience leaves feeling a little in love with her.

The new play called Touch by The Doppler Effect really did touch me on many levels. Actors Keelin Jack and Annie Valentina play young cousins Liddy and Fran (age 12 and 15 respectively) who are best friends despite their age difference. Everything changes as Fran crosses the line from childhood to young adulthood, leaving the socially awkward and possibly gay Liddy behind. The play is about, among other things, bullying, self-acceptance, teenage sexuality and the power of love. Jack and Valentina do a remarkable job of capturing the innocence and angst of those turbulent years.

Last up was one of my favourite shows from last year’s Fringe, Short Skirt Butch. It’s the story of the defiantly queer Jean, a young woman who refuses to button-holed by her sexuality. After a love affair goes tragically but humorously wrong, she calls together the audience (who represent the curious gossip mongers in her small-city community) to explain her actions to them. Jean is such a forthright and self-deprecating character, that it’s hard to imagine a group so heartless as to not commiserate with her and understand her actions. Great story telling on a really interesting theme.

For more information on show times and costs, go to: http://www.halifaxpride.com/index.php/pride-week/queer-acts

All you would-be film makers need to see SPIN, for it contains the fascinating, dying-for-a-cinematic-treatment story of Annie Londonderry, the first woman to bike around the world. (Start working on a script!) Oh, and everyone else should go to this show, too, just because it’s an interesting, entertaining and ultimately enlightening ninety minutes. Evalyn Parry has brought together quirky musical numbers (accompanied by an eclectic mix of instruments, including a bicycle wired for sound), some fantastic spoken word pieces, projections (which malfunctioned slightly on opening night but will likely have received a tune-up by now) and engrossing story telling. I was tickled by the word play—-things like the double meaning of the “chains” of the mall—-and delighted by the stimulating conglomeration of ideas. Cyclists will rejoice in this celebration of the bike, and non-cyclists might even be tempted to give two-wheeling a whirl.

Neptune Studio Theatre
8:00pm July 19-21

When I first wrote about the 2010 Fringe production of Naked, I described the 20-minute vignette about a self-absorbed young girl and a hard working maid as “light as a soap bubble” and “a short, snappy theatre confection”. Since then, playwright Lisa Rose Snow (who also stars in the production along with Stephanie MacDonald) has extended the piece to 60 minutes by adding some video scenes and a second act. Unfortunately, the character and mannerisms of the petulant, agoraphobic rich girl becomes tiresome very quickly. I held out hope that she would change or grow with the added material, but that was not the case. Ultimately, this play delivers the depth of a sitz bath, rather than a claw-footed tub.

The Bus Stop Theatre
9:30pm July 18-20
8:00pm July 21-22

Sometimes theatre is a thing that plays out in front of you on a stage, and sometimes, if you’re very lucky, it’s a thing that involves you and draws you in to its world. This one-man show, directed by Christian Barry and written and performed by Stewart Legere, is definitely, irrefutably the latter. From the moment Legere steps on to the stage, you like him, (and, oddly, want him to like you). You will him to succeed when he stumbles. You laugh at his jokes, funny or not. Above all, you want to know his story, and you follow him eagerly on what is ultimately a winding journey that has oodles to say about love and acceptance.

The Bus Stop Theatre
8:00pm July 18-20
6:30pm July 21-22