Emily Meadows in THE PRICK. Photo by Stoo Metz
Day 10 of Halifax Fringe started at DANSpace where I saw Judah Leblang’s play Expiration Date. Leblang is an American, but he came out wearing a Calgary t-shirt with a Canadian flag on it, so I think he’s one of the good ones.
Leblang has had an acute fear of death since he was in a serious accident when he was five years old. At the same age, while in the hospital recuperating, he realized something else that set him apart from the other members of his family, and from many of the other boys he knew. Within this isolation and Anxiety Leblang grows up bouncing from a disparate array of different communities: an ashram, Quaker communal living, the progressive Jewish temple, to the Queer-friendly Unitarian Church, in search of somewhere where he fits in.
Leblang is a dynamic storyteller and an engaging writer, who is especially good at peppering his stories with exact details. The story is quite sad in parts, as we see the ways that Leblang’s fear has held him back, but at the same time, it requires a lot of bravery to try out these different religious and spiritual practices, and to keep throwing yourself into close community with complete strangers each time.
I found Expiration Date to be a poignant and unique story told by a very likeable narrator.
Expiration Date at Halifax Fringe has closed.
Staying on the theme, next I saw Internship With Death at the same venue, by Bailey Nash, featuring Nash and Maude McInnis, directed by Liam Oko.
This is a play about a young woman named Olive who manages to trick Death into coming to them and taking them along as they go about their work. Olive is obsessed with death, and as the play progresses we see that she is a very disturbed young person, who has been traumatized by the loss of her mother. Death is disturbed by her, and seeks to use this opportunity to teach her a lesson about the sanctity of life.
What I found so interesting about Olive is that she is so self-consumed that she seems completely perplexed by the idea that other people have different experiences and reactions to and perceptions of those experiences than she does. This seems to be intentional by Nash, as Death calls Olive out a lot for her outrageous lack of empathy and the wild assumptions that she makes about others. I am curious about the tone Nash wants to set with Olive, because I think if her reactions were a bit less extreme the audience may have more empathy for her and see her as being more realistic, but if the point is to push her into Absurdist territory, then that may benefit from being clarified just a little bit.
The relationship between Death and Olive is very strong, and so much of what Death says to Olive is beautifully expressed, and I think captures a lot of what the audience is thinking as well. The two actors do a beautiful job of bringing this tense and odd relationship to life, and the entire premise is creative, and at times really heartbreaking. The piece is well directed by Liam Oko, and the final moment of the play is especially poignant.
Internship with Death at Halifax Fringe has closed.
Lastly I headed to Fort Massey United Church to catch Panopticonned Theatre Co.’s Eucharist by Sarah Tardif directed by Paul Griffin.
In a dystopian world ravaged by weather laden with chemicals where humans live in mortal fear of one another as they all hoard what little supplies for survival they can find, Lynne (Tardif) and Anthony (Ben Maksym) are holed up in an abandoned church. We learn that these two used to be in a relationship with one another, but broke up before the series of disasters occurred that led to their current circumstances. Anthony is still holding onto a lot of resentment from the past, and, as the stress of the collapse of the world as they know it continues to weigh heavily on them, their current relationship becomes extremely toxic and abusive. There is then a huge twist, and a very unexpected ending that I won’t ruin because I assume this piece will be remounted again at some point.
This play is very well performed by Tardif and Maksym; there are a lot of very intense scenes and disturbing imagery, and these two at times bring this dumpster fire of toxicity to life in a way that feels so real its actually painful to witness. The play is well directed as well, although I did wish that the actors found ways of using the real church’s infrastructure more as they were coming and going from their imagined church to give us an even more immersive experience.
A lot of the questions that I had throughout the play were, if not answered or rendered moot, at least lessened after the twist in the story, but I would still like to see a clearer reason why Lynne just doesn’t leave when things start to go south with Anthony. If the audience has a stronger sense of her being trapped there with him, I think they will be more resigned to her fate, and possibly even more caught off guard by the twist ending.
