Fringe Blog: The No Bull$#!% History of Canada - Part 5

A Taste of Theatre
Part 5
by Kyle Allatt

Now that I’ve had a chance to check out a few Fringe shows, I figured it might be fun to throw some quickie reviews at y’all.  a) Because this is after all a review site b) because I’m a bit at a loss for blog content unless you wanna hear about how I was bitched out by a Streetcar operator and/or other scintillating stories of public transit woes.

Editor's Note:  Kyle Allatt is not a fully accredited review writer.  His experience in this matter is limited to writing a letter to the producers of the Transformers cartoon of the 1980s when he was 8 and telling them it was “totally cool” and that they should “do more stuff with Starscreme [sic]”.

Actually Editor's Note:  Hey wait, I didn't write that.  In fact, I'm not sure I'm the actual editor either.  Oh man, this is getting meta.

Linda & Jason

These guys are on the back of all my flyers, so naturally it seemed like a good idea to see their show, primarily because I couldn’t use the excuse that I didn’t know when it was playing.  While originally going to see the show was simply a courteous observation (being that I’m friends with the stage manager, and that a bunch of their team saw my show opening night) I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the show I saw, being initially turned off by both the title and the flyer.  Linda and Jason is a fun little love story that just barely avoids being statutorily rapish.  Boy meets Girl, Boy and Girl get together, Girl turns out to be Woman, and emotions run high.  The script is good, the acting is fairly consistent and the jokes are funny.  A couple technical issues were present, with the Adam Christie (playing Jason) occasionally failing to find his light and a rather more constant case of the Jessica Grant (playing Linda) upstaging herself.  There is also the issue that I never totally understood Linda’s motivations for lying, and then the show just ends.

Zack Adams: A Complete History of Zack Adams

Throughout Shane Adamczak’s whole show you’re always kind of wondering how much of this show is autobiographical and how much is completely goddamn fictional.  He’s playing a character called Zack Adams (somewhat of an anagram of his last name) who is an up and coming Australian comedian trying to make people laugh and just skating the edge of fame (just like Shane).  Hell, this could be 100% made up, but you always get the feeling that there’s at least a nugget of truth in everything he is saying.  Also, the show is funny as hell.  His songs are possibly the best parts of the show.  The “awkward silence solo” in the middle of the first song is a near flawless piece of comedy.  

Peter n’ Chris and the Mystery of the Hungry Heart Motel

I could go on about this show for pages.  But eff that.  It’s simply the best show I’ve seen all year.  Screw synopses and descriptions.  Just see this frigging show.  See it twice.

Jem Rolls: Ten Starts and an End

I’m not a huge (or indeed tiny) fan of poetry at all, but somehow Jem seems to make it work.  The more I think about it, the more it seems that I’m not so much a fan of Jem’s work, so much as I just like the guy, and therefore dig his shows.  If you’ve seen one of his shows before then you’re pretty much getting the same damn thing again.  Jem stands up and recites about a dozen of his fast paced, clever worded poems and then you do a bunch of clapping.  One thing that does get to me at times is Jem’s constant use of repetition.  And then there’s the repetition.  And let’s not forget the repetition.  Sometimes it’s a bit much and feels as if he could use some help from a copy editor.  This aside, Jem is a cool guy and very easy to listen to talk for an hour.

So We Thought We Could Act

These goofy ladies from Montreal are certainly having a ton of fun up on stage.  While the 90 minute show is a tad long, and the story doesn’t really make any damn sense, it seems as though that isn’t really important.  The script is tight, the performances are good (most especially from Dan Derkson as about 47 incidental characters) and the music is fairly solid as well.  At first I had a problem that the story just sorta wandered from event to event with no clear through line, but the more I think about it now, the more I realize none of that crap was important, and it was just a fun show.

The No Bull$#!% History of Canada

Full Disclosure:  I haven’t actually seen this show myself personally.  Every time it is on I seem to be onstage myself.  But I’ve heard VERY good things about it.  

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