Another year, another Saskatoon summer, another Saskatoon Fringe Theatre Festival!
There are so many shows at the Fringe this year, and the number has been going up and up and up since the pandemic. And you can trust the reviewers here at PodSask to give you an idea of what’s coming to each and every stage.
Do you want magic? Storytelling? Singing or saxophone or silliness? Check out PodSask for reviews of all the Fringe shows as the festival goes on.
And without further ado, here’s the first six Fringe reviews of the year!
100% Wizard
What we loved: You are going to be hard-pressed to find a more casually confident magician than Keith Brown, and he backs that confidence up with marvelous magical talent.
Brown’s show blends storytelling and magic tricks in a way where one never gets in the way of the other. His personal anecdotes are relatable (who hasn’t had an airline horror story?) and he delivers them with wit and a smile.
In the Broadway Theatre, in front of a smaller crowd on opening night, the room never felt too big or too small for Brown’s tricks. Some larger-scale feats of mentalism, coupled with clever close-up magic (captured smartly by a streaming camera showing the tricks on the Broadway projection screen) helped the show really flex in terms of its scope.
He’s also a fan of pulling people from the crowd for audience participation, and he’s the first magician I remember seeing at the Fringe who gave everyone an avenue to bow out if they didn’t want to get on the stage with him.
What we didn’t love: The show is a little slow to get rolling, which wasn’t helped by Brown fighting a bit to find willing audience members at different points during his hour onstage. To his credit, he was incredibly patient with the audience and was rewarded with some big energy from a limited crowd.
If you’re a fan of magic shows, one or two of Brown’s tricks might not be the most revolutionary – but he pulls all of them off with panache regardless.
The verdict: Go see this show. Bring your friends. Bring six of your friends, and their friends too – Brown’s is the kind of magic show that’s going to be a little more fun with a bigger and more engaged crowd. Nevertheless, Brown has set the bar high for magic at the Saskatoon Fringe with his talent and charm.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
– Matt Olson
***
Juicy Woo-Woo: A UFO Cabaret
What we loved: John Sobol is a fantastic saxophone player, and there is an undeniable surreal vibe to his show. A conversation about aliens punctuated by some absolutely magnificent sax riffs and spoken word interjections is a sight and sound to behold.
The whole unique framework for the show holds a lot of promise, and even if it wasn’t perfect it’s hard not to applaud trying something a little different. Sobol isn’t afraid to take on big, thought-provoking ideas in his performance.
What we didn’t love: This show is, to put it simply, confusing. While the central thrust was there – not questioning whether aliens exist, but rather why they are here and what they may want from us – the show felt unrefined. Long diatribes about the proof of extraterrestrial life, accompanied by the audio clips of famous (and often reasonably credible) people giving their accounts or sharing second-hand accounts of UFO sightings, made it all feel a little too much like a lecture about aliens rather than a piece of entertainment.
This show doesn’t bring the laughs of a pure comedy or the relatable human connection of a compelling drama, and the flow broken up by (top-notch) saxophone playing made the storytelling feel disjointed.
The verdict: I believe there is a mesmerizing show in here somewhere, and I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. But as it stands now, there’s some polish missing from this cabaret.
This is not a show for everyone – but for those of you who want to contemplate our place in the universe with some slick saxophone accompaniment, there’s something to like here.
Rating: ★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩
– Matt Olson
***
Fakespeare
What we loved: “Fakespeare” is a spirited and comedic retelling of a Shakespearean tragedy (either Macbeth or Hamlet depending on the audience’s preference). It is a casual, one-person show that utilizes high energy, humour, repetition, and audience participation to ferry the audience through a massive and iconic play in only forty minutes.
Patrick Hercamp is personable and interactive with the audience in the lead up to the performance and creates a relaxed atmosphere in preparation for a massive undertaking. This is a palatable and humorous show that even managed to hit some of the emotional moments of Macbeth. It is fun, full of laughs, and it had the opening night audience leaping to their feet at the end.
What we didn’t love: This show misses some of the gravitas of a theatrical monster like Macbeth, but that is going to happen in a comedic recap in such a short time. Some liberties were taken with specific details (though none that significantly alter the meaning of the play), but the largest miscue was the wrap-up that tried to suggest that the overall message of Macbeth had to do with love. It felt forced and out of place, even though the message spoken was lovely and relatable.
Verdict: If you don’t understand or like Shakespeare, then you must see this show. If you are a fan of the Bard, it is still a fun and lighthearted take on a classic story, but it is mostly intended for those who don’t find Shakespeare accessible or relatable. It is enjoyable, easy to digest and the time flies by.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Bobby Williston
***
A Cabaret of Legends
What we loved: When excellence in singing, storytelling and overflowing charisma meet, you get Tymisha Harris.
