Goodness I hope this heat wave breaks soon! It was another hot one this fourth day of the Fringe, but it was also a very fun one too! Hot tip (pun intended), Tarragon Theatre’s A/C is cranked; it feels amazing in there! Plus, they have a cute little cafe/lounge space set up for you to relax in between shows (which is also very cool). I saw three shows today, bringing my festival total to eight, with plenty more on the way!

You Choose: An Improvised Murder Mystery – The Howland Company

The Winterhouse Hotel is soon to be full of guests, but will they all make it out alive? The Howland Company is taking the Fringe by storm with You Choose: An Improvised Murder Mystery. The audience has a huge say in how the events of the evening progress, and if the murderer manages to get away with their crimes, then the audience gets to be placed on the Wall of Infamy! This interactive and hilarious show is sure to have you in stitches.

One of the best parts about You Choose is that it can never be the same way twice: before the show begins, the cast draws characters at random from out of a hat. Then it’s up to the audience as to who the murderer is, and (even better) who they murder and with what objects. It’s like “Clue” but you already know the answers! Your job then, as the audience, is to try and throw the other characters off the scent of the true murderer, so that they can get away with the dastardly crimes you’ve just aided and abetted. I feel like I should apologize to Ruth Goodwin, one of the creators of this show along with Liz Johnston, because we did not do a good enough job of keeping her character in the shadows, and she was easily found out by the others. Maybe if the audience wasn’t so insistent on killing the DJ…

Conor Bradbury, Ruth Goodwin, Brandon Hackett, Liz Johnston, Paloma Nuñez, Sharjil Rasool, and Christian Smith serve up improv gold with You Choose. Using those initial prompts and taking them to their limits, they give laugh-out-loud funny performances. You Choose is definitely a must-see for this year’s Fringe Festival!

https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/you-choose-improvised-murder-mystery

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Patient 0: A Love Story – O in the Wall Productions

Getting tickets for a Fringe show is always a gamble; sometimes you come out a winner and other times…well, at least you’ve gotten to be in an air conditioned room for an hour. Unfortunately, for me Patient 0: A Love Story fell in that latter category. With a roving plot which ultimately didn’t take me anywhere, and moments of such intensity they caused more confusion than empathy, Patient 0 certainly could use some restructuring if it’s ever presented again.

Thankfully, the description on Fringe’s website is far more insightful than the one included in the program guide, and yet based on what I witnessed, I wouldn’t be shocked if they were pulling things together last minute. The story itself is told in a rather fragmented matter, with plenty of monologues which play with space and time. And though we do eventually get to some manner of conclusion, I still feel like I was befuddled by what had just happened. If Billy and Tommy are twins, but then Tommy talks about how his younger twin brother died, and then how he himself only lasted a month, then who are these men in front of us? We know that the young cafe owner ends up being their father, but then how is he serving his grown sons when he’s still young? And while I assume there was some role doubling being done, is the first couple we see not the same one who’s going to have the kids? And if that’s true, then how does their own son kill them before he’s even born?

I understand that there is a surreal edge to this story, however I feel like I still lacked any answers by the end of the play. The actors are clearly doing their best with what they have to work with, but this certainly wasn’t my cup of tea.

https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/patient-0-love-story

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Artificially Intelligent 2.0 – A Greek Guy

How much does AI impact your daily life? I try to avoid it as much as I can, and yet I’m sure there’s still plenty of ways in which is sneaks itself into my daily routine. Anesti Danelis wanted to put AI to the test: could it write a hilarious comedy show? And from that Artificially Intelligent 2.0 was born. Full of hilarious songs inspired by the AI slop Danelis was fed by ChatGPT, as well as suggestions from the audience, Artificially Intelligent 2.0 will have you laughing harder than Siri at her own jokes.

Danelis is a fabulous performer, blending music and comedy together to create a wildly entertaining 60 minute show. His timing is spot on, and the rapport he has with the crowd is is very chill and conversational. I very much appreciated how he handled things when some of the sound cues weren’t working; he was able to help the stage manager correct the mistake, while also keeping the room light-hearted and fun. Tech issues can happen in any show, not just at the Fringe, yet Danelis and their team handled it like pros.

Whether you’re a daily user of AI or never use the stuff (at least deliberately), Artificially Intelligent 2.0 is the show for you. It shamelessly pokes fun at the absolute nonsense AI can produce, especially when it comes to the world of art. With such a great deal of discussion happening about AI being used in the theatre world, particularly around the Fringe, Artificially Intelligent 2.0 could not have come at a better time!

https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/artificially-intelligent-20

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