I started Day 5 of the Halifax Fringe Festival with some improv from The Con Artists, the students from Neptune Theatre School’s Adult Improv Showcase. The showcase was divided into two parts: short form improv games, and a series of long form improv scenes, similar to Hello City’s current show (Lords of Fogtown). My first favourite thing about The Con Artists is that the troupe is made up of five women and one man; it makes me so happy seeing so many young women feeling enthusiastic and empowered through improv! It was apparent that the students Kaitlyn Clow, Heidi Hodgkinson, Amy Mielke, Beldam Raworth, Kyah Sparks and Zachary Zimmer were working together as a team to tell these stories. There were lots of instances where the dialogue began to feel more and more organic, where the scenes began to incorporate more movement and action, and where performers started to take more risks. This was especially apparent as the narrative of the long form scenes were beginning to take shape, and ideas were building on ideas, and the troupe did a really great job of tying the story’s lose ends together into a satisfying ending. It was also really apparent that these students were having a lot of fun and their enthusiasm was infectious, which is exactly how I like to start my days at the Fringe!
The Con Artists’ show at Halifax Fringe has closed. You can follow Neptune Theatre School on Social Media: Facebook. Instagram (@neptunetheatreschool).
One of the most vulnerable performances I have ever seen is FLOURISH: Seeds & Needs by Nickel Peace-Williams. In the description for the show in the Fringe guide it says, “FLOURISH: Seeds & Needs ventures into honest expression of my non-binaryness.” Sitting nude on the floor, Peace Williams begins their show by making shapes out of clay. As you might imagine, it stirs up feelings of awkwardness, but at the same time the ambiance in the room felt safe, there is a curiosity inherent in the room as well and also a tension in how we are looking and why, and how and why Peace-Williams and the clay are being watched. Once dressed, they begin to move to the music, an evocative mixture of familiar, popular songs. The imagery in their dance is very clear, their eyes speak wonders, their movements are crisp, and I certainly felt their exploration of themes of hopefulness, disappointment, embarrassment, and falling in love. At the end we are given a beautiful gift, and Peace-Williams has given us instructions for how to care for and encourage something new to grow. This work is very generous and I know I will continue to think about it for weeks and months to come.
FLOURISH: Seeds & Needs‘ at the Halifax Fringe has closed.
Gillian English is angry. For those of you who have seen English’s shows before, either here in Halifax or during one of her many tours to Fringe Festivals across multiple continents, this may come as no surprise. Yet, 10 Things I Hate About Taming of the Shrew feels like the powerful culmination of rage against the Patriarchy and Toxic Masculinity that has been percolating in many of her earlier shows. I’m struck, continually, in how simple (and obvious) English’s observations of our problematic popular culture are, but how it still feels so damn refreshing and empowering to hear them articulated out loud. The target of English’s anger is William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew, a play about a husband literally torturing his wife into submission. The problem, English explains, isn’t even that the play was written circa 1591, but that it is still being performed and adapted into films for teenagers, despite the fact that its message should be easily identifiable as running contrary to modern day values. The issues don’t stop with four hundred year old texts either, as English points out, there are countless examples of horrifying song lyrics hiding behind catchy melodies and new ones still being written that are just as problematic. English understands that the best way to make her anger palatable for an audience, to keep the message clear, but not completely alienate everyone she wants to connect with, is through laughter. The humour is dark, and often simultaneously sad, but English strikes a good balance between encouraging her audience to think, while also making them laugh. You don’t have to know anything about William Shakespeare to follow English’s arguments, she does a great job at telling the story using colloquial language and modern analogies that really highlight the disturbing nature of this play, which also are often hidden amid Shakespeare’s ornate language. English mixes in anecdotes from her own life experiences, living in Tasmania, and touring shows throughout Australia and to Edinburgh, and growing up in rural Pictou County with a father intent on teaching her how to murder anyone who might someday try to hurt her. Her stories showcase how normalized violence against women continues to be in our society- how we still teach little girls that the boy who physically hurts her on the playground does so because he “likes” her. The message English is driving home here is so simple: how can we create a world without violence against women when glorifications of violence against women are still everywhere? English’s anger is understandable. I hope it is also contagious.