An absurdly talented performer, Harris’ one-woman cabaret puts some of the greatest Black woman singers of all time in a well-deserved spotlight. She brings attention not only to their musical prowess, but also to their lives – the challenges they faced, the barriers they broke through or were unable to break through, and the struggles still facing Black women today.
Most impressively, though, is Harris’ ability to bring each of these different singers and their distinct styles to life. It’s one thing to be a good singer, and it’s quite another to be a great performer. Harris has all that and more, bringing sparkling energy and deep truth and vulnerability to the Broadway Theatre stage in this musical and historical exploration. The show does not shy away from some difficult parts of American history – Harris herself said you could call it a protest.
And while it’s hard to pick a favourite, the dual-style rendition of “I Will Always Love You” in the affectation of both Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston was especially captivating.
What we didn’t love: The fact that the theatre wasn’t full to the brim on Friday night! This kind of show would be electric with a full house, though Harris had her crowd out of their seats and clapping anyways.
There were a couple of teensy little hiccups in some transitions here and there, but they were all so small. Harris carries herself like a true professional – even getting a small cough to end a song was played off with delightful charm.
The verdict: Stylish and thought-provoking, this was an A-plus through and through. Harris is unforgettable, and so are the brilliant women she shines a light on in this show.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
– Matt Olson
***
Happier and Healthier
What we loved: Doddering old Harold (Liam Johnston) is everyone’s aging grandpa or great-grandpa or uncle, and you can’t help but like the curmudgeon.
The show is pretty straightforward on the surface – Harold, who lives alone after the passing of his wife, needs to get his home and his life cleaned up before his grandkids come for a visit. Something is obviously amiss, though, as Harold struggles with some personal challenges on the way to learning personal truths.
Credit to Johnston’s acting for keeping the audience engaged and interested as the only one on stage for the majority of the play. Johnston was a lot more fun than one might expect playing an old man, and his dry delivery and blunt attitude make Harold a character you want to root for. Once you realize something is wrong in Harold’s life, you’re left wanting to know what it could be.
What we didn’t love: A tight show is always appreciated at the Fringe, but as previously mentioned, this one absolutely races to a sudden conclusion. With a very slow-build start and just a 45-ish minute runtime, it felt like this script had the space to solve some of these pacing issues.
And while we can’t deny the style and grace of Ethan Gallays’ character when the arrived onstage, their appearance definitely felt a little out of place to the rest of the show. There were some really cool and fun ideas here that lacked a bit of connective tissue to really bring it all together.
Verdict: It’s fun and fresh and buoyed by strong acting. If you need a quick romp through original indie theatre, it’s worth a look. With a little bit of extra shine, this could be a piece that jumps from simply good to really great.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Matt Olson
***
Crossroads
What we loved: If you had to pick just one Fringe show to make you laugh and have a good time, this is the one.
“Crossroads” showcases four original Saskatchewan plays, each by a different Saskatchewan playwright. Don’t worry – they’re drastically different and devilishly funny. A show about a pair of mobsters lamenting how they whacked their boss? Frogs debating crossing a busy highway? Summoning the literal devil? This one has it all.
The four Saskatchewan artists on the stage did a great job bringing energy and humour to this wacky conglomeration of stories. It’s hard to pick a standout performer, either, because the shows are so different and the characters all so fun and weird in their own way. Without spoiling anything, the final play about drugs and curse words (there is a lot of cursing in this show) probably had the audience laughing the hardest.
There was so much to enjoy in this odd mix of plays. Even if you don’t like one of them, the next one might blow your doors off.
What we didn’t love: As is the case when you do a showcase of multiple short plays or skits, some of them are going to rise or sink above the others. One of the short plays didn’t quite have the same juice as the other three, even if it was well-acted.
The short plays are, ostensibly, connect by the idea of featuring a life-changing decision or moment – a “crossroads” for a character, if you will. But because the plays are so different, that connection wasn’t always there. It would have been great to have something more concrete to bring all the plays together and keep them from feeling more separated from each other.
The verdict: Creative, wacky, and a little self-aware in the best kind of way, this is how you have fun at the Fringe. If you don’t enjoy yourself at this show, I don’t know how to help you. It’s not perfect theatre, but it’s energetic and truly laugh-out-loud hilarious. Seriously – I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud so much at a theatre production.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
– Matt Olson
***
The Saskatoon Fringe Festival runs until August 8th. You can find more information at 25thstreettheatre.org.
