FRINGE REVIEW: Microwave Coven a treat (2024)

Microwave Coven

Stage 11, Varscona Theatre, 10329 83 Ave.

5 stars out of 5

You know you’re in for a hell of a treat when you’re laughing at the title before the curtain rises.

Rosemary’s Baby by way of The Golden Girls, this demonic cross-dressing farce set in 1977 is brought to us by the mad genius of Guys in Disguise.

Darrin Hagen, Trevor Schmidt and Jake Tkaczyk whirl and delight as three squabbling suburban witches in shimmering gold and black caftans who have invited chipperly naïve Mary Rose (Jason Hardwick) over for biscuits and tea.

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Of course, their purpose is far more nefarious — no less than getting Mary Rose knocked up with Satan’s baby, seen on stage in the living room set’s ridiculous central altar: a candle-bedecked microwave oven, complete with its glowing cyclopean eye and an Alberta-skies level of stage smoke.

Written by Hagen and Schmidt, the latter is particularly marvellous in the poker button/Sophia Petrillo position, wryly (and hornily) dropping an acerbic drag-Garfield punchline to cap the trio’s spinning interactions.

Her moment in the microwave’s hot embrace might require a little therapy to work through down the road, mind you.

Though everyone is basically perfect, Hagen, too, shines in the group’s semi-conscience Betty White role as midnight and noon are confused, devilled eggs are served, and bathrooms are noisily fouled as the ritual unfurls.

Bonus points for The Edge of Night reference, and the level of production in general.

Give in to the dark side, children —temptation is so much better with friends!

Find your Fringe! You can read all of our reviews here.

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