St. Albert news

• Fringe review: Ciara

  20-08-2017 22:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Ciara 
  • 4 stars out of 5
  • Stage 28, The Playhouse
  An impressively nuanced and riveting performance by Linda Grass does justice to David Harrower’s ode to the mean streets of Glasgow, Ciara. 
  She plays the title character, owner of a successful art gallery and daughter of recently deceased Glaswegian crime boss Mick. Married to Mick’s appointed successor in the gang, Ciara clutches at culture while attempting to keep the underworld that funded her initial entrepr
  
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• How Edmontonians can experience the 2017 Solar Eclipse

  20-08-2017 20:25 via edmontonjournal.com
  When is the eclipse happening in Edmonton?
  It’s taking place on Monday, August 21. In Edmonton it begins at 10:24 a.m., peaks at 11:35 a.m. and will end at 12:49 p.m.
  Will the full eclipse be visible in Edmonton?
  Edmonton will get to see a partial, not a total eclipse.
  “If there’s no cloud to block it out, we’ll see the moon cover close to 70 per cent of the sun,” Sharon Morsink, a University of Alberta astrophysics professor, said in a release.
  The total eclipse wi
  
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• Fringe review: Prophecy

  20-08-2017 20:13 via edmontonjournal.com
  Prophecy
  • 4 stars out of 5
  • Stage 31, Strathcona Baptist Church
  The short and powerful Prophecy left me shattered for a moment, at least until it was time to vacate the venue. It’s a marvellous solo show featuring the versatile Carmen Nieuwenhuis as the princess of Troy of ancient legend.
  Credit the intriguing script by Jessy Ardem which mixes excerpts from Homer’s Iliad, Simone Weill and others in a contemporary framework of ugly beauty. Credit the director and stage man
  
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• Fringe review: Hip.Bang! Presents Fin

  20-08-2017 20:10 via edmontonjournal.com
  Hip.Bang! Presents Fin
  • 4 stars out of 5
  • Stage 2, Backstage Theatre
  It’s impossible to explain the nutty comedy of Vancouver’s Hip.Bang! duo, Tom Hill and Devin Mackenzie, or to pinpoint exactly where the pre-written skits bleed over into their spontaneous improvisation. It all happens so quickly and seamlessly, and every show is a bit different. The hour I caught was pretty hilarious.
  It started with an argument over candy treats, but much of it took off from events in
  
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• Fringe review: Unscriptured

  20-08-2017 20:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Unscriptured
  • 3 stars out of 5
  • Stage 10, Acacia Hall
  Here’s a tip: Don’t be the one person in the crowd who doesn’t join in singing. Don’t be that guy, because Travis Bernhardt will see you, somehow, and he’ll make sure everyone else sees you.
   
  It’s not that he wants to embarrass you, he just wants you to have a good time.
   
  And a good time you’ll have at Unscriptured, Bernhardt’s improv church service for a religi
  
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• Fringe review: Thunderprov

  20-08-2017 19:45 via edmontonjournal.com
  Thunderprov
  • 2 stars out of 5
  • Stage 33, Theatre 9910“With your suggestion, our ensemble cast of improvisers will create a story before your eyes …”
  That’s what the Fringe guide promised. It’s pretty standard improv fare, a word yelled into the darkness by the audience comes to life on stage in a complete new and innovative (OK, well new) performance.Unfortunately, Thunderprov doesn’t really deliver on their promise. An audience participation sugg
  
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• Fringe review: Blood Countess

  20-08-2017 19:45 via edmontonjournal.com
  Blood Countess
  • 2.5 stars out of 5
  • Stage 9, Telus Phone Museum
  Blood Countess tells the story of one Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, a “pure blood” Hungarian noblewoman whom historians describe as the world’s most prolific murderer.
  During her trial in 1611, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing 650 young women leading to her being lumped in with 15th Century psychopath Vlad the Impaler and labelled a monster.
  Directed and performed by
  
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• Fringe review: How I Learned to Hug

  20-08-2017 19:44 via edmontonjournal.com
  How I Learned to Hug
  • 5 stars out of 5
  • Stage 26, The Almanac
  If you’re not ready for it, you may be thrown by Jon Bennett’s speed. He isn’t a runner or a race car driver — he’s a storyteller who talks at light speed, aided by his ever-trusty slide shows to illustrate his point.
  He talks so quickly because he has a lot to say and only an hour to say it. Trust me, you’ll want to hear the whole thing through.
  Bennett is the same storytelling gen
  
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• Fringe Review: Puck Bunnies

