\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/You-Are-Happy-credit-Leif-Norman.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n This odd, funny dramedy \u2014 an English translation by Leanna Brodie of Montreal playwright R\u00e9becca D\u00e9raspe\u2019s 2012 play Deux ans de votre vie \u2014 unfortunately gets lost in translation to stage in this local production.<\/p>\n
Chic, single Bridget (Jade Janzen) is tired of finding her brother Jeremy (Griffin Kehler) trying to hang himself in her closet, so she makes it her mission to find him a partner. She stumbles upon Chloe (Kirstin Caguioa) shopping alone in the supermarket, convinces her to sign a confusing contract (involving her razor company?) in which she agrees to be Jeremy\u2019s live-in girlfriend. And she \u2026 goes with this?<\/p>\n
All three players have good instincts when it comes to comedic timing (particularly Janzen), but the performances are often one-note. The use of second-person narration \u2014 which is tricky to pull off at the best of times \u2014 makes it unclear if the \u201cyou\u201d is the audience or someone else, and sometimes the characters switch to first-person narration to narrate what we plainly see them doing.<\/p>\n
There is also a confusing mix of real and mimed props \u2014 at one point, Chloe appears to grind out a cigarette on her bedroom floor. A more absurdist\/surreal and less literal treatment of the script would make for a much stronger entry.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jen Zoratti<\/p>\n
YOUR REAL GIRLFRIEND FROM CANADA<\/p>\n
Good Morning Productions<\/p>\n
Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), to July 26<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e<\/p>\n
This storytelling show, written and performed by Winnipeg\u2019s Hannah Clark, is a harrowing (and often humorous) look at online dating circa the mid 2000s, and what happens when your real girlfriend from Canada turns out to be a real human, with real needs.<\/p>\n
Clark is a teenager when she starts chatting with the boy from Louisiana. But there are red flags. When they meet for the first time and she gets the ick. When he berates her for wearing heels to his prom, the one she flew down from Winnipeg for, because they made her slightly taller than him. When he moves in and spends all their money on his self destruction. When she starts to shrink, little by little, trying to contain herself into the perfect, chill-girl avatar she once was online.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a compelling, compassionately told story, unfortunately made too complicated by staging choices. It\u2019s not strictly a one-woman show: there is a cast of background actors who occasionally offer comedic relief but mostly distract from the thrust, and a PowerPoint element that, when it works it works but when it doesn\u2019t, it kills the momentum. With some streamlining, this could be a stunner.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jen Zoratti<\/p>\n
WHO\u2019S GONNA PUSH YOUR WHEELCHAIR?<\/p>\n
Karin Fekko<\/p>\n
The Rachel Browne Theatre (Venue 8), until July 26<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 2011. Karen is 34 and a grad student in London. She\u2019s struggling with bipolar disorder and invisible MS symptoms, though there\u2019s a cosmopolitan glamour to her life. Sophisticated friends, motorcycle rides with Frenchmen, whirlwind romances with artists.<\/p>\n
Even her self-admittedly reckless decisions \u2014 shopping sprees, cheating, over-drinking \u2014 are described by this confident storyteller in ways that charm. There\u2019s some wit and silver linings, but this minimally staged one-hour show is mostly a narrative detailing over a decade of negative experiences with parents, landlords and lovers.<\/p>\n
Some truly are terrible, but this can feel more like a therapy session \u2014 or an exercise to publicly impugn a long list of people \u2014 than a work of theatre. Memoirs at fringe can work, and this one certainly holds our attention, but the most successful examples of the genre tend to have more understanding of storytelling and theatre forms.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Conrad Sweatman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILTHY FAKESPEARE \u2026 AND FRIEND Patchwork Theatre Aceartinc (Venue 24), to July 26 \ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e\ud83d\udc7e Patrick Hercamp is sharp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-813224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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