It’s the last of our Fringe reviews!
It’s always a treat to see what the Saskatoon Fringe Festival has to offer for theatre, and to check out all the different great shows. This year’s lineup is no exception to the fun.
Check out part one, part two and part three of our Fringe reviews, along with this final batch.
Storytelling Alive
What we loved: The show’s simple premise, taking a classic fairy tale and giving it a dramatic twist, is a strong foundation for its more novel elements. Likewise, the energetic and charming performances of all three performers were a delight. Kevin Kermack, the show’s key performer, stood out with his exciting storytelling style.
The show’s use of projected drawing in real time, adding individual elements from the story together to reveal a later part of the tale, was novel and very fun. The whispered guesses of kids in the audience as the drawings started to take shape, and the “I knew its” that came with the eventual reveal, both proved that I wasn’t the only one charmed by this aspect of the staging.
What we didn’t love: The show could be tightened up in terms of runtime. While the pacing of the individual stories was excellent, the show was long enough for some of the kids in the audience to start losing focus. This isn’t a big issue with the show; it’s just worth noting when deciding if the show is right for you and your kids.
Verdict: “Storytelling Alive” is funny, joyous, and whimsical storytelling with just the right amount of audience participation. While some storytelling shows end up feeling a little one-note, Lumina Productions’ mix of storytelling, live drawing, and puppetry all adds up to a great experience.
If you’re looking for a show for your kids at this year’s Fringe, “Storytelling Alive” should be on your shortlist.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
– Zachary Knuttila
***
Black Fish
What we loved: The swirling and unpredictable passage of time, shifting amorphously between the present and a world of memory, sets the tone beautifully for an emotional and well-performed exploration of what it is to be an immigrant.
Sima Sheibani and Ohad Winkler masterfully portray the roles of the new arrival and the customs official, himself once an immigrant, through interrogation, story, and memory. The stress, regret, hope, and fear these two performers bring to their characters feel believable and natural. It’s obvious how personal the feelings being explored are, and that brings a weight to the performances that elevates the show towards excellence.
The performances and writing leave it unclear where reality ends and hope and memory begin. It’s an artistic choice that perfectly serves the underlying struggle between the many conflicting feelings that come with choosing to leave home and start a new life. Grounding it all in the familiar framework of One Thousand and One Nights provides a wonderful thread of continuity through the show’s shifting narrative space.
What we didn’t love: There really isn’t a lot to say here, though the shifting through time and memory occasionally leaves a thought behind when it might have been interesting to dive deeper into the ideas that moment was exploring.
Verdict: A truly haunting exploration of the immigrant experience, the pull of home, a life of memory, and the anxiety of an unknown future. “Black Fish” is a wonderful journey through one young woman’s search for a future and one man’s desperate search for a past. Absolutely worth seeing.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
– Zachary Knuttila
***
Who’s Gonna Push Your Wheelchair?
What we loved: Karin Fekko is honest and earnest in the best sort of way.
It’s difficult to imagine turning your personal tragedy into Fringe shows, but it is something that happens in Fringe storytelling. Fekko takes it a step further by exploring many of the facets of her MS diagnosis and how it impacted her independence, her relationships and her mental health.
The show is brutal and uncomfortable, but also genuine and heartwarming. Fekko brings to bear so many facets of her experience that it’s hard to imagine anything being left. Her personal journey is difficult to hear, but uplifting when turned into a piece of Fringe theatre.
What we didn’t love: The level of storytelling in this piece did not quite match the deep quality of the story being told. Fekko breaks her show into chapters, which isn’t a bad idea in a vacuum. But with 10 chapters total, there are moments you wish you could sit in more and some that are hard to remember once they’ve passed.
It’s Fekko’s story to tell, and there are undoubtedly elements to every part of the show that would be difficult to cut. But to really get the most impact out of the story and Fekko’s more restrained brand of storytelling, a bit of a restructure and deeper focus on fewer scenes might help each idea land with a little more weight.
Verdict: This is a fine piece of Fringe theatre. Thoughtful and painfully honest, Fekko’s structure isn’t perfect but her story is immensely interesting. Even though the show might be more introspective than pure entertainment, it is most definitely worth a watch to experience a powerful and personal true story.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Matt Olson
***
The Addies
What we loved: A mixtape of classic pop tunes, young love, high school drama, breakups—everyone has a movie like that that holds a special place in their heart. “The Addies” does a pretty good job of bringing that feeling to life on stage. Its battle-of-the-bands theme provides a seamless way to bring the songs into the show without disrupting the flow, and, most importantly, the songs are really fun.
More importantly, though, when the show indulges in the goofier parts of the trope, it is funny. Very, very funny. It understands the heightened silliness that makes this kind of high school story work and has a cast more than willing to commit to it. It’s clever, well-performed, and well-written. To be frank, in these moments “The Addies” is everything I’m looking for in this style of story.
What we didn’t love: Unfortunately, when it takes a step away from this strength and plays a scene for drama, it tends to lose its footing. The pacing slows, the performances stumble, and the writing can get a little repetitive.
There’s nothing wrong with giving the characters more sincere emotional moments, but they don’t feel as confident or natural as the comedy surrounding them. These stumbles don’t last long, and the show quickly returns to its strengths, but they are nonetheless a speed bump that keeps “The Addies” from being great.
Verdict: A fun high school romp with great songs, a charming story, and some truly hilarious moments, “The Addies” is a lot of fun. This is the second year in a row I’ve seen one of Live Fully Productions’ shows at the Fringe, and both have left me with a similar impression. There’s a lot here that works extremely well, alongside a few rough edges that keep the whole from quite matching its best moments. Still, two years running, they’ve given me plenty to enjoy, and plenty of reasons to see what they bring next.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Zachary Knuttila
***
Tango After Midnight
What we loved: The dancing in “Tango After Midnight” is truly exceptional. From small, intimate movements to dramatic acrobatic feats, the range Erin Scott-Kafadar and Alexander Richardson bring to the stage is nothing less than awe-inspiring. They’re energetic, emotional, extremely talented, and served well by the show’s excellent choreography.
At its best, “Tango After Midnight” needs very little beyond its two performers to be breathtaking.
What we didn’t love: The projected videos used between dances are a solid idea. They provide space for costume changes while carrying the shifting tone, energy, and style of the show from one performance into the next. Unfortunately, the execution doesn’t always live up to the concept, occasionally becoming more of a distraction than a complement to the dancing.
It’s particularly disappointing because the performances themselves are so polished. The projections sometimes work, but too often they feel like a weaker visual interpretation of something the dancers are already communicating far more effectively through movement. The show might be less novel without them, but it would also give its greatest strength more room to shine.
Verdict: There is a frustrating tension at the heart of Tango After Midnight, some of the most impressive dancing I’ve ever seen paired with artistic choices that repeatedly pull attention away from it. Scott-Kafadar and Richardson are captivating performers, and when they trust their movement and choreography to speak for themselves, it is breathtaking.
Despite those frustrations, the strength of the performances easily makes Tango After Midnight worth seeing. It’s a chance to watch two exceptional dancers do remarkable things onstage, even if its multimedia components don’t live up to the same standard.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Zachary Knuttila
***
The Saskatoon Fringe Festival runs until August 8th. You can find more information at 25thstreettheatre.org.