  20-08-2017 19:40 via edmontonjournal.com
  Puck Bunnies
  • 4.5 stars out of 5 
  • Stage 12, Varscona Theatre
  Being a junior or senior hockey player in a small community can bring with it a certain amount of celebrity.
  And with celebrity comes with it certain hangers on. Groupies, if you will, or, as they’re known by some ‘puck bunnies,’ not to be confused with rodeo groupies (buckle bunnies) or the ladies of lacrosse (derisively called lacrossetitutes.)
  In the case of Puck Bunnies, the latest from Fringe cr
  
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• Woman jumps out of car to help half-marathoner who collapsed on course

  20-08-2017 19:31 via edmontonjournal.com
  A man has been taken to hospital by ambulance after collapsing during the Edmonton Half Marathon.
  The man was running towards the finish line at Jasper Avenue and 103 Street when he collapsed on the road face first, witnesses say.Man collapsed on course and at Jasper and 103 Street. He was placed on a stretcher and in ambulance. @edmontonjournal pic.twitter.com/qcJjwQON89
  — Dustin Cook (@dustin_cook3) August 20, 2017
  The man was unconscious with his eyes rolled back and a woman who said sh
  
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• Fringe Review: How I Lost One Pound, The Musical

  20-08-2017 19:25 via edmontonjournal.com
  How I Lost One Pound, The Musical
  • 3 stars out of 5 
  • Stage 30, Varscona Hotel, Rutherford Room
  How far are you willing to push for your dreams? How much are you willing to settle for what’s practical? How satisfied are you with yourself?
  These are some of the bigger questions asked in Lesley Carlberg’s How I Lost One Pound, The Musical, which isn’t really a musical, but more a show full of music.
  Carlberg, in a humourous monologue, reveals her struggles to fin
  
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• Fringe review: yegDND

  20-08-2017 18:49 via edmontonjournal.com
  yegDND
  • 3 stars out of 5
  • Stage 33, Theatre 9910
  DND, for the uninitiated like me, is an abbreviation for the popular Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, and the show is a live nightly version of that adventure.
  The improvised action on this evening focussed on retired hero Madge, ditzy barbarian Dinky, nerdy warlock Malphis, musician Panwick and godlike Kota as they wandered the caverns beneath Treble Shire in search of squid-faced mindflayer Vasiragoth.
  Under the guid
  
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• Fringe review: Mike Delamont: The Devil

  20-08-2017 18:40 via edmontonjournal.com
  Mike Delamont: The Devil
  • 5 stars out of 5• Stage 37, Suzanne Thibadeau AuditoriumMike Delamont is the funniest man … in Edmonton. There, I said it. You will simply have to deal with it.
  This man will make you laugh, make you laugh, then you will laugh some more. A brilliant standup comic, Delamont made me laugh so hard my sides hurt, then I continued laughing. It was a rare moment when a smile wasn’t splayed across my face.
  Mike Delamont: The Devil is a standup comedy sh
  
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• Edmonton Eskimos acquire pass rusher John Chick from Hamilton Tiger-Cats

  20-08-2017 18:15 via edmontonjournal.com
  The injury-ridden Edmonton Eskimos have relied on the next man up all season, but now, they’ve brought in help from outside the team.
  The Canadian Football League’s leading team, which sports a record of 7-1, traded a second-round pick in 2018 on Sunday to the winless Hamilton Tiger-Cats for veteran pass rusher John Chick and a fifth-round draft pick next year.
  The beaten-up and bloodied active roster has seen replacements brought up through their own ranks week in and week out to fi
  
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• Enticing youth to aviation a priority as Edmonton Airshow takes flight

  20-08-2017 17:14 via edmontonjournal.com
  It was a blustery Saturday for the first day of the Edmonton Airshow, but that didn’t impact the aerobatics in the sky or the crowds on the ground.
  Thousands of people, from plane experts to young tots getting their first view of a gliding plane up close, bound on Villeneuve Airport for the airshow featuring the famous Canadian Forces Snowbirds — stopping in Edmonton for the first time in over 15 years as part of Canada 150 celebrations.
  It was a frantic beginning to the event, execu
  
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• Fringe review: Drunk Girl

  20-08-2017 16:57 via edmontonjournal.com
  Drunk Girl
  • 4 stars out of 5
  • Stage 13: Old Strathcona Public Library
  Like its titular subject matter, Drunk Girl is a lot of fun — except when it isn’t. But that’s when things get real.
  A one-woman confessional essay of sorts, Thea Fitz-James starts by opening up her yearbook, wherein she predicted she’d be most likely one day to end up drunkenly singing Total Eclipse of the Heart, alone in a one-bedroom apartment. She pours herself a number of shots, even cr
  
