Halifax Fringe: Day 2

I spent Day 2 of Halifax Fringe at the Bus Stop Theatre where I started my day with Kevin Hartford’s delightfully funny deadpan parody of The X-Files The Y-Files directed by Tara Thorne. 

We are introduced to agents Fulder (Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac) and Dully (Dan Bray) in the wake of a bioweapon explosion that has killed three of their fellow agents. When Fulder recognizes someone lurking in the shadows after the bioweapon attack they begin to unravel the mystery surrounding why their colleagues were killed when, suddenly, there is a bizarre series of assassinations everywhere they go. Will Fulder and Dully unravel this case before they too end up being murdered in cold blood? 

Tara Thorne directs the piece in nearly pitch darkness, with Arcturus MacIsaac and Bray illuminating themselves with both flashlights and their laptops, which is Thorne’s hilarious homage to how badly lit the original television series was. It’s very fun to watch Arcturus MacIsaac and Bray in these roles- both detached and hilariously deadpan as things continue to deteriorate around them, in a way that is reminiscent of Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, and also doing great justice to Hartford’s characteristic humour. There is a tiny nod to Mulder and Scully’s famous sexual tension, which feels additionally absurdly hilarious from notorious real life best pals Arcturus MacIsaac and Bray. 

Lara Lewis is excellent at creating tension in the piece as Fulder and Dully’s scolding Deputy Director, and Kirsten Bruce really shines playing multiple characters involved in the plot’s many twists and turns; my favourite one has Natasha Lyonne’s voice. 

I binged The X-Files about a decade ago and really enjoyed it while I was watching it, but I definitely don’t remember it in the kind of detail that I’m sure Thorne and Hartford have relished in during the process of creating this show, but I think The Y-Files works whether you’re well acquainted with the source material or not. Even as an entirely stand-alone piece I think audiences will find a lot of humour and intrigue in this show. It’s definitely one of those little theatrical gems you can only find at the Fringe Festival.

TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Up

The Villains Theatre’s production of The Y-Files written by Kevin Hartford and directed by Tara Thorne plays at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) at the following times: August 31st: 1:00pm, September 1st: 9:15pm, September 3rd: 10:45pm.

Next I saw Louise Fox’s play Everything Is Alright where we meet Robin, a university professor grieving the loss of a mother she had a difficult relationship with, which has, as is common in grief, spiralled her into confronting other difficult losses from her past. In the present she is also in big trouble at work for a series of bad judgement calls that she made concerning one of her students. As things deteriorate for her she is visiting by a very odd stranger, very much a more contemporary female version of Clarence Oddbody from It’s A Wonderful Life, who is adamant that she wants to help, but Robin is afraid of unravelling all that she has kept carefully repressed in case doing so causes her to have some sort of breakdown. Sophia, the mysterious stranger, keeps poking her in the hopes that a breakdown will lead to an overdue breakthrough. 

Kate Edwards gives a really powerful and clear performance as Robin, a woman who is strong and independent, terrified of aging, and grappling both with how inevitable that is, and how lonely and isolated she has become. She has a prickly exterior. Even when she’s attempting to be flirtatious she hides behind her expansive intellect, and one gets the sense that she is even harder on herself than she is on everyone else around her. She is also a straight-shooter who has no time or patience for Sophia’s Pollyannaish personality and airy philosophical ramblings about love, God, and her constant prodding into all the painful memories from her past.

It’s not entirely clear exactly who Sophia is, but the audience comes to see that she is some sort of deity. It is an interesting idea to have a God show up in your yard when you’re facing a very real crisis and, yet, she is so annoying that you wish she would just leave you alone to solve your problems yourself. I think there is room for Fox to keep tightening up the script, specifically the ways in which Robin resists Sophia, and then Sophia manages to lure her into her ploy regardless. I think it might be helpful for Fox to further root all her choices here in the vivid realism of Robin’s personality- how quickly, clearly and efficiently would Sophia need to make her case before Robin would just leave with her dog and completely disengage? Beth LaChance does a lovely job of bringing Sophia and her contradictory emotions to life. 