10 Things I Hate About Taming of the Shrew plays at the Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Studio (1589 Argyle Street) at the following times:
Wednesday, September 4th at 10:30 PM
Thursday, September 5th at 8:30 PM
Friday, September 6th at 4:30 PM
Saturday, September 7th at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $12.00/$15.00 and are available HERE. You can follow Gillian English on Social Media: Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@gillenglish).
Ewerton Andrade Martins’ El Diablo of the Cards is an astonishing magic and comedy show, all based around a simple deck of cards and a room full of people. Martins plays a frenetic, but very personable clown with the ability to make cards disappear and reappear in seemingly impossible places. He can find cards that he has not seen, that were chosen at random by audience members (and often they show up in the weirdest places!), he can put a card underneath three people’s hands and then have them open them up to reveal a completely different card. He. Is. Mind. Blowing. I loved how Martins integrated the children who were helping with the tricks into the show. On Monday afternoon seven year old Charlotte really embraced her role of sidekick, becoming more and more dramatic and confident as Martins encouraged her and let her help in more and more elaborate ways. Charlotte may also grow up to be a magician. Martins speaks a bit in the show about the wonder and light in children’s eyes, and how many grownups lose this spark as they age. It’s a lovely reminder that, while I’m sure some people will be trying desperately to figure out HOW Martins does his magic, there is a lot of benefit to going back out into the world with a bit more belief in magic. Originally from Brazil, Martins is travelling to 52 different countries on his tour and I’m certain that he is leaving a trail of delighted children and astonished adults questioning everything they thought they knew about physics behind him. Go see this show, I especially recommend it for children!
El Diablo of the Cards plays at 2202 Gottingen Street (the Old Company House) at the following times: Wednesday, September 4th at 10:30 PM
Thursday, September 5th at 8:10 PM
Friday, September 6th at 10:45 PM
Saturday, September 7th at 11:30 AM. Tickets are $9.00/$12.00 and are available HERE. You can find El Diablo of the Cards on Social Media: Facebook. Instagram (@ElDiablooftheCards).
Charlie Caper- Robotricks is similar to El Diablo of the Cards in its level of proficiency in astonishing magic tricks, but the shows are very different in their overall concept, and I really recommend checking both of them out. Despite what you might assume by looking at their titles, El Diablo is more appropriate for younger children and Charlie Caper for older ones; Charlie Caper is a little bit scary! Both shows are perfect for adults. Charlie Caper is a Swedish magician/scientist who is exuberant about building AI robots, solving puzzles, cryptography, and sharing his passion for these things with others. He has created numerous AI robots who can do everything from passing butter to magic tricks of their own, and one robot works as his sidekick/assistant, facilitating onstage banter, and continually reminding Caper to put on his bowtie (which keeps disappearing from around his neck right in front of our eyes). The narrative of the show is really fun, suspenseful, with some genuine (and magical!) surprises, and a really fascinating message at the end about the future and our collective responsibility in how we use the technology we invent. This is a gem of a show, make sure you add it to your Must See Fringe List!
Charlie Caper: Robotricks plays at the Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Studio (1589 Argyle Street) at the following times: Wednesday, September 4th at 7:30 PM
Thursday, September 5th at 3:00 PM, 10:00 PM
Friday, September 6th at 3:00 PM
Saturday, September 7th at 1:10 PM, 10:30 PM
Sunday, September 8th at 11:30 AM, 4:00 PM. Tickets are $11.00/$14.00 and are available HERE. You can find Charlie Caper on Social Meda: Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@CharlieCaper).
