Reviews

LA COUVEE: IT'S MY LIFE  

It’s time to bid farewell to the second season of Sin City: the live improvised soap opera, as the Carnies wrap up all the loose threads of the season. The final episode is slated for Tuesday May 29^th at the Victoria Event Centre.  Since October of last year,Victoria audiences have laughed at the antics of The Serpentine Snake Lady, the Celestial Hypnotist, the Trick Shot Artist, The Amazing Mentalist, and more. Despite my best intentions I only managed to attend opening night and the penultimate episode last Tuesday.  There were many new (to me) characters including Charles Lapadieux Robert Conway (with a delicious and remarkably accurate French accent), a very pregnant Sparky McGee Amanda Lisman and a knock-em-out Delores Delisle Christine Upright .

THE MARBLE: SIN CITY CARNIES OPENING NIGHT REVIEW BY KC (condensed)

 . . . So what exactly is a “live improvised soap opera”? Well, in the case of this second season of Sin City, it’s ten (or so) actors and actresses working without a script, around a previously devised situation. This year, the group is a ragtag bunch of crestfallen carnies in the 1930s, the members of which have been rejected and cast off by the carnival proper and left stranded with no food and a broken Jalopy in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan. With no hope of rejoining their presumably successful troupe, and no knowledge of any kind of life outside the carnival, they have to choose whether to hone their acts and try to “make their nut” in Esterhazy, or to move on to the relative Metropolis of Melville, and try their fortunes there.

. . .   I had a lot of fun at opening night and laughed pretty much throughout. Ferguson has assembled a talented group of improvisers that are bound to leave you in stitches.   . . .   As far as the cast goes, since space is limited, I’ll mention just a few. Kirsten Van Ritzen as the Serpentine Snake Lady was great. She is the group’s matriarch and perhaps the most mysterious of the bunch. Van Ritzen has clearly done some digging into her character’s past, and it shows. I like the awkward romantic situation developing between her and Dr. Thomas Brighton—the British doctor with bad teeth, played by Charlie DePape. Karen Breslford as Purdy Durvert was also excellent. She is the rejected younger sister of an acrobatic family, turned hack-hypnotist with a put-on geisha voice. Purdy’s slow wit is her charm; you just want to hug her and tell her everything’s going to be ok. Christina Patterson, who seems to be in every production in Victoria, plays Tallula Thunderbolt—the wannabe Annie Oakley sharpshooter. Because of the nature of her act, Tallula has the greatest opportunity, I think, to add to the physicality of the show. Indeed, one of the funniest moments had her riding The Stooge, played by Wes Borg, like a horse, because hers has been stolen. I should also laud Alan Penty, Chris Gabel, and Morgan Cranny with praise, but this review is beginning to overreach itself. Where does the time go?

Sin City has grown from what was by all accounts a modest beginning at the outset of last year’s season, to a successful serial with a devoted following. I recommend jumping on board with these lunatic carnies. It’s sure to be an entertaining ride.  http://themarble.tumblr.com/post/11983111874/sin-city-season-two-carnies-opening-night-review-by

What I didn’t realize was that narrator/director Ian Ferguson and his wife, Van Ritzen, are no strangers to this type of fast paced, multi-character, vignette driven, completely improvised show.  Starting originally in Edmonton with Die Nasty (now in its 21st season) in the early 1990s then moving to Toronto with Sin City in the early 2000s, they came slowly westward  in 2010 to  Victoria.

Our Carnies have been abandoned near Esterhazy Saskatchewan by the Claresholm Brothers Carnival without a working jalopy.  The top acts are gone, leaving Ava Garter the Snake Lady, Tallulah the Sharpshooter, Count Christoff the Amazing Mentalist, Alexei Kalashnikov the Rousty, Francois Lapideux the Human Statue, Purdy Durvert the Celestial Hypnotist, Hans Versagen the Faceless Man, and Dolores Delisle the Cookie. They are joined by local physician Dr Thomas Brighton and Orville O’Donnell the Greenie. . .  It’s fast, funny and completely entrancing to watch actors at the top of their game, veterans of vaudeville and improv, as they hurl themselves willing into situations demanding complete trust in the abilities of their fellow performers.  

Disclaimer:  I was offered a complimentary ticket to attend opening night. I was not paid to write a review nor was I required to do so. As always, I retain editorial control over all the content published on this blog. http://janislacouvee.com/opening-night-sin-city-a-live-improvised-soap-opera-season-two-carnies/

To properly review any sort of revue, I feel I must open with “Laydeeeeees and gentlemen! I give you ... 500 words on burlesque and body humour!” When the show in question contains a cast of carnies, this hawking sort of intro is almost a given. But it's impossible for me to phonetically emulate the phlegmy, Chewbacca-esque vowels of Ian Ferguson, the creator, announcer and director of the live, improvised soap opera Sin City: Carnies.

  . . .   perhaps I'll leave the proud announcements to the practiced pros. The pros in Sin City are hardly A-listers in the world of carnivals. In fact, at the Oct. 25 premiere, these carnies found they'd been abandoned by their employers, the Claresholm Brothers, in a small Saskatchewan town. 

 They're the dregs of the sideshow talent pool — a snake lady, a celestial hypnotist, a trick shooter, a roustie, a mentalist and a faceless man. Sure, there's a red-faced farmer and a windbag of a doctor hanging about, but they seem to be the only fans of the financially insolvent freaks. It doesn't help that the Great Depression is making its tough impression on folks everywhere.  . . .  show highlights included the trick rider, Tallulah (played by a surly Christina Patterson), riding piggyback on the farmer-turned-shill (Wes Borg) after discovering the Claresholm Brothers have absconded with her beloved horse, Lightning.

The Snake Lady (Kirsten Van Ritzen) advised Tallulah that “Sometimes you've got no horse to get back up on, so you've just got to air out your scanties and think of something else.” Best of all, the carnies tried to rally their spirits by singing “I'll Fly Away,” while the shill screamed caterwauling harmony, scarred by his glimpse of the faceless man's visage.

"after 11 seasons of doing soaps, Van Ritzen can improvise a compelling scene with nothing but a broomstick”  –  The Globe and Mail 

SIN CITY RADIOLAND: Canadian Comedy Award Nominees