(Review can be read in its entirety here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072001731.html)

Manitoba's Alix Sobler is almost as laid-back, but she creates multiple characters in a Capraesque story called "The Cloud Factory," about a small town where the lone industry -- cloud production -- is on the skids. Wearing tan overalls and a black T-shirt, Sobler looks the part -- parts, really -- of a fraying Anytown's populace, where the old folks are dug in for life and the young dream of getting away.
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The story couldn't be more straightforward, and it's written with charm and affection. Local color and petty rivalries are efficiently evoked, the parody is gentle, and the verbal kickers that punctuate the ends of scenes are as thoughtful as the short banjo tune that fills the brief transitions. There's nothing wily about Sobler's performance, but her understated approach feels like a virtue.

* The Cloud Factory 4 STARS
Reviewed by Danielle Martin



It's a treat to come into a low-tech performance, and before the show begins be invited into the piece's atmosphere. In this case, original, sweet folk tunes calmed and opened the space up for solo performer Alix Sobler,

as she takes not just on but breathes in small town America. As the audience sits in the black box, they view a laundry line of simple costume pieces, each representing a different person in the town. From that vantage, the 2nd hand clothing takes on a sheen of almost elegance, and it's in that 'almost' that the story begins with the "waiting for the rebirth of wonder."

This piece addresses through the microcosm of the fictional town of Sommerville what happens as its Cloud Factory closes with the death of the last man who knew how to operate the machinery- Sonny Airdale. Sobler neatly and simply- although not completely adroitly - serves up a sampling of townies as they reel from the certain fate of their town. All the neighbors you expect to meet at the town hall are to my mind welcomed guests: Gus, the endearingly crotchey old man; Harvey, the upstanding citizen; Lauralee, the insufferable factory owner's wife; Betty, former homecoming queen and present drunk. And then there is the young and conflicted as embodied by Sonny's granddaughter Mary, who must choose between staying with her town or leaving in order to make another life for herself.

All of which would add up to only a decent night of theatre, but for Sobler's writing. This woman is a swift, capable and, most of all, sincere story writer. The writing blends the familiar with the colloquial to create people you'd count yourself lucky to sit beside on a long bus trip. And the treat is that within each of these characters lies golden nugget one-liners that materialize, well, like clouds. Sobler's clever that way. When Mary bemoans the fact that a boy has a crush on her (which young women are wont to do), she laments, "If I marry him, I'd have no one to talk to." Or for the more wistful, as Gus looks into the clouds, he shares his vision of, "History meltin' up into the sky." Just. Good. Stuff.

There's only one more performance of this show, and, well, it shouldn't be something that Fringe goers should let roll by.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/fringe/2008/07/15/the-cloud-factory/

'The Cloud Factory'

Posted by Brett Abelman on Jul. 15, 2008, at 10:16 am


They say: "Welcome to Sommerville, home of North America's last independent cloud factory. The forecast is always partly cloudy, and Mary is sick of looking for the silver lining. But what will she do when the factory is shut down and her little town is changed forever?"

Brett's take: I've read several reviews so far that talk about the relative "Fringe-iness" of the show being reviewed. General consensus seems to be that the out-there, the edgy, and the daring are the definition of Fringe (vis-a-vis The Naked Party), but based on my experience, far more common (and at times far more beloved) at Fringe is the small, simple solo show. Perhaps they are even the bread-and-butter of Fringe, these 7×1 Samurais and McSwiggins Pubs and Mothers of Inventions, compared to the flaming desserts and exotic liquors (to belabor the metaphor) of the Naked Parties and Sticking Places. So it all depends on what you're looking for.

Cloud Factory is one such gemlike, intimate solo show. Making its U.S. premiere after writer/performer and native New Yorker Alix Sobler debuted it in Canada, it's the kind of show that fits in a suitcase: a couple basic costume pieces to help indicate character changes, four props (one of them a ukelele), a CD of sound cues and nothing else except for Sobler's script and talent.

A moment here to acknowledge the excellence of that CD of sound cues, which contains both some spot-on original folk/country music and a superior achievement in the aural evocation of the titular cloud factory - and, no, the title is not a metaphor. It really manufactures clouds. (The explanation for why clouds need to be manufactured in the first place turns out to be one of the show's cleverest moments, if a brief one.)

The plot concerns a crisis in a fictional small, Southern town called Sommerville, when an incident forces that cloud factory to shut down. The town has been surviving as much on the factory's income as it has on the tourist draw of having the last operating cloud factory in the United States (all the rest closed down due to competition with Asian factories). The program says that Sobler wrote Cloud Factory after having toured and seen many small towns surviving off their own nostalgia, "because [she] believe[s] in the importance of these small towns for what they have contributed to North America in the past, and what… they have the potential to contribute to our future."

You can probably get a picture of this show already: folksy, a little bit wistful, with some light humor, a touching and simple love story, sort of like Our Town sans Stage Manager and graveyard. It's family-friendly and sweet. Sobler is a capable performer; I've seen soloists with wider range of voice and gesture, but she gets the job done, and with wit. She portrays about three or four major characters of sympathy and a bit of depth, as well a passel of broader, more generic caricatures who I felt diluted the show's gentleness and honesty. (Did she need to resort to a stutter and a crosseye for lack of enough ways to distinguish personages?) Overall the show was most engaging when it left its attempts at hokey town-hall social comedy and instead let the characters contemplate the history and personal meaning of this fictional but oh-so-familiar town with its fantasy factory, sketching a story both intimately connected to our national myths and intriguingly relevant in our increasingly globalized world.

As an import from way, waaaay out of state, this show is unlikely to be well-attended due to the lack of local connections; but if it sounds like your thing, there are far worse ways to spend an hour's time.

