More, more more! (Fringe reviews, that is)
Another six Saskatoon Fringe reviews to add to the ever-growing list. Check out more about this year’s slate of shows here!
Did you miss the first few reviews from PodSask? Check out part 1 here and part 2 here!
Drag Me to the Opera
What we loved: If you know opera, you will like this show. If you don’t know opera, you will like this show.
While Aida Cupcake begins the show by saying “opera is boring,” this show is anything but. She masterfully combines talent, humour, heart, and autobiography to draw the audience into her story. Her infectious nature had the Saturday afternoon audience rooting for her.
This production is an open window for anyone to peer through. There is no need to be familiar with opera or drag or singing or music in general in order to enjoy yourself. Her story is about her journey, while also providing some educational pieces about operas and voice.
There is a heart-wrenching moment when Aida removes her makeup that brought audience members to tears. This, matched with humour and song, means that there is a little bit of something for everyone.
What we didn’t love: It took a little while to understand the structure of the story-telling, but this is a small quibble in the grand scheme of the show’s success.
Verdict: This show is a reminder to artists that it is more important to love the art you create than it is to placate those who deem themselves the keepers of good art. Aida states near the end of the show as she speaks about singing as a career, “Can I plausibly pursue this? Who cares!” This is a performance well worth seeing and hearing.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
– Bobby Williston
***
Oz
What we loved: Jordan Rooks is a slick magical man.
Forget the conceit of the show, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is Rooks’ ability to string together magic trick after magic trick with skill.
Now, the tricks are more clever than they are mesmerizing – sleight of hand and bits of mentalism that confound in fun ways. While they don’t have the flash to really light up a stage, they are skillful and well-delivered – no hiccups, no screwups, just solid and straightforward magic.
There was a good variety in the tricks as well, with different props zipping quickly in and out of Rooks’ hands. Nothing moved too fast, but all the actual tricks were well-executed.
What we didn’t love: The reason I said forget the conceit of the show is because it feels like Rooks does halfway through as well. The thin “Wizard of Oz”-themed through-line didn’t amount to anything as far as the actual magic tricks were concerned.
Whether it was a low-energy audience or or a low-energy day for Rooks, it felt like he had to fight for every bit of applause he could eke out. And that’s not a shot at the magic – I most certainly couldn’t pull off any of those tricks. But in the big space of the Broadway Theatre, some of the magic tricks simply felt small on stage. This would have been better playing to a more intimate and more exuberant audience in one of the Fringe’s smaller venues.
Verdict: A slick bit of magic trickery, Rooks might not be the most bombastic of performers but he’s no slouch when it comes to the mystifying arts. Some of the tricks will leave you scratching your head and clapping your hands, and perhaps that’s good enough if all you want to see is some technically solid and impressive magic.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Matt Olson
***
A Spoonful of Magic
What we loved: Gosh and golly, Lisa Krol is an adorable magic performer.
In her Fringe Festival debut, Krol takes a spin as Mary Poppins (yes, THAT Mary Poppins. There really is only one) coming back to visit one of her young charges who is now all grown up (played by fellow magician Jordan Rooks). It’s a clever premise, and in a performing world with a million magic acts, it’s great to have something that helps you stand out from the crowd.
Krol’s magic is fun and technically sound, even if it lacks a little bit of that “wow”’” factor. She plays well to the young folks in the audience (it’s always heartening to hear the giggles of children fill the room), and to her credit she never loses her veneer as the ineffable Poppins, even as her focus shifts to some fine sleight-of-hand.
What we didn’t love: This is one of the only times where one review will reference another, but see the review of “Oz” above for some similar nitpicks. Rooks is in both of these shows, and the connection between the two is immediately obvious – the opening 15-ish minutes in both are almost exactly the same set of tricks, but in a slightly different order.
The Mary Poppins theme is a great premise, and the pair needed to lean into it more to make this show stand out. It felt like this show was flirting between being an outright kids’ performance and a “show for all ages” – the cute charm of it makes it a delightful setup for a children’s show, and maybe that would lend a bit of focus to it as a whole.
