Photo by Stoo Metz
Today is Saturday and I started off my Halifax Fringe Festival Final Weekend at the Bus Stop Theatre for Lawson Hannaford’s new play the in-between directed by Kaitlyn Thompkins. This is another beautiful little gem of a play from Lawson Hannaford, and I hope that it will get a remount in the future so that it can reach a wider audience.
Noah, played with excellent nuance by Hannaford, is struggling after a particularly hard breakup. They have always had trouble managing their big emotions, and they have a lot of experience losing friends because they’re seen as ‘too much’, or a bit of a nonbinary Debbie Downer, but they really thought that their last relationship was the one that was going to last, and that they would finally be able to achieve the same sorts of milestones as their older brother, Lewis. When their hopes and dreams came crashing down, and they felt hopeless and worthless it really scared their parents and their brother, and now they are being smothered by their good intentions. While tending to their garden they happen upon a snail, played by James Ersil, who not only can talk, but is a poet. Snail provides Noah with the potential for a friend, but it is, of course, not a conventional relationship, and Snail actually begins to push Noah out of their comfort zone.
James Ersil’s performance as this exuberant, innocent, little snail bursting with the simple confidence of someone whose only interest is writing and performing for themself and the trees is absolutely delightful. Everything is magical, beautiful, and whimsical to Snail (unless it’s traumatizing), because they have been alive for such a short time, and they don’t have a brain that creates problems and anxiety for sport. Dylan Jackson plays Lewis, a very supportive and loving big brother who calls Noah often to check up on them. The way that Noah is surrounded by love and care and support and family members doing their damndest to help them, but their mental health issues can’t let them get out of their own way to take advantage of this or even recognize how lucky they are to have it is so tragically real. Noah can be a frustrating character to watch; they are sometimes selfish and maybe even seem unreasonable, but the whole point of the play is about how difficult it is for them to learn to cope with things in less self destructive ways. It will take baby steps, going at a snail’s pace, if you will, and that’s the way the play ultimately unfolds.
There are a few moments near the end where Hannaford and Ersil are both performing very dramatic moments in the rain that could be a smidgen more focused and grounded to raise the stakes a bit, but overall, I really loved this play.
TWISI FRINGE RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bloom Theatre Co.’s production of the in-between has closed at Halifax Fringe.
I went down to Neptune Theatre’s Imperial Studio to see Gada Jane’s Becoming Psychic, a one woman show that asks the question: what’s the difference between being psychic and mental illness? Gada Jane is a very engaging storyteller, and she tells us the story of how she found her psychic powers while on vacation in France with her sister, when she started going into French cathedrals and focusing on the statues there while emptying her mind and going into a sort of meditative state, and then, to her surprise, some of the statues started talking to her inside her head.
She was raised to be skeptical, not just of all religions but also of mysticism, and she wasn’t even interested in the supernatural at this point in her life. She embarked on essentially the opposite journey as most psychics would, I think. Instead of going around trying to convince others of this gift, she went around trying to find any other more scientific explanation for what she had been experiencing. She was more shocked than anyone when the more she kept trying to prove she wasn’t psychic the more the universe or someone in it kept trying to insist that she was.
I found this to be a very interesting and unique story, very well told. The only note that I would mention is that there are a few times where Gada Jane mentions her “friend,” but there are a couple of different friends, so she might want to find a way to further distinguish them from one another. The question that she is asking about where the line is drawn between what constitutes a hallucination, and a delusion, a vocation and a clinical diagnosis is an interesting one. Certainly, there are charlatans who claim that they are psychic who are just engaged in an elaborate facade, but is believing that you actually do have some kind of psychic power a mental health red flag? For me, personally, I am open to the idea that some people experience phenomena that they, like Gada Jane, can’t explain in “rational” or “scientific terms.” We don’t know everything about how the universe works, after all. Whether you are a true believer, a complete skeptic, or anywhere in between there is something worthwhile contemplating in this show for everyone.
TWISI FRINGE RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Becoming Psychic plays once more today September 13th at 6:30pm at Neptune Theatre’s Imperial Studio (1593 Argyle Street, Halifax).
I then went back to the Bus Stop Theatre to see Jared Monk’s play Carrison, a play about the three month long affair between Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford during the filming of the first Star Wars film (1977), as described in Fisher’s memoir The Princess Diarist (2016).
This play is meant to be a silly exaggerated telling of this story that mixes fact and fiction with meta-theatrical local theatre references just for fun. Jared Monk plays Harrison Ford, and he really looks the part- all the costumes, in fact, are excellent. Trying to be as suave and charming as possible Ford attempts to sweep Fisher off her feet, despite the fact that he is married. August Van Meekeren plays an unhinged version of George Lucas, brimming with passion, emotion, and a sharp attention to detail, which contrasts nicely with Ryan Nielsen’s absurdly earnest and naive Mark Hamill. Some of the scenarios that Monk has created are like really great little sketches, like when R2D2 (excellently constructed, and well puppeteered by Van Meekeren) won’t stop hitting on Fisher, and Ford has to come out and force him away from her.
