As annoying as Winnipeg's most familiar summertime sound is, that buzzing in your ear lets you know there's a mosquito about. And it's a good thing, too because without it, one bite on the ear of a zebra can set up a disaster of mythic proportions. Cape Town, South Africa's Erik de Waal (make that 'W' sound like a 'V') has the goods on how that pest first got its whiny drone, and in this 50-minute kids' show, he's only too happy to share it. Of course, the only thing tougher than acting with kids is acting for them. De Waal is able to do better than merely navigate the little hurdles that his pint-sized audience throws at him, he incorporates them right into the ride. The barefoot storyteller uses puppets and his own dynamic stage presence to great effect in the telling of this traditional South African story, and another about a secret that lion has! This is a show with good "buzz."

BALD EGO
dancingmonkeyboy
Onstage at the Playhouse (Venue 4), to July 29

London, England-based stand-up comic Paul Thorne returns for a second year in a row to the Winnipeg Fringe to offer up some witty musings on a disparate array of subjects, such as death, religion, British tourists -- and Manitoba's multi-million-dollar Spirited Energy campaign.

Thorne is a sharp and fast-paced comedian with just the right mix of edgy political incorrectness. No one is left unscathed during a hilarious hour-long show that pokes fun at everyone from Christian fundamentalists to teachers, and from U.S. President George W. Bush to suicide bombers.

But audience interaction is Thorne's specialty, and that is where he really shines -- so beware if you are in the front row. He thoroughly enjoys heckling the crowd and sends out some hilarious zingers.

Another highlight is when Thorne takes out his guitar and offers up a few of his own cheeky ditties, including a rant against comb-overs called Shave Your Head. If stand-up comedy is your thing, then Thorne is the guy to see.

BLOOD WEDDING
Bolero Dance Theatre
MTC Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 29

Ol�! The same Winnipeg company that turned Federico Garcia Lorca's play The House of Bernarda Alba into a fiery dance drama two years ago returns with another searing Lorca tragedy. It's the tale of a bride who runs away with her lover after the ceremony, provoking a fatal duel between groom and lover. This amateur troupe, led by choreographer Pedro Aurelio as the matador-like lover, pulls off near-professional production values. A huge full moon creates the ominous Spanish setting. The costumes in scarlet, black and white -- including flamenco dresses with long ruffled trains -- are spectacular (though the silver shorts on the otherwise-naked dancer who personifies the Moon are a poor choice). The river-of-blood effect at the end needs a little refinement. The live sounds of fiercely strummed guitar, gutsy singing, rhythmic clapping and clacking castanets join with the rat-a-tat of heels to make this a stirring, passionately danced 50 minutes. Read the program synopsis for maximum enjoyment.

THE BRIDESMAID
Keira McDonald
The Playhouse Studio (Venue 3), to July 28

Foul-mouthed serial bridesmaid Hope (Seattle-based Texan Keira McDonald) suffers through every wedding cliche in the guest book. Along with a vast collection of hideous dresses -- poofy sleeves, satin bows, a purple cape sewn by a bride's aunt -- she's accumulated a store of indignities and grievances tailor-made for a Jerry Springer showdown. Swilling champagne straight from the bottle, she opens the 55-minute show with a barrage of abuse for a "tacky" and slutty ex-best friend who's masquerading as a virgin bride, and there's a whole bouquet of C-word- and F-bomb-heavy vitriol about gift registries, bratty kids and snotty mothers-in-law. Videotaped scenes of Hope scarfing down cake and fried chicken, guzzling beer, squeezing into double corsets, or sneaking into a bathroom stall with a male guest fill time nicely during costume changes, but the show is not all bawdy business. In a calm after the s**tstorm, Hope shares a surprisingly poignant moment that may explain her never-a-bride status. McDonald suffered a few indignities of her own when Thursday's show was plagued by technical glitches, but she endeared herself to the audience when she confessed she was suffering nerves over her fringe debut. Sort of like a bride on her wedding day. RSVP soon for this engaging, adults-only tirade.

CABERLESQUE!
BSide Productions
MTC Backstage at the Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 27

Caberlesque! offers a musical seduction scene that is hard to resist. Even if you saw it here at last year's festival, the sexy and skin-filled musical from Saskatoon has retained its racy allure.

