Sigh. Trevor Poole has done it again. His amazing show The Spectacle has caused me to lose several hours of my life trying to figure out just how he does the impossible…and I’m still no closer to the answer. Sigh. Poole, whose persona is kind of Columbo meets Rod Serling, seems to pull thoughts from […]
Atlantic Fringe Festival
Posted inArts + Music
Kate Watson’s top fringe picks
Choosing what to see at the Atlantic Fringe Festival is no easy task. Previous years have offered polished gems, diamonds in the rough and stones that should never have been unearthed. But since they’re all offered at practically dollar-store prices, you can’t go wrong. Here are a few of my top picks: Chug The Economy […]
Posted inArts + Music
Fringe review: Feathers and Loam takes flight
Home or travel? Certainty or risk? These questions and others are posed and opposed in J.A. Wainwight’s Feathers and Loam, an extrapolation of the Icarus myth that sees the young dreamer surviving his plunge and debating his world view with a ploughman, his wife, a painter and his muse. While the ideas are interesting, I […]
Posted inArts + Music
Fringe review: Not So Desperate Housewives
The ladies of Camel-Toe Lane are glittery and glamorous. They dress to show off their obvious assets, and they bedeck themselves in eye-popping jewels. They shimmy, shake and lip-sync their way through some oldies but goodies as well as some of today’s most popular songs, all of which are cleverly chosen to tell their various […]
Posted inArts + Music
Fringe review: Serving up unforgettable theatre at the Sunnyside Cafe
Eva seems like someone you might know, or want to know. There’s nothing flashy about her. She’s an honest, hardworking waitress just trying to get by. Sure, she leans a little towards the obsessive-compulsive, but actress Sherry Smith makes her odd ways believable and even endearing. The world that playwright Pam Calabrese MacLean has created […]
Posted inArts + Music
Fringe review: Danger! Sharp Wit ahead
Here’s a confession: Until last night, I was a stand-up comedy virgin. So, having never been to a live stand-up show before, I didn’t know that my husband and I should NOT sit in the front row of the tiny Living Room Theatre for Welsh comic Noel James’ The Wit and Wordplay of Whales. I […]
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Fringe review: Vern & Gregory, guaranteed to make you laugh
The fringe festival can be pretty intense. A lot of shows explore heavy themes, and even though the pain of life is usually served up with a dose of humour, some nights I leave thinking, “So, life’s a bitch and then you die.” Which is what made Jamie Bradley and Scott Owen’s Vern & Gregory! […]
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Fringe review: Huge Sums of Money
Some people just radiate positivity, and out-of-work actor/arts administrator Adam Reid is one of those people. He’s got one of those Mary Tyler Moore “turn the world on with her smile” smiles and a can-do attitude that seem to indicate he’ll go far in life. But his short one-man show Huge Sums of Money tells […]
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Fringe review: Beyond the Road Less Gravelled
Ah, the staple of fringe festivals: the one-man show. A solo show gives audiences the chance to spend an hour or so with one character, learning the deep, dark secrets of a life. If done well, this can be entertaining and enlightening. But in the wrong hands, a one-man show is as much fun as […]
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Fringe review: The unexpected pleasure of CHUG
The pleasure of watching the dancers of SINS (Sometime in Nova Scotia) perform their contemporary dance piece CHUG amongst the patrons at the Economy Shoe Shop is doubled by watching the reactions of the audience. As the gracefully athletic trio sprawl across the bar or chase each other playfully around tables and up steps, people […]
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Fringe review: J-Tel Presents…a fun family show
I am a sucker for talented young people, and I have a thing for folk music, so the awkwardly titled J-Tel Presents…Canadian Folk Songs Super-Hits Sound Explosion seemed like it would be right up my alley. I was not disappointed! This show is a clever satire of both infomercials and the “raise a perfect child” […]
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Fringe review: Pain equals laughter
I have a theory that most truly funny people have suffered. Laughter—particularly the self-deprecating kind—makes a great mechanism for hiding pain. Charlie Rhindress as the titular character in Boo doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to either pain or humour. For 55 minutes, he stands on stage and bares his soul inch by inch, […]