While the portrayals of Lucas, Ford, and Hamill all take big swings that offer the audience a very specific take on each of these iconic public figures there seems like maybe a bit of a hesitancy to do the same with Carrie Fisher. She is written in quite generic terms as a nice, sweet girl who falls for Harrison Ford’s charms, when in reality she was extremely smart and completely at home in the film industry, she spoke in a calm, deeper register, I think as a way to legitimize herself as a professional while surrounded by all sorts of men, and she was extremely funny and very dry. I would have liked to see more of these characteristics in her portrayal, as well as the way she was constantly subtly negotiating space for herself to be seen and to be heard as a serious actor within all of these male dominated spaces. How did she negotiate this aspect of her life with her affair with Ford? I don’t know how she wrote about herself in The Princess Diarist, but I think the tension between being a feminist and soon to be feminist icon, and falling into this embarrassing cliched trap with Ford is very fascinating, and I think really relatable, despite her celebrity status.
I was curious about the inclusion of certain modern day items in the play, like modern cell phones, and how Ford could just pick up a landline and carry it into the other room; there’s room to clarify this aspect of the concept. It also feels a little strange for Fisher to be referencing things that happened after she passed away.
I like the idea of grounding this story between Ford and Fisher in more of the reality of the situation, but I also think it works the way Monk has it written with the characters being over the top spoofs of themselves, and I think there is a way for him to find a way to do this with Fisher’s character too that is tasteful and kind to her memory, because I can see how the hesitation here may be out of respect and reverence, which I completely understand. If there’s one thing I know about Carrie Fisher, though, it’s that she’d want to be funniest, because she was.
TWISI FRINGE RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Carrison plays once more at The Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) at 11:00am today September 13th, 2026.
Next I stayed at the Bus Stop Theatre for Roz Browne’s play In Search of Black People, which tells the true story of Browne and her family of nine who moved when the children were young from a predominantly Black neighbourhood in Massachusetts to a predominately white neighbourhood, where she and her siblings were always searching for other Black people. When her mother started to express interest in doing one of those DNA kits to find out where their family was originally from in Africa they jumped at the chance. She also decided to accompany her mother and elder sister on a church trip to Ghana, even though she anticipated the church group being full of drama, and she was not wrong. Much of this story centres on Browne’s desire to find a place where she feels like she belongs, where she feels at home, and a deep desire to reconnect with something that was lost so many decades ago when her ancestors were forced from their home and enslaved.
Browne is a very engaging storyteller. I especially liked the way that she brought the character of Mimi, the leader of the church group who is full of attitude, to life. It is interesting to hear how it wasn’t an immediate experience of profound connection when she went to Ghana, and, of course, after so much time in the United States Browne and her family members experienced the cultural differences, especially in cuisine, sometimes violently.
I was riveted throughout this story. Browne has a real talent for switching between extreme darkness and tragedy and little hints of comedy, as she oscillates between her experience at a slavery museum with the realities of a stolen top, showing how we can hold both things in our minds and our feelings at the same time in ways that feel absurd, but very real.
This show is very funny and very moving; I really enjoyed it a lot.
TWISI FRINGE RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Roz Browne’s In Search of Black People plays at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) one more time at 12:30pm today September 13th.
I ended my evening with Lou Reed’s Magic & Loss by The Pepper Magic Trio. I didn’t have the opportunity to listen to any of Lou Reed’s album before I saw this show so I went in with no preconceived notions. Jamey Piedalue, Gay Harley, Andrew Milne, and Stephen Lee perform six of Lou Reed’s songs from this album, and three by Piedalue in the same style. There is a violin (Lee), an upright bass (Milne), saxophone and clarinet (Harley), and guitar (Piedalue) playing melodic jazz while the at time heart-wrenchingly brutal poetic lyrics almost seem to be laid on top of the music, so there is a dissonance between the two. Most of the lyrics don’t rhyme, and the phrasing doesn’t seem like it’s meant to necessarily line up with what the music is doing in the way that we expect it to. The result is that it draws your ear more to the lyrics; it feels jarring and strange, and untethered, like it’s off kilter somehow, which, of course, mirrors the experience of grief.
In between the songs Piedalue speaks about his own experience caring for his father in the months before he passed away, and how this music bonded them together for the first time in their lives. His father also spoke about the raggedy ambiance this music creates, comparing it to the much more perfect-seeming classical music he was more used to. Grief and death are rough around the edges, they are not often beautiful or even sensical, and they are profoundly raw and vulnerable, and that’s exactly what this show is. At the end folks are encouraged to write down the names of loved ones they are grieving on a piece of paper on the wall, which will be used for future art, and will be displayed in future shows- in a small way to continue to carry folks forward even after they’ve physically left us.
TWISI FRINGE RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Lou Reed’s Magic & Loss by The Pepper Magic Trio plays one more time at 2:00pm today at Neptune Theatre’s Windsor Studio (1593 Argyle Street, Halifax).
Halifax Fringe runs from September 3rd to September 13th, 2026 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. Many shows have 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, but they can be helpful for productions that are touring, or seeking funding for further opportunities for development, so with that in mind I will be giving out four, four and a half, and five star ratings this Fringe.
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