It transports spectators back to decadent Deutscheland where the Berlin cabarets were peaking with exoticism in the 1930s. Jeff Pufahl is the agreeable emcee Max who introduces pretty frauleins to sing the likes of the Fats Waller standard Joint is Jumpin' and numbers by Kurt Weill and Irving Berlin. Sharon Nowlan's fan dance is a stylish tip of the hat to American burlesque.

The 75-minute presentation also makes stops in 1967 Amsterdam and present day New York but retains that slightly seedy feel. As Sugar Puss, Darla Biccum makes a deliciously bawdy host dishing heavy doses of sexual innuendot. Caberlesque!, with its five-man band, is a polished evening of entertainment but loses some ambiance being in MTC rather than a BYOV bar.

View video here

THE CLOCK IN THE LOBBY

Watch & Spectacle Puppet Company

Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to July 27

If Edward Gorey had worked in the puppet medium instead of the cartoon medium, he might have come up with something like this delightful Gothic mystery set in a haunted theatre.

Credited to playwright Jean Daspry (the name of a character in the serialized adventures of master thief Ars�ne Lupin -- coincidence?), this is the story of a series of bizarre murders at the Thurber Theatre, possibly at the spectral hands of a long-murdered thespian. Fortunately for management, a couple of master sleuths, Daspry and Detective Mersenne, are there to untangle the backstage intrigues that led to a bloody on-stage massacre.

On that latter score, this production comes with an unprecedented content warning "Ridiculous Puppet Gore," and that's the least of the perverse pleasures of this well-crafted -- in all senses of the term -- hour-long puppet showcase.

View video here

DECAMERON

Erik de Waal

School of Contemporary Dancers (Venue 8), to July 28

Once again, South African writer/performer Erik de Waal (Canterbury Tales) thumbs through some weighty medieval literature, bringing audiences a sampling of the good stuff. Through his trademark story-telling, he sprinkles some contemporary themes and good humour on Boccaccio's celebrated text, The Decameron, presenting only a choice seven of the 100 bawdy novellas that comprise the original.

While Boccaccio's masterpiece is set in the Italian countryside and was originally meant to be told over the course of 10 days (Decameron means 10 days in Greek), de Waal's near-flawless performance is set in a shady brothel and spun in only 60 minutes.

If you're a fan of de Waal's work, you won't be disappointed with this year's storylines, which feature fear-mongering, lots of sex and another appearance from that ghastly death puppet. You don't need to go dusting off your copy of The Decameron, if you even own one, that is. De Waal could give Coles Notes a run for their money any day.

DEEP FRIED CURRIED PEROGIES
Mahatmamajama Productions
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 28

Michelle Todd's memoir is about growing up in Edmonton with a Jamaican father and a Filipino mother. It's a classic Canadian immigrant's coming-of-age story affectionatedly told with humour and energy.

The starting point of the sometimes rambling, hour-long monologue is the discovery that Todd and her white Ukrainian-Anglo boyfriend are having a baby. It ignites Todd's musing about cultural identity. "What if I have to make my son food for ethnic day at school?," she wonders. "What am I going to make? Deep fried curried perogies?"

Todd's hilariously remembers her father's cultural confusion about the Edmonton Eskimos football team. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to play soccer in the snow with the Inuit. Although she recalls her worst racism came from other black girls in high school, she remains upbeat especially in confidently confirming her place in the melting pot. "I'm from Edmonton," she boasts. "I'm Canadian."

View video here

DICKENS OF THE MOUNTED
Beyond Chatleigh Productions
School of Contemporary Dancers (Venue 8), to July 29

Afraid of further embarrassing the family name, famed English novelist Charles Dickens offered his drunken ne'er-do-well son Frank a choice of going to jail or to Canada as a Mountie. "I was my father's least successful character," says Frank glumly in the first rate stage adaptation of Eric Nicol's bestselling novel.

Dickens of the Mounted gets its man in performer Kristian Bruun who knows how to tell a good story economically while imaginatively converting a few trunks and planks into everything from a horse to a Christmas tree and outhouse. As the "Crimson Catastrophe," Dickens relates his eventful times in the colonial wilderness through letters he writes home to his girl and favourite bartender.

