The highlight for me were the messages he received on Myspace after posting a previous stand-up bit he did to it. Also, his description of his first time having sex, complete with details from the Dummy’s-style book he ‘learned’ from prior to finally doing it. The diagrams were hilarious.

It was also fairly under-attended, so please go. And bring people with you.

This play, overall, really reminds me of old-school CD-ROM games. Particularly Phantasmagoria. This is definitely not a negative for me, though I suspect it would be for some. The video segments are produced quite well (for a shoestring budget) and are integrated pretty much seamlessly into the play itself. Overall, the play works really well and has a lot of great laughs.

Plus, it’s about zombies, and who can complain about that?

Though Brent Hirose shows promise as an actor, the play itself seems a broken and jumbled mess of characters who lack realistic motivation, plot turns that often don’t seem possible (even within the fantastic frame set up by the opening monologue) let alone practical, and poor set design that has Brent spending almost more time manipulating his props and doing sound effects for them than acting.

Occasionally a little piece of satire is thrown in to the play that seems either out of place or a part of a more biting play about media mismanagement and law enforcement incompetence. These little bits just serve to distract from the already weakly put together plot.

But like I said, Brent Hirose shows great promise as an actor (which may even have already been realized in other plays he’s been in). Both the opening and closing monologues are really well delivered, and almost manage to pull this play out from mediocrity.

Crammed into the corner of the tiny little Wunderbar BYOV space is what looks like a cross between an electric chair and a dentist’s chair. Mounted on and around the chair are lights of various intensity (some on dimmers) and direction. As Chris performs, he controls which lights are on through a Star Trek captain’s chair-like control panel on the arm.

As he switches from topic to topic, and from persona to persona (think split personalities) the lighting is used to incredible effect to portray him, literally and figuratively, in a different light.

The stories are funny, especially when he starts asking the audience if they’ve “ever felt that way” about something, always met with a perfect stony silence from the audience, and a resigned “oh” from Chris. Sometimes they’re a little sad, but he always keeps it from getting morose by switching the lights and saying something absurd to lighten the mood.

1. Buy your tickets online — It used to be the best (and often only) way to get tickets was to show up at the venue an hour before the show and get them there. You can technically still do this, but it’s not a good idea anymore. Even the less popular shows are now often sold out a good 6 hours before doors. When you buy tickets online, you pick them up at the Will Call desk at the Trans-Alta Arts Barn. You also get to laugh at the suckers waiting 20+ minutes in the main lineup to buy their tickets there.
2. Don’t pick your shows from reviews — Though this seems counter-intuitive, if you pick your shows from reviews (especially in the second weekend) you’ll have trouble getting tickets. The truth is, lots of really great shows get upper medium scores, and individual preference and personal boundaries play a huge part in what you’ll enjoy at the Fringe, and reviewers are often bogged down in seeing too many plays too quickly on opening weekend which can wreck their perspective.

   So what should you use instead? Personal recommendations are best. If you don’t have that, you might want to scan the twitter search results for #yegfringe (which you can and should do even if you don’t use twitter) for people saying good things about plays that resonate with you. Be careful of taking opinions of people promoting their own shows at face value, but so far it doesn’t seem like anyone’s trying to be sneaky this way.

   And if you really want to try the real Fringe experience, buy a guide and find ones that just sound interesting. If you’re planning to see more than 2 or 3 plays, I really feel this is the way to go. You want to be seeing more than 2 or 3 because you probably will get a stinker in there. It’s taken me years of practice to get my selections to the point where I don’t see any really bad plays unless I feel like it, but it was entirely worth it.

3. Definitely be at the venue 15-45 minutes in advance, and never arrive late — The range is wide because it depends on how many people you are. Individuals going to a play can snag really good seats being far back in line, but pairs and more will want to get there earlier. But absolutely never, ever get there late. The schedule is strict (it has to be for people like me to actually see all the things we want to see) and you will not ever be let in late. They really do make absolutely no exceptions.
4. Bring a fan (or something that can be used as one) — Many of the venues aren’t air conditioned. Some are air conditioned, but they turn it off during the show because the noise of it would interfere with the performance. Either way, some of these venues in the middle of August are virtually ovens. The Varscona (venue 5 this year) is particularly notorious for this.
5. Expect the unexpected — Go into the fringe with as few expectations as possible and you will have a lot more fun. You’re unlikely to see something they’d charge $50 for at the Citadel, but you’ll get something unique and special.

If that sounds complicated and you don’t get what I mean, that’s because it is and it’s hard to explain. This isn’t a negative, though. In premise, it’s very much a modern version of A Midsummer’s Night Dream where the Gods have been replaced by psychologists (which is itself an interesting notion). Trust me that how they get there is not really relevant to how funny it is once they do.

But at the same time, this is another play that’s almost 1.5 hours and I came out of it not really sure why. It had a fair amount of laughs and really fun plot twists, but it might have had too many characters and too much going on. It would have been improved with a bit more focus and more laughs per minute. At times I found my mind wandering as the non-funny parts of the zaniness went on to set up the next funny part.

Anne Wyman gets the mannerisms that would make for a perfect sexy librarian — think Fred from Angel. She mumbles and jabbers and says things both dirty and absolutely normal in a voice of such innocence and naivite that you can’t help but like her and laugh at nearly everything she says.

The B-plots, which tie in to the main plot towards the end, focus on a sex advice columnist who’s seen and done it all, and the main character’s sister who committed suicide at 14 and currently resides in hell. It is this latter b-plot that prevents this play from being perfect, as it seems to not really impact the main plot in any meaningful way. It also pulls the play away from being an unlikely tale to being an impossible one, and to no gain, as it doesn’t tie in until the very last scene.

It kind of feels like this plot is a remnant of an earlier draft where it was more important, but it’s impossible to say. Overall, this is an awesome play and definitely worth seeing.

At the same time, I can’t help but feel uncomfortable about making light of mental illness and the damage that can be inflicted by 9-5 drudgery on those who are mentally ill.

I had slightly higher hopes for this play given it’s written and directed by the team who did The Overnight last year, which was one of my absolute favorites of that year. I didn’t find this one nearly so creative or innovative.

Quite the opposite from The Overnight, where they maximized the use of 2 actors incredibly well, I felt this play really needed a fourth player to improve the interactions between the main three and the occasional fourth. The switching was never quite so obvious as it should have been, and always involved a main character leaving the stage when I wanted to have their take in it as well.

For most of this play I felt like it was struggling to walk that line. Despite a good cold opening where Sharon manages to almost make coveralls sexy, most of the play is heavy on information and light on entertainment. But then the ending came out and it was stunning. I won’t say much about it except that it involves glowing balls, stockings, heavy beat trance music, and the lights dimmed down really low. It was a perfect exemplar of some of the best modern burlesque has to offer (and she points out that there are three burlesque troops in Edmonton). It also immediately rectified the balance of the play as a whole.

It might have been better if the balance had been better throughout the show, but maybe then the ending wouldn’t have been so great. One way or another, I don’t think you can go wrong with this play. You will be informed and you will be entertained.