Verdict: A simple and fun magic show, Krol’s charm makes this one work. The duo playing off each other gave this performance life and laughs. See “Oz” if you just want some straightforward magic tricks done well, see “A Spoonful of Magic” if you’re looking for a cute and child-friendly story to tie the whole thing together.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Matt Olson
***
find me, please
What we loved: An understated but intimate take on the immigrant experience told through the eyes of an Iranian now living in Canada.
Taking a more unique angle to examine that immigrant experience, the show revolves around language — the leading woman (played by Sima Sheibani) expresses the idea that she has a million words in her first language to express herself, but doesn’t have that same luxury in English in Canada. It’s a magnificent way to explore the idea of assimilation or integration for modern immigrants, set against the stresses of American tariffs and international declarations
Sheibani’s writing for the show is very honest and human. The dialogue felt a bit clunky at times, but these are conversations you could easily expect to happen in Saskatoon homes between couples at this very moment.
What we didn’t love: That beautiful premise of language, communication and understanding/misunderstanding one another became a bit buried underneath a show that is trying to do a lot of different things.
The show becomes a bit weighty and unfocused by how much it wants to fit into a limited Fringe runtime. The modern story of a newcomer to Canada is certainly not a simple and straightforward one, but it would have been more impactful to focus on one idea instead of trying to cover so many different aspects of it.
Some projections of words and phrases – the same phrases, but using different languages and alphabets – were used to great effect, but also quite sparingly. That’s the kind of idea that could form the core of a Fringe show like this, and it left me wanting more of it.
Verdict: Sheibani does a lovely job tying this intimate show together for the audience. It needs a little more polish, but the passion and honesty make it a solid piece of Fringe theatre.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Matt Olson
***
Spell It Out!!
What we loved: It takes guts for a group of young people to put together an original play let alone a musical. Credit should be given for this young company putting themselves out there. That alone can and should be celebrated.
What we didn’t love: Unfortunately, their efforts did not lead to a strong or cohesive show.
It took over twenty-five minutes of the forty-five minute runtime to establish the main plot of several young people being stuck in a museum with a fairy. Even with the establishment and subsequent resolution of being stuck in a museum (they free themselves by sharing their feelings), the point of the show is unclear and difficult to follow.
There were also issues with the music. The accompaniment was a canned recording of a synthesized keyboard, and it was sparse and rigid. It was unclear whether it was the accompaniment or the actors’ uncertainty that made the music often sound off. Pitch and tone issues with most of the singing were apparent as well.
The production as a whole felt disorganized and uncertain. There were long scene changes, missed cues, set pieces falling and other mishaps. At one point, a character starts poking at the fairy’s wings. She responds “these are real you know” as her wings proceed to fall off. This is indicative of several unfortunate events within the performance.
Verdict: While the courage to try something difficult is applauded, more polish and care is needed.
Rating: ★ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩
– Bobby Williston
***
(a)political
What we loved: Bobby Wesley’s (a)political is a one-person-show that follows the unwinnable campaign of Democratic candidate “why-is-he-running” as he faces off against Representative “is-going-to-win” in The Villages, Florida.
There are moments of humour in the show that land beautifully. He refers to American flag lapel pins as “massive displays of discourse distraction” and calls Hummers a “gender affirming car… designed by a toddler on ketamine.” These moments and others had the audience laughing on Saturday evening. It was also interesting to follow the hope in a campaign based on the belief that people vote for the person, not the party. Wesley poses that while people say this, they do not necessarily live it.
What we didn’t love: The show’s point and purpose are a bit unclear. There isn’t a message from the show that clearly rises to the top. It felt like a political science student finding a reason to talk about random thoughts on politics. While that’s not a bad thing in itself, the interesting bits are disparate, and it takes a while to really understand what the show is about.
Wesley manages to run a one-person-show from top to bottom, which is no small feat. However, his style of speech felt a little rambly. He seemed to stumble at times and often ended his sentences with “right?” It did not carry the weight that one might expect from political pronouncements.
Verdict: Wesley’s show is an interesting, if imperfect, look at politics in a way that sidesteps the elephant in the room of our current political landscape.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
– Bobby Williston
The Saskatoon Fringe Festival runs through August 9. Information for all shows, tickets, and the full festival program can be found at 25thstreettheatre.org/fringe-theatre.
