\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-Evolution-of-a-Broken-Heart.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
Orlando\u2019s Michelina Moen and Cristina Ramos are electric in this utterly absorbing hour-long experimental contemporary dance work that is, quite incredibly, improvised.<\/p>\n
While the costumes, projections and music provide a loose framework for the duo, the movement is in the moment. Both deliver kinetic, fully inhabited performances; every arch of the foot to contorted face is communicating with the audience.<\/p>\n
As the title suggests, the piece is a life cycle of love, desire, heartache, grief and rebirth. In one standout sequence, the two are dressed in prim 1950s dresses dancing to Paul Anka\u2019s crooner Put Your Head On My Shoulder. But they seem itchy. Uncomfortable. As though raw, animal desire is threatening to claw its way out from the inside and ruin the demure facade.<\/p>\n
Near the end, Moen and Ramos bring lights into the audience and illuminate people\u2019s faces, and make intimate, face-to-face contact, holding their gazes in a dozen wordless conversations. It\u2019s an uncomfortable but oddly wonderful moment of connection, a reminder of what live art can be.<\/p>\n
Note: this production is only on until Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jen Zoratti<\/p>\n
FOOL\u2019S GAMBIT<\/p>\n
James & Jamesy<\/p>\n
PTE \u2014 Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage (Venue 16), to Sunday<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e<\/p>\n
The opening gambit in this 60-minute multimedia improv show is a good one.<\/p>\n
The actors (Aaron Malkin, Alastair Knowles and Nayana Fielkov) begin by filming each other with cellphones while onstage technician Chloe Ziner mixes live sound effects. The live video feed is trippy, offering different perspectives and a skewed sense of reality.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the opening night show unravelled quickly from there. There was a lot of breaking and confusion as the trio attempted to create scenes inspired by a borrowed object. Storylines started and stopped but never really finished, resulting in a multiverse with too many threads and too little cohesion.<\/p>\n
The actors are deft physical comedians and the content is bound to change daily, but more teamwork and, perhaps, more reliance on technology is needed.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Eva Wasney<\/p>\n
HAIR BRAINED<\/p>\n
Hughes Cherrywood<\/p>\n
Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (U of W) (Venue 10), to July 26<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e 1\/2<\/p>\n
Sarah Cherrywood and Geoff Hughes are veteran fringe performers who are good at their craft. Their new work, Hair Brained, gives the duo plenty of opportunities to showcase their sketch comedy talents, while also putting Hughes\u2019 wild and iconic hair in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
The show features a collection of quirky sketches that lean into absurdity and fun. While some parts of the show feel a little tangled and don\u2019t always seem to comb out as neatly as intended, Cherrywood and Hughes\u2019 experience and commitment to the material keep things moving along.<\/p>\n
One sketch offers a modern take on Samson and Delilah, following the newly humbled Samson on an unexpected journey after a life-changing haircut. It\u2019s an odd premise that fits the show\u2019s offbeat and lighthearted style.<\/p>\n
If you enjoy quirky, unconventional sketch comedy and appreciate seasoned fringe performers doing what they do best, it\u2019s an easy way to spend half an hour at the fringe.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Shelley Cook<\/p>\n
HAPPY VALLEY<\/p>\n
Cripplethreat<\/p>\n
Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), to July 25<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e<\/p>\n
Sometimes, in the grocery store, rude people see Debbie Patterson\u2019s wheelchair and ask, \u201cWhat happened to you?\u201d The answer is lots of things. A meteor. A mining town. A multiple sclerosis diagnosis. A man in a hotel room.<\/p>\n
In this hour-long standup-meets- storytelling show, the veteran Winnipeg artist generously gives the long answer, deftly braiding all those themes together in an observational piece that will make you both laugh out loud and gasp in horror. We begin with the \u201cangry desperation\u201d of Happy Valley, Ont., the heavily polluted mining town her family is from, and from there explore all the ways in which the theft and destruction of land so often results in the theft and destruction of bodies.<\/p>\n
Patterson\u2019s delivery is chatty and informal, her social commentaries often delivered as passionate asides as though she can\u2019t keep up with her buzzing brain and all the connections it\u2019s making. The effect is sometimes dizzying but always dazzling. And no spoilers here, but suffice to say: Patterson\u2019s depth of empathy for a hurt person who hurt her is extraordinary.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jen Zoratti<\/p>\n
LIES OF A PROMISCUOUS WOMAN<\/p>\n
Darker Bright Theatre<\/p>\n
MTYP Mainstage (Venue 21), to July 25<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e<\/p>\n
With Cole Escola\u2019s campy reimagining of Mary Todd Lincoln the current toast of Broadway, fringe audiences in Winnipeg will be saying \u201cOh!\u201d about a different Mary.<\/p>\n
Originally mounted at the fringe in 2014 \u2014 where it was met with protest, vandalism and bullying by unruly mobs of the supposedly devout \u2014 Lies of a Promiscuous Woman casts the Virgin Mary under revealing and compelling candlelight. Theresa Thomson, who adapted Audra Lesosky\u2019s 12-year-old script, comedically and skilfully embodies a historical figure only named six times in the New Testament, despite her very famous son.<\/p>\n
Far from blasphemous, this gospel variety hour \u2014 enlivened by interludes (including Little Star, Four Minutes, Like a Prayer) from Madonna Louise Ciccone\u2019s iconic catalogue \u2014 looks upon its subjects with an empathetic, contemporary eye, especially during solo prayers from a devoted follower (Maggie Koreen) struggling with what it means to be faithful.<\/p>\n
Featuring top-notch choral work from operatic performers Christopher Dunn and Carlynn Graff-Czehryn, Lies of a Promiscuous Woman is a display of votive confidence and a call for kindness in a brutally patriarchal world. This mother delivers.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Ben Waldman<\/p>\n
MR. LOOPY PANTS: THE ART OF F*CKING UP<\/p>\n
Mr. Loopy Pants<\/p>\n
Shannon\u2019s Irish Pub (Venue 30), to July 26<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e 1\/2<\/p>\n