Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – It’s a Wonderful Life Playwright/composer – Joe Landry based on the original story by Philip Van Doren Stern Production Company/Theatre space – Semi-professional, educational / Rosebud Theatre School of the Arts, Rosebud Opera House Length – 95 minutes (no intermission) Genre/s – Radio play of a fantasy drama Premise –With the help of his guardian angel, a businessman and family man realizes that he has a wonderful l

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Tis Pity She’s a Whore Playwright – John Ford (with some script changes unattributed) Production Company/Theatre space – (non-Equity, paid performers.) Fallon Smyl & The Shakespeare Company / Doherty Hall on Stampede Campus. Length – Multiple Acts (2 hours, no intermission) Genre/s – Tragedy Premise – An incestuous relationship ends badly when a brother cajoles his pregnant sister to marry another man to conceal the

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Pray This Playwright – Created by Denise Clarke Production Company/Theatre space – One Yellow Rabbit / Secret Theatre, Werklund Centre. Length – 1 Act (65 minutes, no intermission) Genre/s – Dance/Post Modern Drama Premise – Denise shares how she came to create this after talking with a Montreal producer; feeling overwhelmed by the current state of affairs she first tries prayer, followed by meditation but ultimately

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Evil Dead the Musical Playwright – Book and lyrics by George Reinblatt & Christopher Bond, music by Frank Cipolla, Christopher Bond, Melissa Morris, & George Reinblatt based on characters created by Sam Raimi Production Company/Theatre space – Alberta Theatre Projects in association with The Globe Theatre / Martha Cohen Theatre at the Werklund Centre. Length – 2 Acts (2 hour, 15 mins, one intermission) Genre/s – Musica

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Chickens Playwright/composer - Book by Lucia Frangione and Royal Sproule, music by Royal Sproule and Lewis Frere with Mark Lewandowski, Jason Bertch and Bill Hamm. Lyrics unknown. Production Company/Theatre space – Fire Exit Theatre / Engineered Air Theatre at the Werklund Centre. Length – Two acts (2 hours 15 minutes with one intermission). Genre/s – Musical Fantasy Comedy Romance. Premise – The lives of four chicke

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – The Lodger Playwrights – Susie Moloney & Vern Thiessen, based on the novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, inspired by the 1927 film by Alfred Hitchcock. Production Company/Theatre space – (Professional)Vertigo Theatre / The Playhouse at Vertigo Theatre Length – 2 Acts (2 hours 20 minutes– one intermission) Genre/s – Thriller Premise – When a waitress and her husband can’t pay the mortgage, they take in a lodger at the same

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Little Shop of Horrors Playwright/s/Composer/s – Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken with original vocal arrangements by Robert Billig, new arrangements by Michael Kosarin with orchestrations by Danny Troob. Based on the film by Roger Corman with screenplay by Charles Griffith. Production Company/Theatre space (professional) Theatre Calgary / Max Bell Theatre at the Werklund Centre. Length – 2 Act (2 h

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Ulster American Playwright/s – David Ireland Production Company/Theatre space – Co produced by the theatre and Michael Rolfe / @ 14th Ave and 2nd Street SW. Length – One Act 85 minutes (no intermission) Genre/s – Comi-drama Premise – An American Oscar winning actor, a London director, and a British playwright clash over feminism, racism, rape, politics, religion, and contents of the play (which has been badly misunde

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Dear Johnny Deere Playwright/s – written by Ken Cameron based on the music and lyrics by Fred Eaglesmith with additional music and arrangements by David Archibald Production Company/Theatre space – Rosebud Theatre, Rosebud AB Length – 2 Acts, 2 ½ hours, (one 15-minute intermission) Genre/s – Musical Premise – A man who lost his mother as a kid and his father in his 20s, struggles with farming, the weather, paying the

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – & Juliet Playwright/s/Composer/s – book- David West Read, music & lyrics Max Martin & Friends Production Company/Theatre space – Max Martin, Tim Headington, Thersa Steele Page, Jenny Petersson, Martin Dodd, Eva Price, Lukasz Gottwald, 42nd Club, Independent Presenters Network, Jack Lane, Library Company, Shellback, Shivhans Pictures, Sing Out, Louise!, Kim Szarzynski, Taylor & Riegler, Tenenbaum & Keyes, Barry Weiss, John

