AMÉLIE
About an hour into this 90-minute show, I checked my watch and my companion leaned over to whisper, “Time has slowed.” As in Amélie the movie, sweet nothing happens in Amélie the musical — well, nothing interesting. Amélie is a shy young Parisienne and, for a lot of...
THE LEGEND OF WHITE WOMAN CREEK
Oddly, I found The Legend of White Woman Creek both hypnotic and boring. Katie Hartman, who wrote the piece with partner Nick Ryan, who’s running the lights, performs solo. Starting out as an academic who specializes in the paranormal, she summons the ghost of...
MX
Playwright Lili Robinson has some great instincts. Mx, Robinson’s exploration of her combined African and white heritage, starts with a monologue from Mz. Nancy (Alisha Davidson looking gorgeously imposing in a red sequined dress, scarlet-and-gold headscarf, and...
LARRY
I’m in love with Larry. In green coveralls and what looks like a paper cut-out beard, clown Candice Roberts plays Larry in this solo show. The guy’s a hoser — complete with an Ottawa Valley accent — a man’s man, who isn’t woke enough for the woman he wants to date....
DIDN’T HURT
It’s a gift. In Didn’t Hurt, Rodney DeCroo shares stories about his brutal childhood and the resulting struggles in his adult life. But it’s not all grim; in fact, the most moving moments are the funniest and most tender. DeCroo is a gentle and engaging storyteller....
BEDWETTER
Tamlynn Bryson is a charm machine. (In case it’s not clear, that’s a very good thing.) In Bedwetter, she takes an unlikely topic — her own bedwetting, which continued until she was 15 — and turns it into a consistently entertaining hour. Bryson performs Bedwetter solo...
ADVANCED FIELD ZOOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS
Shawn O’Hara’s new monologue, Advanced Field Zoology for Beginners, contains deathless lines, but it’s not quite ripe. As he did in last year’s Field Zoology 101, O’Hara plays the highly unqualified field zoologist Dr. Brad Goosebury, who delivers absurd wildlife...
GUARDS AT THE TAJ
Babur and Humayan are guards at the site where the Taj Mahal is being built. On the day it’s finished, they are charged with cutting off the hands of the 20,000 artists and artisans who have made it beautiful; the emperor doesn’t want them to contribute their skills...
INESCAPABLE
In a clever detail, the preshow music is an endless loop of “White Christmas”. The characters are in an loop of their own. One of them (played by Jon Paterson) has dragged a little homemade device out of a closet in his friend’s house. That pal is played by playwright...
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