Manitoba figures prominently in this hour-long historical comedy, of course, because of the mosquitos which measure six inches "and that's between the eyes," he says. Dickens offers a bottom of the bottle view of history that is both surprisingly clear-eyed and bracing.

View video here

DIE ROTEN PUNKTE
Tobias & Bartholomew
Gas Station Theatre (Venue 18), to July 28

For anyone who missed the White Stripes on their way through Winnipeg this month, Die Roten Punkte offers a truly twisted Teutonic tribute to Jack and Meg.

Die Roten Punkte, or the The White Dots in English, consists of Berlin guitarist Otto Rot and his drum-beating sister Astrid Rot. The duo bang out their minimalist rock hits I'm in a Band and the similiar-sounding Best Band in the World, which apparently both went to number one in Germany and Poland.

The fun is in the loopy love-hate relationship between the pushy party girl Astrid and the petulant Otto, the more lipsticked of the two. They claim to be brother and sister but the sexual tension eventually overcomes them, leaving them in an awkward liplock.

Melbourne comics Daniel Tobias and Clare Bartholomew parody the rock conventions with deadly accuracy. The self-indulgence hits ridiculous heights with an over-the-top version of The Carpenters's Close to You, featuring Astrid on glockenspiel. Danke, Die Roten Punkte.

DISHPIG
PKF Productions
The King's Head (Venue 14), to July 29
Under 18 years not admitted

Ah, to be 23 years old with your arms soaked deep in lettuce shreds, salsa chunks, hardened cheese and greasy water. And don't forget to put on that sexy hair-net. Performer Greg Landucci masterfully recalls the humiliation and humour that go hand-in-hand with being the lowest rank of the restaurant order, the smelly, plate-washing species known as the dishpig. In a profanity-laced one-hour script penned with fringe legend TJ Dawe, Landucci believably channels characters that range from Jemma, a hottie waitress who's lusted after by every male employee in the restaurant, to co-worker Leo, who shares raunchy trade secrets about how to secretly foul the food of perceived foes (think bodily functions galore). Already garnering a strong buzz thanks to an appearance at last year's festival, Landucci has audience members in turn recoiling and guffawing. You'll cringe and you'll laugh, and you'll also likely think twice about the poor dishwasher at the King's Head mopping up after the audience's nacho and fry plates.

ELEEMOSYNARY
Scattergood Theatre
Onstage at the Playhouse (Venue 4), to July 29

Don't worry -- you don't have to know the meaning of eleemosynary, sortilege or ungulate to enjoy this comedy/drama, which centres on a young spelling bee champion and her complicated relationship with her mother and grandmother.

This new Winnipeg troupe puts on a powerful and poignant performance of a play by award-winning American Lee Blessing.

Jane Burpee steals every scene as grandma Dorothea, a strong-willed eccentric who attempts to communicate with the dead, levitate above the ground and find a way to see through the earth.

Nan Fewchuck plays her brilliant but damaged daughter and Lindsay Chochinov is superb as the sweet and saucy granddaughter who becomes obsessed with spelling words to hide her pain.

Director Veralyn Warkentin has put together a tight and smoothly paced production that is sweet, touching and highly amusing at the same time. 4-1/2 stars

View video here

FEATURING LORETTA
Venus.calm
MTC Backstage at the Mainstage (Venue 1), to July 29

It's refreshing to see a group tackling something more ambitious than a comic monologue or a 40-minute skit.

This Winnipeg troupe has been working its way through Toronto playwright George F. Walker's six-play Suburban Motel suite, and this four-hander is No. 5 in six years.

Clocking in at 85 minutes, an epic by Fringe standards, it focuses on a twentysomething woman who has run away from her extended family after her caddish husband has been eaten by a bear and she has been impregnated his best friend.

Wanting nothing more than a chance to make her own decisions, she casts about for options with a sleazeball who wants to make porn movies and a hardware salesman who needs to impress his boss.