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – First Métis Man of Odesa Playwright – Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova Production Company/Theatre space – A Punctuate Theatre Production with Theatre Calgary / The Martha Cohen Theatre, Werklund Centre. Length – 1 Act (90 minutes, no intermission) Genre/s – Meta/Storytelling/Romance Premise – An Edmontonian playwright (who believes Shakespeare and Chekov are colonialist redundancies) travels to Ukraine to write

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Unnecessary Farce Playwrights – Paul Slade Smith Production Company/Theatre space – Stage West Length – 2 Acts (2 hours 5 minutes one intermission.) Genre/s – Farce Premise – Two cops set up a sting operation in an adjoining hotel room in order to catch the mayor in a fraud case, but the case gets more complicated with the addition of one security guard, two mobsters, and eight doors. Why this play? Why now? – Farc

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Hadestown: Teen Edition Playwright/s/Composer/s – Anaïs Mitchell Production Company/Theatre space – StoryBook Theatre / The Beddington Arts Centre Length – 2 Acts, 2 hours, 20 minutes (one 15-minute intermission) Genre/s – Fantasy Tragedy Opera Premise – In a world where gods and mortals co-exist above and below ground, an artist succeeds in rescuing his beloved from the underworld only to lose her in the end. Why

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – The Wizard of One Playwright – Production Company/Theatre space – Calgary Fringe / The Kinkonauts @ BLOX Arts Centre Length – 45 minutes Genre/s – Absurdist drama/fantasy crossover Premise – Frank has to defeat his evil soon-to-be daughter-in-law and follow the yellow wires to the man in the basement with three other people who are similar to the Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow to escape a senior citizens’ home and retu

Calgarian Neil James has reimagined The Wizard of Oz so that now it takes place in a senior citizens retirement home. Dorothy is now an aging gentleman whose son is marrying a gold digger, and they have put him in the home where she works. She intends to drug him and have him sign away his life savings and property. This certainly qualifies her as a witch. Like the original Dorothy, the old man just wants to go home. In his attempt to find the Man or Wizard, he meets a man w

In one day, Jack Bennet got dumped, fired, and evicted, and, worst of all, his beloved dog died. So with his truck and a chainsaw, he decides to leave Alberta and flee north — really far north — into the Yukon. Metis actor and playwright Colin Wolf tells what happens when Jack hits the Yukon and how he finds new friends and new purpose for his life. Wolf becomes all the characters Jack meets, and these characters are so well delineated it seems as if there is always more than

The Late Great Mormon Drag Queen Steven Morton has to be congratulated for finding this true story. It’s as unbelievable as it is entertaining. Brigham Morris Young was the 15th son of the polygamous Mormon prophet Brigham Young. He was a shy, unassuming man destined to be forgotten, except that he found his true vocation, in the drag persona of Madam Pattrini. Morris came alive when he donned the wig and dress and people loved him. The prophet Lorenzo Snow even asked Morris

Penny Ashton’s musical Promise and Promiscuity is more a homage to, than a parody of, Jane Austen. It’s also as endearing and witty as it is clever. Elspeth Slowtree is a woman ahead of her time. She writes novels and newspaper columns under male pseudonyms and would rather remain an old maid than marry the snorting cousin Horacio. Her independence catches the fancy of Reginald Wrexham, the most eligible wealthy bachelor, and the stern, no nonsense Digby Dalton, But there are

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – American’t Playwright/s – Jon Bennett Production Company/Theatre space – (semi-professional) the theatre, (yes, the new company is called “the theatre”) @ 14th Ave and 2nd Street SW. Length – One Act, 75 minutes (no intermission) Genre/s – Storytelling Premise –COVID puts Bennett into a tailspin, forcing him to return to his dysfunctional family in Australia where, depressed, he drinks, attempts suicide, then returns

Learning to Count Past 100 Eve Beauchamp has written one of the few plays to be featured at Fringe this year, but it is not a typical play by any means. It is a non linear, absurdist dramedy. The two characters played by Keith Bonioi and Maysan Kawah are brother and sister, but he ends up playing several other people including their father, other children and one of his sister’s suitors. Kawash is baking cookies, while Bonioi is obsessing over the possible existence of extrat