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• Fringe Review: PIG

  20-08-2017 16:55 via edmontonjournal.com
  PIG
  • 2 stars out of 5
  • Stage 13, Old Strathcona Public Library
  Jake, an older and much revered brother, tells his younger sibling, Sal, that they’ll be able to play together “when pigs fly.” This inspires Sal to create a Flying Pig Machine in the hopes of arresting the attention of Jake, who, like the other inhabitants of his mythic town, toils ceaselessly in the sludge mine.
  Part circus side-show, part homage to Dr. Seuss, PIG is a difficult show to review. Its sta
  
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• New Alberta bat program offers tools to fend off deadly fungus

  20-08-2017 15:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  With the threat of a deadly bat fungus looming over Alberta, the province has revved up its bat monitoring program. 
  Technology to analyze bat echolocation calls has been around for years, but improvements are making it more effective.
  In Alberta, scientists are using a new e-platform to help process the bat calls and get information into databases to help figure out the populations and locations of different bat species.
  The data itself can’t do anything to stop the dreaded white nos
  
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• Alberta now has 'good supply' of sodium bicarbonate, but restrictions to remain

  20-08-2017 15:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Alberta Health Services says it has now built up a “good supply” of injectable sodium bicarbonate, although restrictions on using the life-saving drug are likely to remain in place for at least two more months.
  The measures have been in place since mid-June when the health authority announced it had been affected by a global shortage of sodium bicarbonate caused by a manufacturing problem at Pfizer company Hospira Inc.
  AHS said at the time that it had enough stock to last only 10 day
  
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• Fringe review: Pagliacci

  20-08-2017 07:14 via edmontonjournal.com
  Pagliacci
  • 5 stars out of 5
  • Stage 16, Holy Trinity Anglican Church
  Go and see this show, especially if all you know about opera comes from Bugs Bunny’s Rabbit of Seville.
  The Pop Goes the Opera production of Pagliacci fills Holy Trinity’s sanctuary with beautiful music that tells the tragic tale of the white-suited clown who’s betrayed by his wife and (remember, it’s opera) murders her.
  The intimate location adds to the enjoyment. The church aisles are an ext
  
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• First impressions of Ryan Strome: Jordan Eberle a better attacker but Strome better fit for Oilers

  20-08-2017 06:11 via edmontonjournal.com
  Eberle is a better individual attacker, but Strome more of a glue player
  Ryan Strome is the “lesser, cheaper forward” that the Edmonton Oilers got for Jordan Eberle in trade. But just how much lesser than Eberle is Strome?
  I’ve now watched Strome closely in a handful of his games and have my own first impressions of the winger to report. He’s not the attacker Eberle was and might be again, but Strome can help the Oilers.
  I have to admit when news first broke that Strome m
  
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• Hats as big as the cash purses: Edmonton dresses up for the 88th Canadian Derby

  20-08-2017 05:20 via edmontonjournal.com
  It’s not just the horse races that bring people to the Canadian Derby, but the chance to dress up in grand derby style.
  Historically, dressing up for horse races was meant to showcase status, though today, for people like Laura Dreger, it’s a way to express personal style.
  At the 88th edition of the event Saturday at Northlands Park, Dreger won first prize in the Canadian Derby Fashion Stakes Contest. Her black and white striped hat and dress, that she designed and made herself,
  
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• Appeal expected after close finish at Canadian Derby

  20-08-2017 05:03 via edmontonjournal.com
  A dramatic gut wrenching finish – one of the closest in Canadian Derby history – saw Kentucky invader Chief Know It All win a three-horse photo over local favourite Trooper John and a game and resilient 10-1 longshot Double Bear, who both dead-heated for second.
  But the race still isn’t over.
  After the steward’s denied an objection by both the trainer of Double Bear, Rod Cone, and the horse’s jockey, Dane Nelson, Cone said he is going to appeal that decision in the
  
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• Fringe Review: Late Night Cabaret

  20-08-2017 03:52 via edmontonjournal.com
  Late Night Cabaret
  • 4.5 stars out of 5
  • Stage 2, Backstage Theatre
  At the end of a long day at the Fringe, you could go home and be in bed before midnight. But where’s the fun in that?
  There’s a number of shows for those night owls out there, but the biggest late night party can be found in the Backstage Theatre, Venue 2, with the Late Night Cabaret.
  This live “talk-show” style variety hour is a great way to cap off your night, and one more chance to enjoy an
  
