HAMILTON FRINGE FESTIVAL 2026 MINI-REVIEWS

HAMILTON CITY Magazine theatre reviewers are taking in Hamilton Fringe Festival shows all across our city and delivering fast and fun takes on what they see. Check them all out here! Fringe 2026 is 55 plays and 400 performances at 16 indoor and outdoor venues and runs until July 26.

Bilguisa Speaks Up

New Harlem Productions
Hamilton
Director: Ravyn Wngz
Performer: Nicci Pryce
Playwright: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Venue: Backroom @ Ringside
Until July 25
Showtimes and tickets here

Nicci Pryce is compelling as Bilguisa, a soccer play who just wants to kick the ball but has to cope with a gender challenge from an opposing team against her and her sister. The siblings (the sister is unseen) are waiting to get the test results that “will define our lives forever,” says  Bilguisa, who is trying to manage her emotions – rage, resignation, despair – as her sister withdrawn silence increasingly frustrates her. The two have already faced the indignity of having their genitals examined, but the coach of the Nigerian team they will face in their league’s finals is not satisfied. Of course, this script by Hamilton playwright Donna Michelle St. Bernard is highly timely in an era of the persecution of trans athletes. But it also reflects on decades of treatment of Black women sports figures, including Serena Williams and Florence Griffith Joyner, who consistently had their womanhood questioned. The 20-minute solo show ends with a fantastic rap in which Bilguisa ponders Black women taking their talents and going home. New Harlem Productions invites Black audiences to be celebrated, elevated, liberated at its July 25, 5:15 p.m. Affinity Performance. – Meredith MacLeod

Into the Swing of Things

Writer and performer: Eric Jeddry
London
Venue: Backroom @ Ringside
Until July 25
Tickets and showtimes here

If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant kitchen, you’re going to relate to the two characters in this kitchen at a Niagara golf course, and if you haven’t, you might be rather glad of that by the of this 20-minute solo show. Eric Jeddry is highly entertaining as Clifford, the gruff and cynical 40-year kitchen veteran, and equally so as Tyler, the intense dishwasher who dreams of a rap career as he grieves for his mother. The audience are candidates for jobs in the kitchen, though neither Clifford or Tyler have much good to say. They work for minimum wage, never get a break, face hazards and injuries, and struggle to keep up with the workload. Jeddry transforms between the two characters onstage and relies on just a few props to put the audience in a kitchen, a place where even the misfits fit in, says Clifford. This script is Jeddry’s Fringe debut and is based on his 10 years of experience in kitchens. It’s darkly funny but also touches on plenty of humanity. – Meredith MacLeod

Medically Strange

Writer and performer: Phoebe Taylor
Director: Jacque Wills
Hamilton
Venue: Backroom @ Ringside
Until July 25
Tickets and showtimes here

Comedian Phoebe Taylor delivers plenty of laughs in Medically Strange, but her autobiographical storytelling is deeper than that. At 32, she’s searching for answers about her chronic, daily pain, repeatedly finding her concerns and questions either dismissed or ignored by doctors, even female ones. Sadly, that’s a familiar tale for many women of all ages. Taylor explores the medical system’s obsession with a woman’s last period, and the awkward small talk during pelvic exams. She posits that doctors who don’t have answers only want to ensure patients won’t go home to become anti-vaxxers. Women seeking medical attention just want to know they aren’t crazy, she says. Taylor involves audience members to great effect in her performance. You’ll laugh, you’ll shake your head, you’ll be moved, and you’ll think about your own experience in a doctor’s office. – Meredith MacLeod

Please Leave When It’s Too Much

Whatsoever Productions
Cambridge
Director: Amanda Tkaczyk
Cast: Lottery-selected performers
Venue: Backroom @ Ringside
Until July 25
Tickets and showtimes here

This one is still swirling around in my head. I know I haven’t seen anything like it before and I really wasn’t sure where it was headed or perhaps even where it got to when it was over. This is the epitome of a Fringe experience. On its surface, it’s about the role of artificial intelligence at the end of life. Wishes to visit Mars or walk the Great Wall of China, or to revisit cherished memories can be delivered in fully immersive ways. Audience members are encouraged – repeatedly – to silently choose their own ending from four possibilities: tragic, dramatic, uplifting, and dystopian. Each performance includes an audience discussion afterwards. Creator Amanda Tkaczyk says she was inspired by a story about a forester who was dying and had his wish fulfilled to return to the forest one last time. She pondered what a privilege it is to give that to someone and how AI could be used for good and for bad in palliative care. – Meredith MacLeod

The Seawitch Speaks

Writer and performer: Sara Anderson
Hamilton
Venue: Backroom @ Ringside
Until July 25
Tickets and showtimes here

This show has a cool premise. The antagonist billed as Ursula the seawitch in the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid is appalled by her depiction. She plans to set the record straight. “I don’t come off well in your version of the story,” she says, disputing the idea that she stole Ariel’s voice in order to fulfil her wish to become a human. So the seawitch has exited her sea cave and fashioned some clothes (her tentacles peak out from under her dress), in order to tell her story. She begins with a complaint about the name of the movie, pointing out that Ariel was average size. “They could have said strong or tenacious or brave, but they went with little.” Great point. I wish I had reacquainted myself with the original movie and the live-action adaptation in 2023 in order to really follow Sara Anderson’s script and performance. At times, her voice drops off to inaudible levels at the end of sentences, making it difficult to follow. Billed as a family-friendly event, there were a couple of little girls at the Friday night show. It’s unclear how much they took away from the show, which features plenty of advanced language and adult ideas. – Meredith MacLeod