Halifax Fringe: Day 1

Halifax Fringe is officially here! It’s the most wonderful time of the year! 

I started my day at Neptune Theatre’s Imperial Studio where I saw Sully O’Sullivan’s show A Complete Idiot’s Guide to New Zealand. Sullivan has come to the Halifax Fringe all the way from New Zealand to dispel some myths that we might have about his homeland, and to share with us some of what is absurd, strange, and delightful about his country as well.

The show is quite simple, O’Sullivan shares information with us on various topics, including sports teams, flags, and place names and roadside signs and town mascots/statues that makes the welcome sign into Schitt’s Creek look perfectly ordinary. O’Sullivan is accompanied by a slideshow of photos and humorous news articles and headlines, which prove that no matter how outlandish something he says may seem, he’s telling us the truth about it.

What makes this show work so well is how easily affable and funny O’Sullivan is. I have never been to New Zealand (but I would like to go, I’m not a weirdo), but I honestly didn’t know much about the country, and I think that is an ideal way to go in. I feel like I genuinely learned some interesting facts, I have a better sense of the country’s culture, and I have many more questions about Disney’s Moana, all while being very entertained. There is no audience participation, but if you have the opportunity to sit behind two audience members from Australia, it will just enhance the whole vibe. Bring all the New Zealand questions you’ve been dying to ask someone about, and make sure to check out O’Sullivan’s very unique merch after the show. 

TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Up!

A Complete Idiot’s Guide to New Zealand plays at the Neptune Theatre Imperial Studio (1589 Argyle Street, Halifax) on August 31st at 1:30pm. Tickets are $18.00 and are available here.

Next up in the Imperial was The Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company’s staged reading of a new work Mating Habits of Common Mammals written by EJ Weise and Logan Robins.

Avery and Emerson (EJ Weise and Laura Spencer) are having marital issues and find themselves in the office/laboratory of a very unconventional therapist named Dr. Jay (Abby Weisbrot) in an attempt to work things out. Since both Avery and Emerson work in the field of biology Dr. Jay tailors his unique approach to the couple’s passion. Dr. Jay believes that in order for Avery and Emerson to truly communicate the truth to one another they need to hone their trust, get out of their comfort zone, and throw themselves into play, silliness, and artistic expression. 

It’s a very cute premise and the play is wacky and absurd, and sweet, and strange, and hilarious. Weise and Spencer, who have excellent chemistry together, have a very cute moment where they are playing rock, paper, scissors together, and there is a lovely scene in flashback where they are trying to hide their eyes from one other on the morning of their wedding. All of these moments really set the audience up to root for this relationship to succeed, and we have a firm understanding of what it is Avery and Emerson are fighting to save. 

This performance is a staged reading of a work still in progress, and I think this work shows a lot of promise, and lends itself to a lot of really imaginative and fun full-staging possibilities- especially with the dances, and strange games, and, of course, the puppets. Already the show has some great props, including a puppet who looks like she wandered here from a production of Avenue Q, as well as some really glittery artwork. I found that the emotional arc of Avery and Emerson’s issues feels a bit segmented. When they are immersed in Dr. Jay’s experiments they are beautifully wholly connected with one another, and when they are bickering, they are suddenly completely filled with vitriol- there is room for the writers to play around with melding these two extremes together a bit more. I really liked that there is a big reveal later in the play surrounding the character Morgan, and I wondered if maybe it might work for Morgan to be a bit of a revelation for Avery and Emerson too- that they both thought their main issue was something else because they had repressed their feelings connecting to Morgan, as this will help explain why neither of them are forthright about her with Dr. Jay from the beginning. 

Dr. Jay has a clear ulterior motive in this play concerning his process, as he is willing to undermine Emerson and Avery’s logical progress by any means necessary to ensure that they engage with his exercises at any cost. It may add even more clarity for the audience to know what is at stake for Dr. Jay if this experiment doesn’t go as he has planned. 

