2009 Edmonton Fringe Reviews: Day 2

How would you describe Louis Riel? He really is the great enigma in Canadian History. If you're a westerner you're likely to like him, an eastener you're likely to hate him. Lefties tend to love him, conservatives tend to dislike him. There are so many flavours and wrinkles and issues at hand, nobody will probably ever be able to make a definitive statement. He's practically the patron saint of Winnipeg, where The Seven Lives of Louis Riel comes to us from. In seven different tales, in seven different genres, this one man play (featuring a guy who looks a little like Jeb Bush and sounds a lot like Rick Mercer) shows us the life of Louis Riel. First up is a spaghetti western showing Louis Riel the outlaw who was just out "protectin ma land", who shoots the deputy but not the sherrif and runs off into the night. Next, a comic-book inspired tale showing Louis Riel the criminal and evil overlord who had to be stopped at all costs. Was Louis Riel in fact crazy? He either was, or was becoming, or was close, and a horror story tells the little known tale of his New York exile. Moving onto an Indiana Jones/A-Team combo, we see Louis Riel the swashbuckling hero who battled on and won despite overwhelming odds (Ryan Gladstone, the author, is quick to point out here that none of the endings are entirely true). The fifth story is a Film Noir gritty detective story showing Sir John A. as a tough as nails PI who takes a case to capture Riel only to find he doesn't know who the true enemy is. Then a puppet God tells us about Riel's saintly martyr qualities. Finally, the 7th story is written by the bartender who was on the periphery of the story this whole time, saying how Riel was in fact all of these things. Given the subject matter, this was probably the only honest way to approach it. There was a fair bit of humour and a very energetic performance, which failed to capture who Louis Riel was, but did comedically illustrate why its so hard to capture who Louis Riel was. Definately the most entertaining Fringe show I've seen thus far. Warning though: the show is listed as being 60 minutes, but it tends to run late (20 minutes late in Winnipeg, apparently). This is a good rule in general since so many fringers forget it, but don't schedule plays too close to each other. At least give half an hour, which turns into one hour if you want to go to our third play down...

Space really is the final frontier. Do you know what we did in previous frontiers? Have wild sex, I suppose. When you go to see a play by "Panties Production" you intend to see hot chicks, and you do. Kristen Padayas looks a lot like a certain other hot acting Kristin you might know and love, and is by far the highlight. Jocelyn Ahlf's Captain is pretty smoking, and Belinda Cornish isn't anybody you're kicking out of bed anytime soon either. Anyways, the 3 chicks in space (with their creepy android "27") are searching for new life. But there isn't any. All they find is George, who looks vaguely like that photographer from "Just Shoot Me" and all hell breaks loose. He sleeps with the Captain, turns down the other two, but manages to convince the android that he's basically a girl. Hormones get out of control, there's a mutiny, and a few cheesy space battles (it is neat to watch them pull it off). The set and costume design are amazing for a Fringe Play, particularly "27". The story is pretty weak, but you do get to see hot chicks in space, and isn't that what you really wanted to pay $14 for anyways?

This year at the Edmonton Fringe, the Bring-Your-Own-Venues (BYOVs) are located all over the city. Pay close attention to your tickets: BYOV A is located on 118th Ave for example, while BYOV B is downtown at New City. George Orwell is not ny Real Name is held at BYOV-C, which is at La Cite Francophone, on 91st street. This is not walking distance from the beer gardens. Be warned. Be highly warned. Anyways, as for the actual play, George Orwell is sick, the consumption taking him to the point where he can no longer write. Meanwhile, he's agonizing over the rough draft of his new novel, trying to find a way to spend time with his son, and come to grips with the realities of his political writing. Its a one-man show where Kevin Williamson sits in the sanitorium telling us about his tribulations. There's not a whole lot of meat to the show, though the performance is striking we're left with only the smallest insights from George Orwell that a reader of his most popular works (its not a huge spoiler to tell you the novel he's working on is indeed 1984) wouldn't already know. We do get some contemplation from Orwell on the "atomic bomb" (a subject I have talked about before), but otherwise we're left wanting. No effort is made, for example, to explore my favourite contradiction: as an "unabashed socialist", Orwell never seemed to put a whole lot of thought into the notion that his precious socialism required an organization taking away the freedoms he was similarly concerned with. This sort of internal struggle could have told us far more about George Orwell than what we were presented. And it could have been done closer to the beer gardens.

When does being a charity become more important than the principles that inspired you to become that charity? These are the decent questions only half-decently answered by Incorruptible, the Monks-walking-around-Whyte play you've heard so much about. In 1250 A.D., a French Monastery is on its last legs: the pilgrims aren't coming, the town won't pay the penny to pray in front of the miracle-less martyr's bones on the alter, and a convent has suddenly come upon miracle-creating bones from the same martyr their church possesses. To save their church, they investigate the new martyr's claims and the one-eyed local minstrel who is responsible for all their ills. The monk characters, particularly those played by Nigel Miller and Neil Embeleton, are excellently portrayed. The play mostly loses traction in scenes involving the minstrel, Jack (Matt Dale). His character is even more out of place in the time period than the monks, and his method of acting involves a lot of screetching. Add in some Three's Company-style comedy misdirections and the play has trouble keeping its voice (though you should know that Corynn Sande's nipples were protruding at various "points" of the show, which always helps). Meanwhile, I'm about to spoil the ending here...

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...I'm confused. Brother Felix turns out to be "Pierre", the thought-dead fiancee of Marie, while Marie turns out to be Brother Felix's drowning-death fiancee. But Brother Felix's story makes it seem like he pulled her back out and she didn't survive. Was it the power of Saint Foy's miracles that brought her back to life? I'm in the dark here, and the ending seemed rather rushed. Oh, they also give you a free bumper sticker.