Hamilton Fringe reviews: Felt Cute, Might Overshare Later, Church Boyfriends and more
Frequent Best of Hamilton Fringe winner Kristi Boulton’s show about life’s embarrassing moments is deeply “felt”
The 12-day Hamilton Fringe Festival continues at 16+ indoor and outdoor spaces throughout the city until Sunday (July 26). See my earlier reviews here, and more information about the festival itself here.
Brilliant Boulton
Who among us doesn’t have embarrassing episodes in their life, moments we would like to delete permanently from our mental hard drives?
Kristi Boulton has several doozies, which she relates in her superb solo show Felt Cute, Might Overshare Later (Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭). But rather than tell them directly, she has her hand puppet alter ego recount them, with Boulton — an old hand (sorry) at puppetry as an alumna of Avenue Q — supplying the higher pitched voice, while also responding to her felt friend (and the audience) as herself.
She begins with a cute story about her eight-year-old self being cast as an urchin in a school play and then forgetting her one line and making a memorable, wet departure from the stage. Then she proceeds to adolescence, where as a 16-year-old in love with a boy who in turn was obsessed with her best friend, she engaged in a drunken game of “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” with disastrous, humiliating (and again wet, but in a different way) results.
Boulton, a 5x Best of Fringe winner, has a warm, generous stage presence and directs the show with confidence but not cockiness. Halfway through, she drops a hint about a story that she’s not yet ready to discuss, even via her friend. When she eventually does, it’s as herself, with no puppet proxy, and it’s cathartic and deeply moving to witness.
Her larger point, I think, is that even our most shameful or difficult memories are a crucial part of us, and we need to reclaim and accept them before moving on. We’re only human, after all — even when we channel our emotions through an inanimate, adorable object.
Felt Cute, Might Overshare Later continues at the Staircase Studio Theatre (27 Dundurn North) until July 26. Ticket details here
Evangelical insights
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to grow up in an evangelical Christian community in the American South, Alison Fishburn’s show Church Boyfriends & Other Impure Thoughts (Rating: ✭✭✭) gives you a sneak peek.
Fishburn was raised in Florida among pro-life, gun-owning, Rapture-believing Christians who attended one of the many megachurches — with seats for over 1000 — speckled across the state.
Against this backdrop, she recounts her curiosity and exploration of sexuality with a variety of boys and then young men: the back-of-the-car fumblings, the chaste kisses (one recreation of an air-kiss is a highlight) and the more complicated negotiations once she heads out of town to college and discovers the concept of “Purity Culture,” essentially born-again virginity.
It’s entertaining stuff, and Fishburn uses lots of fun visual aids in her presentation. But as a performer she has diction issues, and the narrative feels unnecessarily scattered and haphazard. It also feels like there are some big gaps in the story, especially involving her family. The material is fascinating, but she could dig deeper into it.
Under director Sara E. Culley, the rhythms feel a little off, particularly near the end, which arrives much too abruptly.
Church Boyfriends continues at Theatre Aquarius Studio (190 King William St.) until July 25. Ticket details here
Séance silliness
The ornately titled A Seance Spectacular with the Mystical Medium Wolf Sisters from the Great White North (Rating: ✭✭) should be much funnier than it actually is.
Writer/performers Carly Anna Billings and Cecilia O’Grady play Annie and Lizzie Wolf, the titular sibling mediums who have taken their charlatan act — which involves tricking audiences with dousing rods, an early version of a Ouija board and chattering skulls — on the road.
The duo is on the eve of splitting up, however. Lizzie, who’s met and fallen in love with a man, is about to leave to get married, and Annie, in denial, drowns her anxieties with booze from her flask.
Meanwhile, I think, their real spiritual skills begin emerging, with musical instruments playing in the dark and skulls mouthing words. I say “I think” because I found it difficult to follow the narrative, what with confusing flashbacks, songs (a couple with new lyrics to Gilbert & Sullivan ditties) and some laboured passages. (Katherine Teed-Arthur is credited as director.)
That said, promising comics Billings and O’Grady, clad in period gear, have a winning onstage chemistry that they demonstrate in their popular podcast The Paranormal Parlour. They’re also skilled improvisors, which they show in a couple of audience participation bits.
More suggested history between the siblings, and higher stakes, would greatly improve this show, making it live up to the word “spectacular” in the title.
A Seance Spectacular continues until July 25 at Mills Hardware (95 King St. East). Ticket details here