Inclusive Reviewer

Rob Teszka is both hilarious and earnest in this magic show about failure. Throughout the show while dazzling you with magic tricks (that are extremely impressive) Rob as well as the audience accumulate failures. This may seem bad, but by the end you’ll learn that it’s okay to fail and that maybe what looks like failure is actually another kind of success. I used loop quiet earplugs and a tangle; there was one moment where I wished I had also been wearing sunglasses as there was a dramatic light change and it got a bit loud. I really appreciated hearing about Rob's experience with and outlook on academia and how it is often exclusionary, especially if your brain works a bit different. And although Rob might be deemed a failure by some, his show is a definite success.

“SPEED!” gives you exactly what it promises “a visual feast for the ears” and it is spectacular. We start with a ‘star studded cast’ and progressively lose members until we only have a couple of people running around trying to play all the parts and they succeed in the most comical way possible. The live foley (sound effects) are really fun to watch and add to the world building and comedy. The tire to create the bus sounds and the “speed” foley are the most annoying and the gunshot is quite loud, but with Boss Quiet Comfort headphones it's not too bad; I also used a tangle. I might add drugs/alcohol to the show contents as one character gets particularly drunk and eventually passes out. Death would also be a good addition to the content warnings, as one of the characters dies off-stage. I have already mentioned my dislike for Sugar Swing as a venue and the upstairs is no different, except for there being quite a few stairs. The show takes place during the Draft and includes a good deal of politics, which leads to discussions of Fascism which felt very poignant in today's political climate. Everything from the makeup to the set to the acting was so well thought out and truly made you feel as if you were in a 1940’s studio.

A Little Something for the Ducks, is not just that but also Something's Wrong. The show Begins with Something’s Wrong, a short scene about cognitive decline that runs approximately 10 minutes long. It was both heartbreaking to watch and comforting in an odd way as someone who has watched a loved one struggle with dementia. We then move into the main act of A Little Something for the Ducks which broke my heart and reminded me that it's the little things in life that count. Them arguing about ducks is really a way for them to discuss death/suicide and I thought it was a really beautiful way to talk about things that you don’t always have the words for. The Bliss Stage at Holy Trinity is always warm and the chairs are uncomfortable, the sight lines also suck so I would recommend getting there early so you can be near the front. I used a tangle and started with Loop Quiet earplugs which I took out to better hear the quiet bits. There were some loud noises as characters had outbursts which felt overwhelming but in a very thematic way. Overall these shows went really well together and are stories that need telling, if you can handle the subject matter I’d definitely recommend.

Kiki Moritsugu is a woman who knows who she is and has spent a lot of time and effort getting there. This show is a beautiful showcase of her talent, her messy relationship with her mother, and what it takes to survive showbiz and be authentically you. Kiki has done everything right in terms of content warnings, but sometimes I wish we had more words! I found myself both seen in how she describes her relationship with her mothers death to cancer and very unprepared for the emotions that followed. As someone who is white I can’t relate to or speak on the struggle of being multi-racial in show biz (or the world) but I really appreciated learning about her experience! This show covers so much but I never found it too much, the way she weaves her story together is intricately beautiful. The addition of musical numbers felt so Kiki and so well done, and her voice is amazing and so versatile! The piano felt loud and the switching between her mic being on and off felt abrupt and distracting at times, I think it would have been better to just leave it on throughout the performance. I wore loop engage earplugs and used a stress ball. I also found myself wishing I had a sweater as Gateway Theatre can be a bit chilly. While this show invoked emotions I was not prepared for, it was beautifully done and there are a lot of people that will probably find themselves in Kiki’s story, which had me laughing as much as crying.

Wit and Whimsy is a gem of a show, as it is an improve show and every show is different, I feel it’s important to specify that I saw Cleaver and Clumsy (or was it Clumsy and Cleaver, no matter). Which was silly, sweet, and just a lovely time of watching people fall in love (all played by women, which if your queer is extra fun to watch, especially when they kiss). The show has some audience participation (which is not mentioned), but it is very minimal and reserved to the front row. There was a backtrack which was distracting at times as it did not always match the action happening on stage. I wore loop quiet earplugs and used a tangle very minimally throughout the performance. I am so glad I got to see the show as everyone in it was so talented and clearly just having fun, I wish I could see it again.

It gives me no pleasure to say that my time attending this show was a sensory disappointment. This disabled reviewer was (perhaps uniquely) struggling with over (and under) stimulation.

Our Afeni (embodied by a deep-skinned actor) performed against an all-black curtain, while only donning black/dark grey under a lighting design that lacked much brightness. It was dim most of the time. To make matters more challenging, the venue’s air conditioning unit was left on in the room during the performance, and the machinery buzzed distractingly in conflict with our soft-spoken performer. Her vocal quality was head-dominant, so I really struggled to follow her text against the industrial drone right behind me. I found my attention waning in the absence of a popping presence.

It also seemed like our performer was struggling to remember her lines at a few points along the way, but she did manage to keep the train on the tracks for the duration of the show. (Perhaps a few more reps with this new script will help everything drop into effortlessness.)