The show, though, is stolen by the actress who chews the scenery with a hilarious Russian accent as the immigrant daughter of the hotel's owner. Who knew a man could be eaten by a Chinese "penda" bear?

GIANT INVISIBLE ROBOT
The Baggy Pants
Son of Warehouse (Venue 5), to July 28

A boy and his robot create mayhem and magic in this one-man comedy by London, Ont. writer-performer Jayson McDonald.

Assembled from spare parts, its series of linked sketches showcase McDonald's versatility as he transforms himself into half a dozen characters.

Cigar-chomping military man General Panic oversees a mission to capture the Giant Invisible Robot, a newsman tracks GIR's destructive path and a dorky scientist expounds on its history.

The connections between some of the scenes and GIR are mighty loose: A robot-hunting superhero goes off-message during a stay-in-school speech, listing reasons to drop out -- "If you're in a really good band, I say go for it!" -- and McDonald channels Tom Waits in a comic noir scene with a barfly who's "sliding all over that piano like butter on a hot Teflon pan."

But the lonely boy, Russel, is a constant, growing into a lonely man who harbours a secret love for a seductive older woman, and who has a lot of explaining to do in workplace therapy when his robot pal trashes his office on a weekly basis.

By turns sweet, funny and visceral -- Russel is haunted by a brutal childhood incident -- GIR turns downright moving when the robot weighs in on loneliness, revealing the 50-minute show's giant invisible heart.

THE GOOD DAUGHTER
EwwGross Productions
School of Contemporary Dancers (Venue 8), to July 28

This little gem of prairie gothic tells the story of the Quinn women in small-town Saskatchewan during prohibition.

Mrs. Quinn (Talia Pura) is the harridan mother who uses her rickety old wheelchair and a pair of pincers to terrorize her daughters, the sweet Bible-thumper Janice (Jane Testar) and Laurel (Daina Leitold), the rough-edged rum-runner. Rounding out the all-local cast is Cory Wojcik as the doughboy local constable.

It's a funny and tightly told tale of family secrets and murder. The cast is wonderful, especially Pura as Mrs. Quinn, who brings a crotchety and hilarious physicality to the mean matriarch.

The pacing is particularly good. Quiet, deadpan dark bits are punctuated by chaotic fight scenes and some eye-popping gags that made the audience explode. One small criticism: The ending wasn't as sharp as the rest of the play. <

HAIR: THE ROCK MUSICAL
University of Winnipeg
PTE Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 29

Hard to say if the moon is in the seventh house or whether Jupiter is aligned with Mars, but the age of Aquarius is dawning nightly at PTE.

This seminal rock musical takes audiences on a psychedelic ride back to a time in the late '60s when its celebration of the drug culture, use of the F-word, anti-war message and nudity was truly radical. Today, the effect of its flower power idealism alternates between exhilaration and embarrassment.

Because Hair's book is so weak, director Kayla Gordon is forced to focus all her attention on the great tunes, which are well sold by the tie-dyed and bell-bottomed cast of University of Winnipeg students. Michael Lyons as hippie tribe leader Berger and Dan Szymanski as Vietnam War draftee Claude stand out, but it is female cast members who are consistently in better voice.

The peace and love vibe continues for more than 90 minutes before reaching a feel-good high with the closing anthems Good Morning Starshine and Let the Sun Shine In. By that time, even war-mongerers have to admit that Hair grows on them.

View video here

THE HONEYMOON PERIOD IS OFFICIALLY OVER
Gemma Wilcox
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 29

You may not see a better performance at this year's festival than the one Gemma Wilcox delivers in this solo comedy-drama.

The lithe Londoner exhibits awesome range and physicality by playing all the parts -- men, women, a cat, a peacock, a hamster and even the flames of a fire. In each she finds a physical tic or a distinct movement that underpins a vivid 70-minutes of storytelling that attracted a sold-out house Wednesday.

Wilcox the writer is not up to the same high level as Wilcox the performer. The Honeymoon Period never happens for a troubled young couple even after the marriage proposal, and certainly not after the wedding. Much of it is unremarkable, although the unlikely love connection at the end is a nice touch.

HOORAY FOR SPEECH THERAPY
Too Much Free Time Productions
Red River College Princess Street Campus (Venue 11), to July 28

What's a stu�ttt�er�.er to do?

