Halifax Fringe Roundup: Day 1.

Part of the fun and the charm of a Fringe Festival is that you are never quite sure what to expect from the shows. Sometimes in a single day you can see six shows that run the gamut between something painful and something sublime. Sometimes the painful shows are sublime in their own ways. I don’t remember an Opening Day of Fringe that was as consistently strong as my evening tonight at the Bus Stop Theatre. I saw four comedies and spent the whole night laughing out loud: what an incredible gift. Merry Theatre Christmas, everyone!

She Wolf by Gillian English and William Shakespeare. The Bus Stop Theatre.

Gillian English fucking hates the Patriarchy.

She channels her passion and her anger into the character of Queen Margaret d’Anjou, who you may recognize from four of Shakespeare’s history plays, or as the model for Claire Underwood from House of Cards. Queen Margaret takes issue with the way she has been portrayed in four Shakespearean monologues and she unpacks each one for us, using humour and pop culture references, pointing out historical inaccuracies, and drawing the link between the way Margaret has been immortalized and the ways in which women seeking political power continue to be demonized, delegitimized and shut out of leadership to this day.

One of the biggest problem that Margaret d’Anjou faces in death is the veneration so many people have for the work of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare did not write his history plays in lieu of history books- in fact in his time they were overt and deeply political propaganda, written to curry favour with those in charge who would keep him alive, employed and fed. If we continue to allow white, Anglo-Saxon men who have been dead for hundreds of years to shape our understanding of the past, then it’s clear that more marginalized voices, like those of Queen Margaret, get skewed or silenced altogether.

Since not everyone finds it fun to fall down a House of Lancaster Wikipedia hole like I do, English knows how to make explaining warring factions among the British Monarchy in a 15th Century Civil War both clear and hilarious. There are definitely parallels between English’s comedic style and Michelle Wolf, where the truth of the comedy can be infuriating, but the way it is delivered makes you laugh out loud regardless.

English also shows off an exceptional command of Shakespeare’s language and a strong range as an actor in the monologues she performs from various points in Margaret’s fictionalized life.

Shakespeare’s Histories are titled Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VIII, King John, Pericles, Richard II and Richard III, every single character he wrote based on a real woman was written as a character in somebody else’s story. That is, after all, exactly how the Patriarchy works. English places Queen Margaret at the hub of her play, and the more she tells the audience about her, the more incredible it seems that she’s been cast aside by time. How many other women’s stories don’t we know, or have we learned all wrong? The answer is probably millions.

She Wolf plays at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street) at the following times:

Friday August 31st 8pm

Saturday September 1st 11:30am

Sunday September 2nd 7pm

Monday September 3rd 4pm

Tuesday September 4th 6pm

Wednesday September 5th 8pm

Thursday September 6th 5:30pm

Friday September 7th 10:30pm

Saturday September 8th 2:30pm

Sunday September 9th 11:30am.

Tickets. Find Gillian on Social Media: Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@GillEnglish).

Oh Crap, My Scarf by Kevin Hartford. The Bus Stop Theatre.

Kevin Hartford has written a new play, adjacent to the one he wrote for Halifax Fringe last year, in which two of that play’s minor characters become the stars of their own strange and mysterious caper. Harold (Garrett Barker) and Ellen (Lesley Smith) are retired lawyers who have become bank robbers. They are on the lam and find themselves in a picturesque Italian villa. Something here is very wrong, however, when everyone within a close proximity to them ends up dead. How can they keep a low profile if they keep happening into crime scenes by accident?

The play is written and directed in an Absurdist and stylized way. Hartford’s writing is fast-paced, silly, and often quite eloquent. Barker plays Harold as reserved and calm, while Smith’s Ellen is quirky and exuberant. She has an “Old Hollywood” sound to her voice and moves and speaks in grand, dramatic, gestures. Both seem blissfully oblivious to the idea of empathy. Kayla Gunn has a very fun cameo as Sergei, a Russian ex pat mixed up in a series of unfortunate events, and Gunn merrily steals the show.

There may be more opportunities for Hartford to tie even more of his funny ideas into the crux of the plot, but overall Oh Crap, My Scarf, which is just 25 minutes, is delightful in its strangeness and silliness.

Oh Crap, My Scarf plays at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street) at the following times:

Saturday September 1st 2:30pm

Tuesday September 4th 9pm

Thursday September 6th 7pm

Saturday September 8th 5:30pm

Tickets.

Hello City Presents: The Book Club. The Bus Stop Theatre.

Hello City Improv certainly knocked it out of the proverbial park tonight with their production of the all-improvised Seduced by the Sniper, very loosely based on the ideas around the Harlequin romance novel of the same name. Henricus Gielis asked the audience three important questions that informed the direction that the improvised plot would take: What was your favourite moment in the book? What was the saddest part of the book? and What was your favourite sentence in the book? He then read the description on the back of the novel, which was quite thorough.

From there, Gielis took on the role of the story’s narrator and he and the rest of the cast, Liam Fair, Stepheny Hunter, Colin Mcguire, Peter Sarty, Simon Marshall, Beth Dunn, and Gil Anderson made up the story, being sure to weave in the audience’s favourite scene, saddest moment and favourite sentence. The result was a hysterical, fully-realized short play with a well paced plot, lots of silliness, and interesting characters, which was very fun to watch unfold.

The cast is uniformly great, they are expert listeners, and play nicely off each other’s ideas and talents. Special shining lights tonight were Hunter’s portrayal of Whiskers the Cat, Anderson’s incredible physicality in transforming into a variety of different characters, and Gielis finding the perfect balance of when to narrate and when to leave space for his cast mates to play.

The Bus Stop Theatre was packed for this show, and the energy in the room was palpable. Since the shows are improvised, there are three more opportunities to see completely different improvised plays later this week. I’m already trying to squeeze another show into my schedule. Hello City is my new favourite thing. Don’t miss it!

Hello City Presents the Book Club Plays at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street) at the following times:

Friday August 31st 11pm

Tuesday September 4th 7:30pm

Thursday September 6th 9:30pm

Tickets. Follow Hello City on Social Media. Facebook. Instagram (@HelloCityImprov).

IN SPAAAAAACE: An Intergalactic Comedy. By Nick Cox. The Bus Stop Theatre.

jessica oliver

If I asked you to imagine what The Muppet Show’s “Pigs in Space” sketches would be if they were cast with human actors, you might be tempted to say that they would be Star Trek, but I think this new comedy by Nick Cox is a more accurate answer.

IN SPAAAAAACE is a play set up like a science fiction television program, with its own title sequence, episodic in structure, centred on the adventures of the crew of the USS Budget. Colleen MacIsaac plays Captain Victoria Slycler, the leader of a centuries old mission to bring peace to an already peaceful universe. Her world is turned upside down when she meets Captain Dean Rockman (Nick Cox) and Rubixicon: Destroyer of Worlds and she finds herself having to fight for her job and her values.

There is a lot to love in this play. The cast is excellent. Steven Heisler gives an especially hilarious performance as GRAAAH!, whose hatred of being put on hold is central to the plot. Shawn Maggio gives just the right amount of pathos to Rubixicon, a super villain with super-sized insecurities. Jesse Harley directs the piece in a loving pastiche to shows like Star Trek, and there’s great use of video, lighting and costumes, which really root the play in a very specific genre, time and place.

IN SPAAAAAACE is a solid little gem of a play; it’s laugh out loud funny and lots of fun.