Rating: NNNNN
PIGEON — The sweetly menacing Kim Kuhteubl is a stronger performer than her material, an unfocused variation on the “I hate my job/boyfriend/life” solo show. (GS)
BLUFF — Claire Jenkins‘s clever turn as a quartet of girlfriends — she defines the women by a masterful change of energy — eclipses the four central male characters. (JK)
NO EXIT — As a woman trapped between a controlling veneer and an underlying hysteria, Zoe Mugford brings elegance to a drab reading of the Sartre classic. (JK)
MIKAYLA
MIKAYLA
— Helped by puppets Mary Pat Farrell and Doug Morency, James Roussel hilariously evokes every 40s-era cliche in this tone-deaf musical. (GS)
GIRL IN THE BOX — In a predictable script, a woman talks about failed love to a photo of heart-throb Corey Hart, but co-author Anita Vandeneykel imbues the performance with heartfelt moments. (JK)
MONOLITH — An overly earnest look at a totalitarian state gets a spark from the focused performance of Juana Awad as a woman in a society where ethnicity is illegal. (JK)
PARALYSIS — Scott McCord‘s New York-style film noir sleuth and Nathalie Toriel as his tough-talking moll lend credibility to an otherwise turgid script about mutilated bodies. (JK)
RELATIVELY SPEAKING
RELATIVELY SPEAKING
— A dull, unfunny comedy/drama about a draft dodger who takes another’s identity and then must face the dead man’s birth mother is energized by Mary Pitt‘s razor-sharp timing as the mother with a secret. (JK)
WHISKEY BARS — Vancouver’s Bremner Duthie bravely exposes his character’s vulnerabilities in this revue of Kurt Weill songs that needs a more solid script to make it sing. (GS)