Well, if you're New York Second City-trained improviser and sketch comedian Kurt Fitzpatrick, you take your lemons and make lemonade.

Fitzpatrick does a masterful job of bringing to life his own experiences growing up as a stutterer in this cinematic-inspired journey that took him from being a shy, awkward 13-year-old boy who wrote his name on his school folder, pointing to it when asked, to a horny 31-year-old who sometimes wishes he still carried around that folder.

Along the way, Fitzpatrick meets some well-meaning teachers, a renowned speech therapist who is nothing short of a shmuck and some great friends that help him survive therapy boot camp in Rowan Oak Virginia.

Witty and heartfelt, this 60-minute one-man show is for anyone who has ever felt self-conscious about anything and lived to tell the tale.

THE INGRATES
The Reverend McSalty
WCD Studio Theatre (Venue 9), to July 28

"Nobody knows anybody. Not that well." That line from Miller's Crossing pretty well sums up this darkly comic drama -- directed and smartly written by Winnipeg's Ross McMillan -- about the impossibility of knowing other people, and the necessity of trying anyway. Catherine (Daria Puttaert) is a woman who can't experience pleasure. Bob (Ray Strachan) hears voices that correct his grammar. Ronaldo (Jeff Strome), if that is his real name, is a compulsive liar, or something much worse. Their attempts to connect in this 60-minute production are awkward and fraught with neurosis, sometimes futile and sometimes hopeful. The humour is deeply odd -- Strachan's let-loose dance to Trooper's Boys in the Bright White Sports Car is its most broad example, a Faberg� perogy one of its weirdest -- but it works as a beautiful foil for the self-absorbed struggles of these tormented souls.

THE KIRSTEN VAN RITZEN SHOW
Union Theatricals
The Cinematheque (Venue 10), to July 28

Kirsten Van Ritzen sings, dances, mimes, improvs and plays with puppets over the course of a side-splitting 55-minute one-woman comedy show.

A former Winnipegger who now lives in Vancouver, Van Ritzen is a confident actress and clearly a veteran of the stage (she's a Toronto Second City alumnus). Aided by director Ian Ferguson, she shows off a real flair for creating a variety of colourful and quirky characters, from boozy divas to marine biologists.

One-woman comedy shows are a dime a dozen at the Fringe. But what Van Ritzen offers is a little bit different. She teases and toys with her audience -- setting up what appears to be a conventional scene and then turning it on its head. That's what makes her stand out from the crowd. And get a few extra laughs.

LUCREZIA BORGIA
Canadian Musical Theatre Development Group
Gas Station Theatre (Venue 18), to Saturday

Lucrezia Borgia was Joseph Aragon's graduating project from the National Theatre School, and its debut Winnipeg run shows a composer with uncommon talent and potential.

There's hardly enough room at the fringe festival to contain it. His musical about the notorious Renaissance murdering adulteress is running 10 minutes longer than festival's 90-minute limitation and, in an event jammed with solo shows, boasts 12 actors and five musicians on stage.

Aragon depicts Lucrezia as an unwilling family pawn who was told whom to marry to secure important alliances and whom to kill to advance the Borgia power base. The political scheming and garroting of those who know too much bring to mind The Godfather, circa 1500. Musically, the top numbers are The Spanish Cow, an insulting ditty directed at Lucrezia, and Letters, in which she and artistic soulmate Pietro Bembo profess their love.

The female performers shine brightest in the cast, especially the very watchable Andrea Houssin in the title role and Samantha Hill as the haughty Isabella. Kami Desilets, Heather Madill Jordan and Simon Miron also earn kudos. Lucrezia Borgia has a few confusing moments, but overall Aragon tells a good story.

View video here

MEN SELDOM MAKE PASSES AT GIRLS WHO WEAR GLASSES
Studio Incarnate
320-70 Albert St. (Venue 20), to July 20

Love acidic one-liners and writerly musings played to an overwrought pinnacle of self-pity?

This one-woman show, performed by Winnipeg-based actress Brenda McLean, is an hour chock-full of an oft-tortured author's adapted poems and monologues.