Folks in the audience were literally screaming with laughter at this show. I look forward to seeing a future iteration of it. While I’m not sure that in real life I would be on board with Dr. Jay’s specific extra-absurd methods, but I really love the basic crux of this show that Avery and Emerson can find deeper connection with one another through playing together, and creating together, and not being afraid to be goofy and ridiculous with one another. This is a lovely and astute observation, and one that runs quite counter to the constant screen culture that is so predominant in our lives.

The Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company’s Mating Habits of Common Mammals plays at Neptune Theatre’s Imperial Studio (1589 Argyle Street, Halifax) at the following times: August 31st at 3:00pm and September 7th at 4:15pm. Tickets range in price from $3.00 to $11.00 and are available here.

Lastly, I went over to the new DANSpace, inside the Old World Trade and Convention Centre/Light House Arts Centre, up on the third floor and through a bit of a maze of corridors (which are marked with signs) to see A Screen of One’s Own, which is also a staged reading of a new work, this one by Taryn Hanrahan. And speaking of screen culture, in this play we meet Jen (played by Hanrahan), a young person who has become quite addicted to her phone, especially in pursuit of her crush on hot girl Kai (Katherine Norris). When she blows off her best friend, Freddi (Sid Nesbit) for Kai at the Club, she finds herself transported Alice in Wonderland-style inside her phone where she meets Social Media (Rebecca Wolfe) and its minions Poster (Nesbit) and Liker (Norris).

This is a really clever conceit from Hanrahan, as the play explores how social media tempts its scrollers to engage in attention-seeking and drama-creating ways, that end up building up folks’ reliance on likes and other engagements of this kind to feel accepted, secure, and just base-line okay. The story is told even more specifically through the lens of Gen Zs and really seems to capture the exact zeitgeist of this moment on social media as experienced by young adults. As an elder Millennial myself (and a social media manager) I found it so interesting to see the ways in which Jen and Poster discuss the nuance behind the Instagram story, the way girls can use social media to deliberately manipulate and troll one another, and I am pleased to know that younger folks are using Spotify playlists the exact same way we used to add song lyrics to our MSN nicknames back in the day.

If Hanrahan has plans to make the play a little bit longer, I think there is room to add a bit more consequences for both Jen and Freddi for the impulsive behaviour that Social Media encouraged them to do. I liked that the play ends on an uncertain note between the two friends, as well, as this feels very accurate to this time period in their lives when young folks tend to have quite wayfaring adventures. 

All four performers give excellent performances in this stage reading, but I have to mention Katherine Norris as Liker, who really only says one line in this part, and yet continually finds clever and funny intonations to really bring this little oddball to life. 

I hope that I will get the chance to see a future fully-staged incarnation of this play. It’s incredibly timely and very thoughtfully considered. 

Friendly Neighbours Theatre’s production of A Screen Of One’s Own plays at DANSpace (1800 Argyle Street) at the following times:

August 29th: 7:30pm, August 30th: 7:45, August 31st: 6:30pm, September 1st: 2:00pm, September 2nd: 9:00pm, September 4th: 7:15pm. Tickets are $11.00 and are available here.

Halifax Fringe runs from August 27th to September 7th, 2025 in venues throughout the downtown and North End of Halifax. For more information and to make your Fringe schedule please visit this website. All official Fringe venues are wheelchair accessible and have all gender washrooms. For Fort Massey Church, if you are a wheelchair user, please contact the Box Office ahead of the show. Each show has at least one mask mandatory performance. Grab a Fringe Guide at any of the venues for a handy way to follow along with all the events at the festival. See ya there!

A Note On TWISI Fringe Ratings:

I have never liked rating Fringe shows, or any shows, using the 5 Star system as I have done in the past, so I started doing something new. From now on I will just be highlighting what I think are 4 or 5 Star Fringe Shows. A Two Thumbs Up Rating equals roughly to 4 Stars, while A Two Thumbs Jump Rating equals 5 Stars. I have stolen (with permission) “Two Thumbs Jump” from my friend Lenny Clayton, who is awesome, who came up with this phrase when she was a young kid reviewing films on YouTube.