Don Wright

Although billed as an improv, I’m not sure what was improvised (other than the title for the performance I attended) and what was scripted. It felt mostly scripted although maybe if I went back I’d see a very different show. A lot of frantic activity and a lot of attention on the role of cousins didn’t really add up for me. Still, I enjoyed the chaotic performance along with the rest of the audience and I think the actors were having fun.

With the poster image and a name like Erika the Red, I was expecting a rollicking Viking adventure — and that’s exactly what I got! Great mockumentary set-up and then it was all hands on deck as Tara Travis (Erika the Red) brought dozens of characters to life before quickly dispatching them to Valhalla. An epic load of fun, go see it!

This first-time visitor (I think that’s what he said) from the Netherlands has a big voice and a big stage presence. Clearly a well seasoned stand-up storyteller. And he starts off strong, but when he gets into why he loves to travels, what should have been another short tale took up the second half of the show and I became less and less interested as it continued. I appreciated the punchline, but not the story, a little too “naive save-the-world” for me, even if he apparently learned his lesson.

This is a sweetly personal and gently fanciful story, without the sharp wit we’re used to from her appearances on CBC’s The Debaters. For that reason I wasn’t as taken by as my partner was, who really liked it. So forget about the wit, just go enjoy.

This show is so much fun, and it is easy to see the two actors are having a lot of fun too. They play “themselves” as two friends in a pub watching an important game on the big screen. But they also play a zany cast of others, including two feuding TV sportscasters, an old pair of fans, a couple of cougars, a pair of lovers and more. They also play with the fact they are in the outdoor picnic pavilion with people poking their head in to see what’s going on, geese flying low overhead, and during the performance I was at, a squirrel who may have been chewing on the speaker wires, prompting one of the performers to ask the audience if we had been watching the squirrel instead of them all along.

This is not just an inspiring performance - it is an act of resistance against white supremacy or at least white hegemony. Tymisha Harris energetically celebrates and uplifts numerous black women singers, some well known and some perhaps lesser known. Great voice! Outstanding show in the right venue. I highly recommend!

I’ve probably seen Jem Rolls perform a dozen times across two and maybe three Fringe festival locations. So obviously I’m a big fan, so if you are too, go see this! If you don’t know Jem Rolls, ask around and take a chance!