Dorothy Parker -- the famed former member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table who left a alcohol-drenched legacy of heartbreak and unfulfilled dreams -- may have died alone in 1967, but McLean will have you gulping with laughter at some of Parker's more piquant observations.

The small, dark venue has Parker's witticisms scrawled across the room in white chalk ("I require three things in a man: he must be handsome, ruthless and stupid"), and McLean makes excellent use of the sweltering space to portray a woman who was scorned, and who responded with a scornful tongue.

Orginally performed independently last October, this Fringe production still feels fresh, mostly thanks to McLean's energetic performance on stage and a trilling voice that channels one of 20th-century literature's favourite dark ladies.

Parker would tip her whiskey to this.

MOZART: ZE KOMPLETE HYSTERY
The British Comedy Club of Great Britain
MTC Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 29

Is it possible the great Rainer Hersch is coasting?

The revered British classical-music comedian, who has lampooned the orchestral canon in several acclaimed Fringe shows, is back with material that might be too easy for his considerable gifts -- the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

As always, Hersch's wit is bawdy, his Monty Pythonesque timing impeccable as he skewers musical conceits with an insider's rapier wit.

The highlight here may be his translation of The Magic Flute into English using title cards on a projector screen and lip-synching the lyrics.

Beware: His 45-monologue involves pulling an audience member from the first row to play the xylophone. But if you paid $50 to see him the last couple of seasons with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, to be mocked for a mere $9 at the Fringe ranks as an excellent bargain.

NECESSARY DECEPTIONS AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS
Summer Thought
The Conservatory (Venue 7), to July 27

Combine the male-centric vulgarity of Judd Apatow's hit movie Knocked Up with the taboo-busting plot of The Graduate, and you'll have some idea where this three-person Winnipeg comedy is heading.

Cory Wojcik and Peter Nadolny are both stellar as boyhood best friends who meet in a Grade 4 detention room, where Cory's mother, Nancy Drake, is also their teacher.

The action unfolds in a series of about 20 short scenes, as the boys gradually mature -- very gradually -- and go their separate ways.

To say any more would spoil one of the story's risqué twists. Written and directed by Randy Apostle of Celebrations Dinner Theatre, this 65-minute effort has a few elements that are hard to swallow. But overall it's very funny and achieves a real poignancy.

Hey, Judd, how much will you pay them for the movie rights?

ONCE UPON A CANADA
Junior Musical Theatre Company
MTC Warehouse (Venue 6), to July 27

Featuring a cast of thousands (no really, there were, like, a thousand kids on that stage), this family musical gives audiences a Coles notes version of Canada's history from 1545 to 2001. Told from the point of view of the children who lived it, Once Upon a Canada covers the life of the Inuit, early settlers, the Métis, the Home Children -- right through to the story of a family coming to Canada from Egypt on Sept. 11, 2001.

Very well directed and blocked, this production had only one awkward scene. The story of the Vietnam draft-dodgers coming to Canada in 1973 started to morph into a production of Hair -- it was just a little too freaky, man. It needs to come down a notch or two.

This very large ensemble cast of young performers demonstrates remarkably polished chops. They hit their marks. They know their lines. They sing on key. Every actor on stage was fully committed. Bravo.

PARTY OF ONE
Noel Williams
Exchange Community Church (Venue 12), to July 29

In this charmingly crazy one-woman clown show, Chicago-based performer Noel Williams plays a hyperventilating basket-case, "a wonderful mess" of a woman who has "more intimate relationships with inanimate objects" than she does with people.

Under the direction of Toronto clowning guru Sue Morrison, the 20-something Williams doesn't stop blabbering for an entire hour. She delivers energetic physical comedy combined with a stream-of-consciousness monologue about female neediness.

Her props include a train-station turnstile, a few pieces of cheap luggage, and a couple of costumes -- and she makes the most of all of them.

Billed as a world premiere, the production feels a tad shapeless, hung as it is on an improvisational frame. But Williams does a great Rick Milleresque precis of Gone With the Wind, and she has the nerve to spew the "two most dangerous words you can use on stage" -- even with godless Canadians in the crowd.