This is a play I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing again. It’s very creative and unexpected and it does a good job of capturing the dystopian ambiance, while also bringing in some elements from the macabre as well.
Eucharist by Sarah Tardif and directed by Paul Griffin has closed at Halifax Fringe.
HALIFAX FRINGE DAY 11
The last day of Halifax Fringe began at the Carleton for me, where I caught Christina Martin’s matinee concert, but I’ll write about that in a separate post. I went from the Carleton to Neptune Theatre’s Windsor Studio to see THE PRICK, which I had heard excellent buzz about.
In Little Shop of Horrors hapless botanist Seymour Krelborn becomes a sort of accidental dad to a fly trap named Audrey II who soon grows to be the size of giant. In THE PRICK, written and directed by Brynn Cutcliffe, Guenevere, played by Emily Meadows, falls in love with a small cactus.
Things do not go well.
This play is delightfully strange, beautifully written, and performed with pitch-perfect commitment by Meadows. The play doesn’t seem scripted; we feel like Guenevere is talking directly to us, and as her plans (and really her life at this point, perhaps also her sanity) unravels around us, we feel her desperation as she tries to pivot from one idea to the next in attempt to ingratiate herself to Keira, the aforementioned cactus.
Like in Little Shop of Horrors Cutcliffe doesn’t explain to us whether we are in our own world and something extraordinary has happened specifically to Guenevere, or whether we are in a world where relationships between humans and plants are more common, but because Meadows creates such a solid and clear character the audience buys into the premise and we are right there with her, oscillating between empathy and judgement.
Cutcliffe makes great use of space within the small Windsor Studio; at one point Guenevere leaves the space entirely, which is a fun expansion of the world, and the way that we see Keira as a shadow puppet, essentially, works very well to bring her to life, while she remains isolated from Guenevere in the basement. There is a cowboy duel moment that is especially hilarious.
This is a silly little gem of a play that lures the audience in quickly and holds them at rapt attention throughout. If the message in Little Shop is very clearly: Don’t Feed the Plants, the message in THE PRICK suggests: maybe don’t fall madly in love with them either.
THE PRICK written and directed by Brynn Cutcliffe has Closed at Halifax Fringe.
The last show that I saw at Halifax Fringe was PEI 101, which was a really beautiful bookend to the festival for me, because it had the same vibe as the very first show I saw, Sully O’Sullivan’s A Complete Idiot’s Guide to New Zealand. Dan Hendricken, similarly, shares his love for his homeland, in his case Prince Edward Island, through humorous observational comedy, and a slide show to bring these fun and odd facts to life- like the real Prince Edward’s very round head. This show was very enjoyable. I learned some new information about the land of my ancestors (who knew PEI has a Fredericton?), and we were treated to a very odd snippet of a real true crime episode where you get to hear the under appreciated PEI accent in all its glory. It was a sweet way to end the festival, and I felt good about the fact that both THE PRICK and PEI 101 had great houses, as did Multi-Vs, which I saw for a second time. It fills my heart right up to see Fringe theatregoers still passionately binging late into the night on Day 11.
Overall, Halifax Fringe 2025 was a really strong one. There were so many incredible shows, I made some new friends, there were so few Fringe Cringes (that’s going to be a hard square for folks to get on Dan Bray’s Fringo Card), and the spirit of the Fringe really captured what I think is the best of the spirit of the current Halifax Theatre Community: a lot of warmth, and kindness, welcoming, and enthusiasm, sweet, happy, young folks who are so supportive of one another, and filled with bright light and positivity in spite of the dark backdrop of the world behind them. It’s impossible not to feel hopeful and even excited about the future when you’re around them.
As Halifax Fringe moves forward with Jakes Planinc as the new Executive Director a new chapter begins. I’m already starting to make some plans for next year! But first: we sleep.
