Jerry Toews

A wonderful heart-felt show that kept me smiling from beginning to end. Beautiful acting, beautiful story. It was like watching the best parts of my grandparents on stage.

Alex Dallas & Jimmy Hogg moved between the decades seamlessly, maintaining the characters while showing us their progression through the years.

Absolutely delightful. I can’t wait to see their new show promised for next year.

I feel like this was the most overlooked show of the Fringe. A solid performance that was engaging and heartfelt. Sadly, the Saturday evening show was seen by fewer than 20 audience members. I can’t figure out why.

Perhaps the fact that the show was only 30 minutes long was part of the reason (it’s billed as a 60 minute show)? It could easily have gone longer as there was a big part of his story that wasn’t told? How did he move from the tween lipsyncing to Defying Gravity to the person performing for us here today?

And I was dying to see him lypsinc to something for us then and there.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and I haven’t seen anyone manage multi-media quite as well.

A fun way to spend a Friday evening. A great cast delivering just the bawdy sort of humour expected from a burlesque cabaret. Lots of laughs and just enough moments to make us blush, just a little.

Good job folks. Keep it up. Edmonton needs this type of humour to add to the mix.

A cute attempt to mimic the Archie comics that sadly just fell quite a bit short.

On the upside, there were several of the actors who had some very good voices. And there were some cute moments that brought the comic strip to the stage.

But overall, it just didn’t succeed. The story didn’t hang together and the jokes were over after the first 15 minutes.

I chose this show on a whim, not expecting much. But what an unexpected surprise! This was the most I laughed at any show at this year’s Fringe.

A stand-out performance by Ryan Matilda, whose comic timing was delightful. He showed us how some of the best comedy comes out of the darkest situations.

I will certainly be looking for this troupe in coming years.

This show was … fine.

It was a story about the performer’s personal journey and discovery through baking. Fair enough, although large parts of her journey are obviously left out. That’s legitimate, I guess … performers have no obligation to share everything. However, if you bring us into your story, we’re naturally going to have questions about everything.

I ended up feeling like this show is half-baked (pun intended). I’m not sure why it was a theatre show to honest.

And here’s a short rant. Why do fringe performers fall into the trap of preaching to their audiences? Rather than lecturing about your message, it’s so much more effective to send it through your story. You can pretty much assume that the folks who chose your show already agrees with you. What we’ve looking for is your unique point of view based in your own story.

This show was an hour of fun.

It wasn’t a lot more, but I left with a grin on my face.

It’s an irreverent send-up of tent revival meetings highlighting the hypocrisy of evangelists that would certainly have made my parents uncomfortable. For me, it highlighted why I left envangelicalism so many years ago. Nothing wrong with some pointed shots at the enemy.

I have to say, this show was a disappointment for me. I added it to my list just after seeing the main actor (Anthony Parskins-Lozinski) give a stand out performance in Edmonton Queen the night before. Sadly, this performance was not on the same level.

It could have been due to the writing. The laughs came from a remarkable send up of Mae West by Andrea House. But sadly a full hour of comedy needs to have more than one joke that keeps getting repeated. Basic comedy dictates that it must narrow and quicken as it moves along to keep the audience engaged. Sadly, Go West just doesn’t.

Oh, and the monkey. I never figured out what that was all about. She was great, but I didn’t really get how this “character” added to the story.

I would have loved to see a bit more of the outcome, being the young man becoming one of Canada’s drag legends.

One small point: When your main actors is prone to excess sweating (and trust me, I get it) you need to find a costume that hides the sweat stains. Or at least work in a costume change at some point.

This show just never seemed to get moving.

The premise was interesting: A man (a nice change) is accused of being a witch by a neighbour and is sentenced to death.

Set in 18th century America, the dialogue is period appropriate and the actors are well cast. However, the pace of the dialogue never changes and what we get is a kind of monotone that quite frankly was lulling me into a nap.

And nothing really happens. It’s a series of remembrances of times gone by and declarations of affection, which seemed to me unbelievable given the hard work these homesteaders would have undergone.

The characters were somewhat cliche: The hero, his steadfast wife, the fair-minded reverend and the evil neighbour who has unjustly accused our hero.

Others have mentioned the odd lighting but it bears repeating. There was a bright spot downstage centre, howver, much of the dialogue happens in the dark, which is very disconcerting.

All in all, the show never really caught my attention and I found myself looking at my watch, wondering if I would have enough time to get to my next show.

A walk down memory lane.

I arrived in Edmonton just at the tail end of this tale (sorry, couldn’t help myself) and was blessed to have run into several of the characters who “appear” in this show.

It provided a wistful remembrance of a time when what was most important was looking good, being at the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. I accomplished none of those things, but Gloria Hole certainly did.

This is a 30-year anniversary of the first staging of Edmonton Queen and the first that hasn’t been headlined by its author, Darin Hagin. Lilith Fair, another Edmonton drag icon, does it full justice. She had the audience spellbound throughout.

The show should maybe come with a warning, however. At least one audience member was clearly reliving their past and was reduced to uncontrollable sobs at certain points.

Beautiful performance of a beautiful play. Thank you.