PETEY MACK: EMBALMED
Robo Productions
Ragpickers Theatre (Venue 13), to July 29

Still sporting braces, but proud to announce she recently began to get her period, the late-blooming, socially under-equipped Petey Mack has, at age 20, found her new life's calling as a "Mortuary Sanitation Specialist" (she's more than just a janitor).

This comedy out of Winnipeg catches the audience up with the heroine, now living in her very own apartment (six square feet, $245/month). She's working in an environment in which she's really comfortable. "It's just me, the deceased and my mixed CDs," she says.

RobYn Slade is awkwardly, irrepressibly and lovably funny as Petey, who is facing her future, her Top 10 list of "Things to Do Before I Die" and her own inevitable mortality with the kind of naive pluck that only a genuine ubergeek can muster. Slade is totally committed to the character and the sharp script -- she gives the audience a laugh with almost every line. It's all as professional and funny as you can get.

View video here

POPTART
Pony Productions
The Playhouse Studio (Venue 3), to July 29

Uptight adoptee Ruth (Clarice Eckford) seeks out her birth mother, but when the woman drops dead with shock upon their meeting, Ruth ends up with a ditsy half-sister, Jennifer (Shannon Blanchet).

As a lawyer working on behalf of women's shelters, Ruth contributes to society. ("You're a total defender of girl power, big-time," burbles Jennifer.) But Jennifer worships at the pop culture altar of famous-for-being-famous celeb Berlin Fairmont.

In the course of their adventure, involving the lovelorn owner of a gossip website (Ryan Parker), playwright Chris Craddock (this year's BASH'd) offers a timely meditation on pop culture folding in upon itself, popping Jennifer's bubbly beliefs in the process. The Edmonton-based company moves things at a breathless pace, but not so quickly you can't think.

The program says the show is 60 minutes, but 70 is closer to the mark. HHHH

PRIVATE i
Jolene Bailie/Cuppa Jo
WCD Studio Theatre (Venue 9), to July 28

This endearingly quirky, life-affirming work was specially created for one of Winnipeg's foremost dance soloists, Jolene Bailie, by one of Calgary's top dance names, Denise Clarke.

Bailie portrays a naive, soul-searching young woman who shares with the audience her iPod playlist (hence the "i" of the title), and bursts into exuberant dance numbers that are a joy to watch. The highlight is a brilliantly silly anti-war number in which she imagines being caught in a hail of bullets. The lush recorded songs are by The Hylozoists, whose retro use of instruments like organ, trumpet, vibes and cymbals is an ideal fit for the character's huge, often dreamy, emotions.

The show's silent opening goes on too long. But Bailie is a delight from her expressive eyebrows to her bare feet. Those feet rebel against her in a tour-de-force of physical comedy, after she boasts that she can subdue feelings of jealousy by confining them to her toes. Yeah, right.

View video here

THE PROBLEM
Eye the World
The Cinematheque (Venue 10), to July 29

This strangely endearing romantic comedy by American playwright A.R. Gurney is cleverly directed by Winnipeg acting instructor Brett Schmall and ably executed by local actors Jared Falk and Dianna Rasing. Schmall's comic timing as the apparent straight man is nicely complemented by Rasing as they play man and wife in this absurd story of love, lust and political incorrectness. Some good laughs, solid acting and clever writing make this short and sweet 25-minute two-handed allegory well worth the price of admission.

THE STORY OF A SINKING MAN
Theatre Dirigible
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 28

As the lights go down before the opening scene of this absurdist one-hander written by Governor General Award-winning playwright Morris Panych (Girl in the Goldfish Bowl), Diana King's I Say a Little Prayer plays softly in the background.

When the lights come up we find Nash, played by local actor Arne MacPherson, best known for his extensive work at Shakespeare in the Ruins and MTC, stuck in a mud puddle. And there he remains for 70 minutes as he contemplates how he got there and if anyone will ever find him.

As the mud puddle -- a rope and pulley apparatus that takes four unseen stage hands to manoeuvre -- rises higher and higher, you don't know whether to laugh or cry as Nash analyzes his life and his now unattainable future, all while trying to keep a cheery disposition about his extremely odd predicament.

