Chris Gibbs in Not Quite Sherlock
I started off Day 7 of Halifax Fringe at DANSpace for Chris Gibbs’ tour de force show Not Quite Sherlock.
We are introduced to Barnaby Gibbs who lives in 1896 London where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has just published The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. When a real-life mystery, a rhyming bandit on a crime spree, begins to plague the city hapless, and some might say witless, Barnaby Gibbs accidentally makes an extraordinary discovery- London has an independent detective named Antoine Feval who is on the case. Or at least Gibbs assumes he’s on the case. Since every Sherlock needs a Watson, Barnaby Gibbs is more than happy to fall into this role- although most of London is flabbergasted as to why someone as suave and shrewd as Fevel would waste his time with someone so wildly obtuse.
What follows is the most British telling of this unraveling mystery with many twists and turns, which is simultaneously lovingly embedded in all the conventions of Sherlock Holmes, while also turning them all upside down to very clever and comedic effect. Chris Gibbs plays a number of different characters, including a particularly memorable Scotland Yard Inspector with a very pinched voice. He also improvises as he goes with the audience, which is extra impressive given the rollicking speed in which he brings this story to life.
The conceit of this show, which I won’t spoil, is so unique and deliciously fun, and given how many stories have been written adjacent to the Sherlock Holmes universe, it’s exciting to find one so fresh. Gibbs, who is British but lives in Toronto, has been touring this particular show since 2005, debuting it at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, and it has the craft and the polish of a show that has been in circulation over the past twenty years. This is the show’s Haligonian debut, and there’s only one more chance to catch it before it’s gone, so grab your tickets!
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Jump!
Not Quite Sherlock plays at DANSpace at Halifax Fringe once more: September 6th: 1:00pm.
I then went over to The Neighbourhood Witch General Store on Barrington Street for The Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company’s immersive fortune telling event The Augur created by Logan Robins and Jessie Walker.
Firstly, there is no better venue for this show than The Neighbourhood Witch. You first meet with the creepy and intense Disciple who is sitting in front of a door at the back of the store. When I went this was an eerily deadpan Eliza Rhinelander. They let you know when the Augur is ready to see you, and then you go through the door into a dark room with a bench where you can sit down. I don’t know much about contemporary witchiness, but I assume this room is usually used for tarot readings, so the decor is ideal for this show.
An equally intense, but more exuberant Logan Robins takes you through an incantation to awake the auger, a puppet who I was seeing as like a little ancient skeletal hawk, and this is the Augur, a seer or prophet, from the Ancient Roman religious officials who foretold events by divining from omens. I found once The Augur started to speak to me I no longer looked at Robins, as you would do if you were meeting one of the Muppets. They had me ask them a series of questions, which I should have prepared in advance, but did not and was flummoxed, and then, in what was the most magical aspect of the show, the Augur began to tell my fortune, in perfectly rhymed improvised verse. I found the experience oddly comforting, even within such a macabre setting, and when I left the Disciple had a surprise for me.
Just one word of caution, if you cannot resist cute things (or spooky things) you may have trouble leaving without bringing home a friend from The Neighbourhood Witch.
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Jump!
The Augur plays at The Neighbourhood Witch General Store just until today, September 4th, 2025, and seems to be sold out!
Next I went back to DANSpace to see Ali Joy Richardson’s play The Great After directed by Garry Williams, which I had heard a lot of buzz about because the play debuted at The Bus Stop Theatre’s 24 Hour Theatre Thing.
We meet Sir Wolfhart and his squire/bard Valery, who are on a quest to achieve eternal glory (for the knight at least) by first finding and then pulling out the famed Lance in the Log. The two have been travelling together for a long time and have become very attached to one another, although both are shy to admit just how much. They then encounter Mirabella, the powerful bog witch who seeks to test Sir Wolfhart’s moral fibre. Will she succeed in thwarting his carefully laid plans?
This is a very short Medieval adventure fantasy romp where Richardson makes great use of the genre’s heightened language mixed with fun colloquialisms to create a unique and fun pastiche. Dylan Jackson is great at oscillating between chivalric and silly as the knight, Lucas Nascimento brings a lot of genuine devotion to Valery, which makes the audience care about their relationship with one another, and Sean Baker is pure comedy as the witch.
Laura Spencer has created an amazing chain of armour for Sir Wolfhart; the costumes are all great. The set pieces, especially the witch’s tree, are beautifully realized. Garry Williams makes good use of different spaces and lots of movement to make the audience feel like we are travelling a great distance with our protagonists.
This is a delightful little play with strong performances, and lots of laughs. It’s exactly the kind of show you want to see at a Fringe Festival.
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Up!
The Villains Theatre and DaPoPo Theatre’s production of The Great After closes today, September 4th at 6:00pm at DANSpace at Halifax Fringe.
I went down to Neptune’s Studio Theatre to catch some Queer Joy with Assigned Funny at Birth, a mix of stand up, improv, and charm.
Jen Schwartz, Roslyn Kennedy, Nicole Maunsell, Alex, Millie Companion, Timara, Alyssa Korösi, and Douglas Wetmore have come together to present an hour of comedy that explores the multifaceted experiences of being Queer, and also specifically being trans, and the intersection of being both Queer and disabled. It begins with an adorable slide show put together by Nicole Maunsell, which shares her own appreciation for the famous (or Halifamous) 2SLGBTQAI+ folks who inspire her.
Jen Schwartz does a stand-up set centred a lot on how much cringe she experiences from the public at large as a wheelchair user, even by medical professionals when she has to be fitted for a new wheelchair. Schwartz has a vivacious and cheery personality, so she is deftly able to turn the objectively obnoxious things people have said to her into absurdist comedy.
Roslyn Kennery performed a very strong set about her experience recently having come out as trans, even riffing on the strange bureaucratic reality of the government paying for gender affirming surgery and care.
The ensemble also played some short form improv games, all with a queer theme. These were all done proficiently and the ensemble did a good job of listening to one another, and finding ways to bring in different recurring themes through the various scenes. Most importantly, it looked like they were all having a lot of fun and the audience was having a fun time too!
Assigned Funny at Birth have one more show (THE LAST OF THE FESTIVAL) at the Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Studio: September 7th at 10:15pm.
Lastly I went to the Imperial Studio to see Clitor and Lee by Wallie Burke, and this show is absolutely a fever dream. We are introduced to someone who is down on their luck living under a bridge in Los Angeles, and we get the sense that he is high on something and that all the singing of a wide array of songs, from Coldplay’s “Clocks” to Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, to then encountering a talking cat, are all part of this very strange hallucination that the audience experiences with him.
As confusing and random as the narrative is, the cat puppet and Burke’s puppeteering skills are very strong, and the cat itself looks so mournful that it’s difficult for the audience to not get drawn into caring about them, even as chaos erupts around them and everything goes fairly off the rails.
This show is definitely fringey. It may make you laugh, and it will also probably make you feel sad, but, for sure, it will leave you wondering “what the heck did I just watch?”
There is one more performance of this show at the Imperial Studio at Neptune Theatre: September 6th at 3:30pm.
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.
