Ruth Alexander in Dead in the Water, Lodestar Theatre and Theatre Yes. Photo supplied
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
A year has been weirdly compressed. And somehow, magically, it’s the eve of the Fringe, the 44th annual edition of Edmonton’s mighty summer theatre bash. When the curtains go up Thursday night at 8 p.m., they don’t come down again for 10 days and nights of theatre after that.
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Don’t get twisted out by the 223-show 40-venue dimensions of Fringe Full of Stars. Be bold, take a chance, experiment; it’s what the Fringe is for — both for you and for artists. You could discover something you haven’t dreamed of. Which is exactly what will happen when the startlingly dexterous improvisers of Gordon’s Big Bald Head take to the stage in Play-giarism, the 2025 version of their annual undertaking to improvise their own version of any show in the Fringe program (as picked by an audience member). Mark Meer and Jacob Banigan will be improvising even harder since their third GBBH member Ron Pederson is tied up doing Ibsen, A Doll’s House, at the Arts Club in Vancouver.
Just for starters, have you looked at ’s selection of a dozen intriguing prospects here? And further promising possibilities here? In the Fringe Full of Stars program, there are shows I’ve had a chance to see — at previous Fringes, or elsewhere in the season. Here are five. Keep in mind that there could be/will be adjustments, re-writes, alterations, edits, since last time out. It’s what artists do; it’s built into the artist psyche.
Dead in the Water. In 2023 the new artistic directors of Theatre Yes introduced themselves with this funny, moving original solo musical by and starring musician/ composer/ actor/ playwright Ruth Alexander and directed by Max Rubin. The set-up, with the charismatic Alexander at the piano, is pure cabaret. But there’s a real story. Accompanying herself with an array of songs, protagonist Amanda tells her story; she’s an entertainer on the double-quest, possibly contradictory, for a fulfilling career and a romantic life/love partner. A narrative full of fleeting triumphs and multiple disappointments and hilarious and/or wince-making humiliations. My review is here.
The Pansy Cabaret. This cabaret is a capture, by theatre artist cum queer historian Darrin Hagen, of a vibrant and joyful culture of a century ago in New York. Queer and gender-fluid performers were big stars, among the highest paid of entertainers in a showbiz town, in “pansy bars,” on vaudeville stages, on Broadway. Hagen has unearthed a whole archive of sassy Edwardian songs and cheeky comedy routines. They’re performed in this Guys in Disguise production, by a terrific entertainer, Lilith Fair (aka Zachary Parsons-Lozinski), with Daniel Belland at the piano. And the story of how the “Pansy Craze” and the rich culture that unleashed, all vanished in a decade when Prohibition ended, vanquished by homophobia, speaks powerfully to our time. My review, from the 2022 Fringe, is here.
Adam Proulx and Horatio P. Corvus in The FAMILY CROW: A Murder Mystery, Edmonton Fringe 2023. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
The FAMILY CROW: A Murder Mystery. This kooky, clever show, by puppeteer/playwright Adam Proulx, has a brilliance all its own. It’s a murder mystery in the Agatha Crow-stie vein, in which all the characters, including Detective Horatio P. Corvus, are crows. The deceased and the prime suspects, including right-wing patriarch Edgar Allan Crow, are all members of the Crow family. And the show is a veritable archive of feathered puns. Bonkers. I saw it at the 2023 Fringe, and my review is here.
Romeo and Juliet’s Notebook, Edmonton Fringe 2025. Photo supplied
Romeo & Juliet’s Notebook. I saw this funny, entertainment musical comedy spoof by Aimée Beaudoin and Jeff Halaby with a packed house of revellers at the Spotlight Cabaret this March. It’s back for the Fringe in a much bigger venue, the Garneau Theatre. It brings a jukebox crammed with Millennial hits, and a playful, quick-witted Edmonton-ization of the Bard’s tragedy of “ancient grudge and new mutiny” — “in fair Strathcona where we lay our scene…” — into a story about young lovers caught in the feud between the upscale southside Hendays and the north end Yellowheads. John Hudson’s cast includes Spotlight proprietors Beaudoin and Halaby, with Tyler Pinsent as the dimbulb Romeo Yellowhead and Abby Vandenberghe (replacing Rain Matkin) as the dewy Juliet Henday. My review is here.
Undiscovered Country by Chris Bullough, Edmonton Fringe 2025. Photo supplied
Undiscovered Country. At the 2023 Fringe Chris Bullough’s strange, hallucinogenic dark comedy musical, was a later replacement for a show that cancelled. It’s back, directed by David Kennedy, in what I have a feeling will be a new version. It was a a story of the rise-and-fall of a country music star, with country tropes to match, along with Bullough’s songs, which have a subversive poetry to them. The apparently meandering way actor/ singer-songwriter Bullough turns apparent nostalgia into a kind of fantastical futurist vision is truly unique. You can read my review here (I’ll be trying to catch it again to see what’s changed).
Stay tuned to .ca for reviews starting Thursday night. I’m really hoping you’ll be able to chip in a monthly sum to my ongoing Patreon campaign — every little bit helps — to support theatre coverage on this free (so far!) and independent site. It’s supported entirely by readers! The link is here.