MacPherson is very convincing as the unsuspecting victim, and you can't help but want to help pull Nash out of the puddle, or at least help him attach a note to a passing bird in the hope that some middle-school social studies teacher might find it.

Lots of laughs, a great script and a polished performance by MacPherson make this show stand out as one of the more professional acts at this year's fringe.

UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL
By the book productions
Rory Runnels Studio (Venue 21), to July 28

Consummate Fringer John Huston returns in a one-man show that's equal parts drama and international intrigue -- or at least, as intriguing as it gets for a reclusive and eccentric librarian.

A book returned 113 years overdue sparks the mystery that leads Huston's librarian-turned-detective out of his comfort zone in Holland and across the globe, searching for clues about the book's enigmatic borrower.

Full of gentle humour, this is a thoughtful reflection on one man's obsession and growing self-awareness. Dress lightly though, and bring water. It's a steamy venue.

THE UNIVERSAL WOLF
No Sugar Added Productions
MTC Up the Alley (Venue 2), to July 29

This farcical spoof of Little Red Riding Hood is a grownup production that works well for kids, largely because of its hilariously over-the top performances.

Erin McGrath, last seen at Manitoba Theatre for Young People, turns in a delightful performances as the impish, if not obnoxious, Little Red. Gotta love her Edith Piaf imitation.

Not outdone is Rob McLaughlin as the villainous wolf, employing a Maurice Chevalier accent and hamming it up even more than he did as Bottom this spring in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The gimmick here is provided by American playwright Joan Shenkar, whose script calls for stage directions to be read out loud by a narrator, Tricia Cooper, doing double duty as the grandmother, a wine-loving butcher.

The highly ironic 60 minutes call to mind the shenanigans of the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show. Nothing up their sleeve but talent.

WILD MAGIC
RJ Deverell Productions
The Conservatory (Venue 7), to July 28

The three witches from Macbeth have retreated to a quiet lakeside dock. They're sitting around tired, lethargic even, from the weight of the world's history. But something is rolling around in the back of their minds.

It's a Shakespearean witch-bitch. There's a funny side -- and an angry side -- just like in regular bitching.

Stephanie Wiens plays the slightly off-kilter Lydia, who seems to be not fully tethered to her Adirondack chair. Plagued by visions of doom, and regret, she interferes with the thoughts of Verleen (Rita Shelton Deverell) and Cleo (Nancy Drake,) who are just trying to look at the lake and forget about Macbeth and the whole Scottish thing. Soon the three are reminiscing and complaining about Shakespeare (whom they refer to as the "BIRD of Avon"). They try to make sense of their role in Macbeth's rise to power and connect the dots of men, their warfare, and their history. Do things ever change? Did they really have any influence? Can they ever?

Wiens brings her left-of-centre energy to the stage and is beautifully balanced with solid performances by both Deverell and Drake, veteran actors who can move with ease from sharp humour to deep sorrow in these well-crafted roles from playwright Rex Deverell. Who says there are no good parts for older women? 4-1/2 stars

WHO THE DEVIL ARE YOU?
Chris Gibbs
The King's Head (Venue 14), to July 29

He still bills himself as being from London, U.K., but clever fringe-favourite comedian Chris Gibbs now lives in Toronto with his wife. Just three weeks ago, he became a father.

"I've made a Canadian!" exclaims the mirthful Gibbs (Antoine Feval, The Power of Ignorance), an irresistibly relaxed entertainer who always seems on the verge of laughter. In this new one-hour show, the rumpled, self-deprecating comic gets lots of standup mileage from his status as an immigrant and the experience of becoming a dad. His wit is wildly infectious and he's a genius with a playful ad-lib.

In the second half he delivers his one-man "play," Who the Devil Are You?, a rather unoriginal spy spoof in the Austin Powers vein that sees him awakening with amnesia and going in search of his identity. Amid ridiculous plot turns and loopy tangents, he pokes fun at puppeteers, mimes and preachy "important theatre."

It may not be "important theatre," but Gibbs owes it to ticket buyers at the King's Head to get his sound system functioning properly. Three shows into the run, it's inexcusable for him to ask whether people can hear, then admit he can't fix the sound quality if they can't.