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• Fringe review: Rigby Muldoon: Paradox At Vanderkroft Manor

  20-08-2017 03:42 via edmontonjournal.com
  Rigby Muldoon: Paradox At Vanderkroft Manor
  3.5 stars out of 5
  Stage 34, John Walter Room/Varscona Hotel
  It’s the old random-characters-stuck-in-a-locked-murder-manorhouse scenario. Except this time they’re from different time co-ordinates – 1898, 1947, 1987, 2017, etc. — thrown together by an electrical storm and a quirk of quantum physics, with a recurring character, professional time traveller-detective Rigby Muldoon, to help sort things out.
  Robin Slack’s sci-fi
  
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• Fringe review: The Turn Of The Screw

  20-08-2017 03:30 via edmontonjournal.com
  Turn Of The Screw
  4 stars out of 5
  Stage 9, Telus Phone Museum
  Henry James’ gothic horror story comes to life in this engrossing stage adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher, featuring Aequilux Productions’ Darrell Portz and Shanni Pinkerton.
  It’s not an easy thing to cast multiple characters and a narrator using just two actors and I couldn’t help imagining how it might have been with a couple of extra bodies to portray the folks in the bare-bones set of Bly country manor.
  The ac
  
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• Fringe review: Tempting

  20-08-2017 03:19 via edmontonjournal.com
  Tempting
  • 1.5  stars out of 5
  • Stage 1, Westbury Theatre
  A morality play where the maybe-supernatural meets wooden acting, unnatural prose and a series of morally confusing dialogue, Tempting is the perfect play for anyone who wants to feel really bad about no longer being attracted to a partner dying of a terminal disease.
  We open on Laura (Erin Pettifor) doing yoga before the play begins, then readying to open up her psychic shop for the day after eating some raw cereal. In ba
  
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• Restaurant serves free meals for those in need to anyone who knocks

  20-08-2017 03:06 via edmontonjournal.com
  It’s not unusual for customers at Indian Fusion – The Curry House, while huddled over bowls of Indian and Fijian curries, passing steaming rice and baskets of naan bread fresh from the tandoor around the table, to hear knocking at the back door.
  “While we are sitting, you’ll hear the knock,” said restaurant owner and chef Parkash Chhibber, taking a brief break from the demands of running his kitchen on Saturday.
  As Indian Fusion at 10322 111 St. serves food to hungr
  
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• Fringe review: Magic

  20-08-2017 02:52 via edmontonjournal.com
  Magic
  • 2.5 stars out of 5
  • Stage 11, Studio Theatre
  Chris Visser’s family-friendly magic show is just that. It’s great for the kids and great for parents who want to ensure their children get to experience the Fringe in a wholesome and fun way.
  Visser creates an instant rapport with the little ones and keeps them engaged throughout the 60-minute show as it flits between illusions and magic tricks as well as some fun banter between Visser and his bearded assistant.
  There&r
  
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• Fringe review: Magic to the Future

  20-08-2017 02:49 via edmontonjournal.com
  Magic to the Future
  3 stars out of 5
  Stage 7, Yardbird Suite
  Los Angeles magic man Tim Hoffman is the writer-performer and amateur magician all-in-one, taking on two extra video roles in a page from Back To The Future to stitch together this hour-long comedy.
  As video messages through a time portal explain, Tim has accidently come back in time to 2017, and needs to work enough magic to return to his own time.
  A few audience members get to help as Tim tries out card tricks, pocket pool, a rubik&r
  
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• 5 things we learned: Blue Bombers 33, Eskimos 26

  20-08-2017 01:22 via edmontonjournal.com
  The Edmonton Eskimos roster has been beaten up almost beyond recognition. At the same time, they had been consistently finding ways to win despite injuries piling on to key positions to the point where, for as deep as the talent runs on this roster, the cupboards had finally become bare. Each week it was someone new going down: Defensive captain J.C. Sherritt, a trio of Canadian WIL linebackers, star receiver Adarius Bowman, starting running back John White and his backup, Travon Van, among othe
  
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• Fringe review: Blank: The Musical

  20-08-2017 00:40 via edmontonjournal.com
  Blank: The Musical 
  • 3 stars out of 5
  • Stage 34, John Walter Room Varscona Hotel
  I wonder how quickly the talented team from Blank: The Musical will get sick of hearing the words Trump and impeachment floated out as suggestions for their word substitution show.
  This year’s Fringe show is a good time for word nerds and fans of musicals, and if you love some good crowd participation, this show is for you.
  Set in a school room, the teacher asks the students (that’s
  
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