I loved everything about this production of Sylvia Milo’s The Other Mozart, a play about Amadeus’ sister, Nannerl, who showed incredible promise and skill in playing the harpsichord and composing music, but was continually pushed aside by her family and community in favour of her brother because she was a girl. The story takes place with the actor, Sofi Lambert, sitting on a giant and gorgeous 18 foot skirt (designed by Magdalena Dabrowska), which fans out across the stage and is covered with handwritten letters. We begin with Nannerl as a precocious child waiting to be old enough to begin taking music lessons from her father. The birth of her younger brother is an immediate interruption in her world, but when he barges into her lesson as a toddler and can play the same song she is learning, it becomes apparent that his musical education and promise will always take precedence over hers. There is constant tension in their home as well, as her father does use Nannerl’s talents as an excuse for giving her opportunities that most woman of her time could only dream of: travelling around Europe with “Wolfie” and playing for concerts to equal acclaim as him, delaying finding her a suitor and encouraging her to practice music at the expense of more “feminine” duties. Nannerl’s mother, however, is desperate to have her married off, and continually encourages her daughter to behave in a more “ladylike” manner. Eventually, her father can no longer make excuses for why she is not married, and the life of a musician is closed to her completely. Milo weaves the story together with pieces from real letters that had been sent to and from the four Mozart family members over several decades, which gives us a fascinating sense of “Wolfie’s” eccentric sense of humour and frenetic energy. Nannerl oscillates between feeling unbridled pride for his accomplishments and bitter resentment with an ease and candour that shows how much she loves him, even though he often exasperates her, and he doesn’t ever understand how tightly the world restricts her; he cannot see his own privilege. Lambert plays all the parts clearly and with gusto, she gives Nannerl a beautiful heart that is easy to connect to. The movement in the piece, directed by Isaac Byrne, give a great sense of time passing, locations changing, and also roots us in the play’s time and place. The line that jumped out at me was when Nannerl said that no one had saved the letters she wrote, while, meanwhile, the letters her father and her brother wrote are being quoted throughout the play verbatim. Nannerl’s voice has literally been lost, Milo does such a gorgeous job of giving that voice back, and making sure this talented, passionate and bright woman is given the opportunity to be heard in a time when people will listen to her.
The Other Mozart has one more performance, in French, later today, at 9:00pm at the Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Studio (1589 Argyle Street). Tickets are $12.00/$15.00 and are available HERE. You can follow the show on Social Media: Facebook. Instagram (@OtherMozart).
Les Kurkendaal’s show Walking While Black in Moscow was the last show I saw on Day 5, I sat in a small audience, mostly with other Fringe artists, and the show felt so intimate, like Kurkendaal was telling us a story of one of his most memorable vacations over a beverage at the pub. He has an extremely affable and endearing performance style, his storytelling feels relaxed, like he may not use exactly the same words to tell the story every night, but he’s responding to the particular energy in the room. And the energy in this room was both electric and friendly. As is evident from the show’s title Kurkendaal is black, he is a also gay, and this led to him having some unusual, awkward, and eye-opening experiences while travelling in Russia. In the same way that Kurkendaal says he was reminded of the privilege he experiences at home in California as a gay person by seeing how normalized gay folks are to their own oppression in Russia (casually warning each other not to get a cab from a gay bar as the likelihood of being gay bashed by the cab driver is high); as a white person, I had a similar experience listening to the casual way Kurkendaal explained the constant mico-aggressions he experienced there for being black. Conversely, there are many surprising and hopeful anecdotes in this story as well, and a lot of touristy tidbits about Moscow that I found interesting. The show is very open-hearted and I left the theatre feeling like I had made a new friend. This was an ideal way to end Day 5 of Halifax Fringe.
Walking While Black in Moscow plays at the Neptune Theatre Imperial Studio (1589 Argyle Street) at the following times: Friday, September 6th at 6:50 PM
Saturday, September 7th at 8:45 PM
Sunday, September 8th at 5:55 PM. Tickets are $12.00/$15.00 and are available HERE.
The Halifax Fringe runs until September 8th, 2019. Schedules and tickets are available for all the shows HERE, at the venue of the show 30 minutes before it begins (cash or credit), or at the Fringe Hub at Neptune Theatre (1589 Argyle Street) from 10:00am-10:00pm daily during the festival.
Follow Halifax Fringe on Social Media: Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@HalifaxFringe)