See it if: You enjoy documentaries, the History Channel or a quiet afternoon sittin' on the porch with a friend discussing the state of the nation.

Skip it if: I lost you when I called it 'folksy.'

I recently arrived in Washington DC for the Capital Fringe. http://www.capfringe.org/

I am performing 'The Cloud Factory' at The Warehouse - Next Door. OPENING NIGHT: Saturday July 12, 9:30 pm

So I am currently in the home of my two very dear friends Chris and Kate who are generously donating their futon to the cause of independent theatre for the next two weeks. Joe Zarrow ('Hold me, Drill me, Kiss me') opened his show last night to a small but incredibly enthusiastic crowd. Today we are searching for my last minute props before my tech this afternoon. The radio is ominously warning me that the air quality in DC is level 3, or code orange or some other bad thing that means don't breath too much while outside. Yikes. For the first time, other than reasons of heart, I am missing the prairies.

But here I am in beautiful DC ready to remount this show that I love. Get fringing people, wherever you are.

Last night Jason and I were coming home after seeing "iron Man" (Awesome by the way, very entertaining, smart, dare I say, poignant at moments?) anyway, we get out of the car, and there, hovering in the corner of the parking lot next to the steps of an adjacent building is this little calico cat. We all just froze. She looking from me to Jason, Me looking to her to Jason, Jason looking...well you get it. After a few moment of dancing around it was clear that his little calico was not feral. Judging by the way she immediately gravitated towards Jason with a bossy meow and a snuggly head wanting to play, I would say she was an affectionate cat, probably less then a year old. She was un marked in any visible way, no collar, no tattoos, and I would bet no chip, though I couldn't be sure. She was dirty, like she hadn't had time to groom in quite a while, but she was not too skinny, like maybe someone had been feeding her.

What to do? We didn't want to just leave her there in the parking lot. It was a parking lot, and the summer was just beginning. Rain clouds were looming over head and she looked scared. I knew that even if she manager to fend for herself, find enough food and shelter from the heat and rain, within weeks she would be pregnant and then there would be a whole other litter of cats to deal with. You see I was afraid to bring her into the humane society, because in our busy time cats have to get euthanized. So I had to have that conversation with my self in a practical way, that we as the staff at the humane society have in an ideological way all the time. What is more humane? Leave the kitten to fend for herself where the two out comes could be survival, freedom, but shortened life span, and certainly at lease one litter while struggling to get by, or the humane society, possible adoption into a new home, but possible euthanasia on a cold medical table.

We chose the latter. I hope, because she looked cute and healthy and was mostly friendly that she will have a good shot of being adopted. But I also have to face the possibility that her tests might show something bad, or her attitude might change once she is brought inside, or she might have th bad luck of getting sick. She might not get lucky, she might be put down. And I have to believe that even in this worst case scenario this was the right thing to do. I shouldn't have named her though. Cookie. She looked like a cookie. I shouldn't have named her. It makes it harder.

Friday night, finally! While my man is out partying with other social workers, (and you know how those social workers like to party) I am settling into a nice glass(es) of red wine and Battlestar Galactica. Yes. LOVE Starbuck, even though there is something terribly annoying about her. At my best moments I think it is her character succeeding at what it is intending to do. In my worse moments I am forced to question whether it is the masculinity of her that bothers me. Not so much the bad ass, sleeping around, take charge Kara, that part I love, but more the closed off emotionally, uncommunicative, using humour as a defense (but not well)...its those weaker choices that are so unappealing in both sexes, and all sexes in between. But wait, maybe that is the character. I don't know. Anyway, she's hot.

Wait, am I blogging about Battlestar Gallactica? Well that shit is good.

Last night's show at the comedy festival went very well. We had a great time and Nile Seguin was awesome in his pilot. I hope it gets picked up. That is a funny man. It will be playing at some point on DNTO and I will post the date when I know it.

Long time no...anything.

I have been very busy these days with work and life and (gulp) facebook! But now CBC has linked my name to my myspace page (THANKS GUYS) so I had better keep up with it, just in case someone out there is actually reading it.

Anyway, my most recent piece on DNTO was about escape, and its one of my favourites, with apologies to my family, and my boyfriend’s family.

I am now working on a new play for the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, and an even newer play for no one in particular.

Sorry this is so boring, blogging is a genre I am still getting used to...

Well the fringe is over, and alls well that ends well, somebody famous once said. The good news is that Jason and I are back together! So try to forget all the nasty things I said about him. In the end, he truly is the love of my life. Stay tuned for InTrouble Productions next foray at the fringe and beyond.

Thanks for reading my blog! More to come.

I finally have a day off to relax and rest up my cold. But I think will hit the streets and flyer a bit too. Every time I get out there, some how Jason knows I am going to be there, and he shows up wth picket sign. I hope no one is buying his line. I picket his crowd sometimes too, and when people are coming out they laugh at me and are like, "I don't know, he makes some good points, he's pretty persuasive." I am just saying, come see my show people. Find out what it is all REALLY about.

Chris came to see my show the other night! I couldn't believe it. I even saw him laugh  a few times. Maybe we can end up being friends again?

OK folks, the first verdict is in. I got a four star review on CBC. Jason? Oh he got a mere three stars. Its true, for the most part his review is really positive, and his review reads more like a four star review, but that just makes mine more like a five star review, so I'm OK with that! He's kind of a local celebrity, and people always know that his shows are going to be great, and they usually are, but that is because I have always been behind the scenes helping him out, and I really thought that without me, his show would bomb. But last night I was waiting outside his show to flyer his lineup, let people know that if they want the real story they should come to see my show, and the people coming out had such huge smiles on their faces. I heard huge laughs through the door and as people left I heard things like "great show" and "what a funny guy". Whatever. They just haven't seen my show yet those people.