Jared Monk plays a multitude of characters in flashbacks, and these characters are not as fleshed out as Robin and Sophia are, which means that we lose some of the dramatic weight as we delve into Robin’s past. One thing I think would really help to root these scenes a bit more is a stronger sense of time and place. Robin says that she is 20 years older than her student, who is said to be in his mid 30s, so I would have liked to see the 1970s and early 1980s represented more in the portrait of Robin’s childhood, her relationship with her brother, and her high school sweetheart. We don’t see why Robin idolizes her brother, or even why she wants to spend any time with him at all. We mostly just see him as overly dismissive and angry for no reason. When Monk plays Robin’s mother with dementia essentially for comedic relief, it feels jarring and discordant because for Robin her relationship with her mother at this point in her life is serious and deeply challenging.

Liam Oko makes some interesting directing choices, like bringing the actors into the audience when they sort of wander offstage when especially deep in thought. There’s room for the concept around this to be even clearer. If Robin is indeed imagining Sophia, is she also imagining all of us in the room too?

I found Kate Edwards’ performance in this play so riveting; I was really invested in her character, and I think the more that Fox fleshes out the world around Robin the stronger this piece will become. 

Everything Is Alright written by Louise Fox and directed by Liam Oko plays at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) at the following times: August 31st: 9:15pm and September 1st: 5:00pm.

Next I caught the staged reading of Nancy Kenny’s brand new solo piece I Don’t Feel Pretty/Chu Pas Cute. This deeply personal and brave bilingual piece immerses us in the constantly-firing mind of our, initially, bubbly girl bossing protagonist as we get to slip beneath the outwardly confident and competent veneer to witness the tangled web of insecurity, self-loathing, awkwardness, confusion, and intergenerational trauma inside of her. 

This is a difficult play for me to review, partly because it is a series of explosive revelations from our protagonist that I don’t want to spoil, and also because Kenny and I are friends, and since I don’t know how much of her story here is true autobiography I found myself continually getting swept away in my own emotions- feeling infuriated on her behalf, feeling heartbroken at how distorted her perspective has been as she judges her body, chases perfection, and finds brief solace in the numbness that alcohol can temporarily provide. But I don’t think you have to know and love Kenny to feel this way about the character she is playing here, and even though it is a play reading, she is fully inhabiting her character and especially her changing vocal cadences, and her big masquerading laugh. I think it’s easy for audiences to fall in love with her, to see themselves in her stark honesty, and to care deeply about her wellbeing. 

Kenny switches between speaking English and French, suggesting that along with us seeing the “fractured brain of an alcoholic,” we are also seeing someone whose identity is fragmented as well- elle est une personne avec un mélange d’expériences et mémoires en français, sa langue maternelle, and another person with a different slew of experiences and memories in English. What happens when you repress a traumatic event dans ton cerveau français and seek refuge from it in your English brain? 

Kenny also weaves music, specifically music from the 1990s and very early 2000s (the character’s teenage years), into the show, which anchors this time period in her life as having been significant. 

As the title suggests I Don’t Feel Pretty/Chu Pas Cute is a raw exploration of how we come to terms with not just how we feel about ourselves, but the reasons why we feel this way, and the self destructive behaviours that can accompany not feeling pretty… not feeling cute… not feeling loveable or worthwhile at all. It’s darkly funny, and heartbreakingly human. 

TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Up

Nancy Kenny’s Stage Reading I Don’t Feel Pretty/Chu Pas Cute plays one more time at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) on September 6th at 9:30pm.

I ended my evening with some short form improv from Hello City and Friends at the Late Night Power Hour. The show was hosted by Colin McGuire, and the eight improvisers were pitted against each other to compete for the Improv crown as decided by the enthusiasm of the audience. 

We were treated to two rounds filled with various different improv games, some featuring all eight performers, and some done in pairs. For those who are more used to Hello City’s long form improv, this is like a sneak peek behind the curtain to see the foundational building blocks that allow these improvisers to be able to make up 60 minute narrative and character-driven theatrical pieces. The caliber of the improv last night was a bit inconsistent, but overall it was a silly and always unpredictable mixture of scenes and games, and an audience that was extremely invested and hanging on to every last syllable. One specific highlight was a scene between Liam Fair and Henricus Gielis about a harrowing interaction between a bug and his therapist. 

Going to see Hello City at the end of a long day FringeBinging is an excellent cherry on top of the Fringe sundae- one final piece of sweetness to send you home feeling buoyed up and pumped to do it all again tomorrow. 

TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Up

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.