I wish my experience had been different at this show and that I’d planned to arrive a little earlier to land a front row seat. The first 3-4 rows did give this performance a standing ovation, and it seems that Afeni made a real impact for those attendees in closer proximity.

All said and done, I am heartened to see majority-white audiences respond enthusiastically to a Black performer telling an unapologetic story about this specific Black experience. It is important (now more than ever) that everyone takes some time to support Black art - and Black performers - at the Fringe. (And beyond).

This was my first show ever at The Spotlight. For a festival that often crams audiences into back storage rooms and all types of makeshift theatre nooks, this venue turned out to be a refreshing change of pace. Being in a functioning restaurant has its perks, and the audience seemed to delight in having access to nibbles and sips before our funnyman took the stage.

Emo – an immigrant to Australia with a South Sudanese background - took us all on a solid hour of standup, tracing his journey to the stage from very humble beginnings. Performing for a majority-white audience, he made good fodder out of our cultural/racial differences. His material also covered colonialism, his time as a finalist on Australia’s Got Talent, his last Canadian comedy stint (Just For Laughs), the odd nature of jobs and the pitfalls of raising a family when touring for a living.

As a single Queer theatregoer, I don’t think I was the target audience for his type of comedy. The material was 100% heteronormative, but I still managed to enjoy myself as I sipped my ginger beer in the dark.

If you need a good laugh (or even respite from jugglers, actors and burlesque performers), take a chance on Emo Majok at The Spotlight Cabaret.

(Just be prepared for some crowd work/ or questions from the stage. Emo took keen interest in many a table at my performance...)

Damon Pitcher gives a deadly and commanding performance in this epic solo show about finding success in a world that wants to eat you alive. Featuring a pop/rock score of the highest order, this is easily the most professional musical mix and pristine mastering I have heard on any Fringe stage. There are a lot of musical offerings at the festival this year, but this one has to have the slickest music producing on the scene. (My sensitive ears were extremely pleased.)

Pitcher deserves praise for holding it all together and for lifting the material up so effortlessly. Zombies, Inc. is a single-performer musical, and that is no light load to carry. Cabarets are one thing, but I can’t think of another fully produced musical that fits this particular mould. While the audience is part of his world (we are discovered as a band of survivors), there’s no backup singers or live band in sight. As the story draws us in and we forget ourselves, it can feel like he might actually be the last man on earth.

As a lover of musicals, I did question (at first) whether or not this story ‘needed’ to be a musical. But as the events unfurled into the apocalypse and our hero’s heart grew heavier, that question never again crossed my mind. There was humour, emotional devastation and a couple of left-hand turns that made my jaw drop.

For accessibility: Be aware that the theatre at Strathcona High School is up a few flights of stairs, and that all of the seating banks are composed of plastic folding chairs. Larger bodied patrons, those with mobility devices, and those burdened by seats creaking/squeaking may wish to consider their comfort level before attending.

As a big fan of this (relatively) new musical, I was thrilled to see Scona Theatre Co. finally get their hands on this playful script paired with a truly radiant score. Written by the same duo that brought us the musical Spring Awakening, the contemporary sound and intricate harmonies are simply delicious to the ear.

Set in 1941 after the London Blitz, an English teenager (also named Alice) takes shelter in a makeshift tube station medical clinic with her friend Alfred who is failing from tuberculosis. In his final hours, just as their love is about to bloom, they leave the chaos of war behind and escape into their favourite book one last time. But instead of finding relief, the pair are instead confronted with trauma, grief, and the disruptive feelings of first love that could turn anyone’s world upside-down.

The entire cast shone, everyone had a standout moment or more, and the sense of ensemble/ community on stage was beautifully palpable. I thought the young, school-age cast inhabited their roles with such depth and respect – bringing new light all of the familiar Wonderland characters that we know and love – only now in a unique and unusual context.

There were a couple of instances where the sound mix drowned out the lead vocals and I had a difficult time understanding what the actors were saying, but the physical storytelling was very helpful in filling in those gaps.

DON’T BE LATE! Catch this rare staging before it is gone!

As a gay reviewer, I am perhaps a little biased toward drag entertainment. Supporting Queer art in Alberta in 2025 is important to me, and sitting in a full house at the Grindstone listening to century-old pansy tunes really filled my community cup.

The venue is hot, though – perhaps the hottest of the festival. I was sweating next to other sweaty people, and our queen – the incomparable Lilith Fair - was melting and dripping before our very eyes. She made a real meal of it though, as she sucked the salty nectar from her upper lip with comic enthusiasm. Lilith really brings the bits. (wink wink)

As much as I loved the show’s musical content (shout out to the fabulous Daniel Belland on keys!), I found the sound levels to be excruciatingly loud. Lilith has the energy of a firehose, so perhaps she didn’t always need to be amplified (though I know the cabaret art form begs for a microphone). I wonder if the venue technicians ought to ride the fader a little harder in such a wee little venue. There was also a rapid sequence of vaudevillian punchlines with snare drum/splash cymbal stings, so my nervous system took those hits quite harshly and I had the impulse to leave the room.

That said, I think Queer resistance is more important than my personal comfort, so I still say: dress lightly, bring some earplugs, and soak up some gay at The Pansy Cabaret.