2025 Fringe Festival Review: ‘A Lesbian in a Bear Store’

Ever wanted to see a play filled to the brim with Beanie Babies and lesbian jokes? A Lesbian in a Bear Store offers that and a lot more. It’s an intimate and raw show, with Willow Rosenberg baring a lot to the audience. While that vulnerability and intimacy was a strength, there were moments that felt out of place. 

The one-woman show takes place in the middle of an absurd amount of Beanie Babies and a bunch of other clutter. Rosenberg uses the Beanie Babies to tell stories about her relationship with her mom, her sexuality, her gender, and social media. 

The Beanie Babies collection belonged to Rosenberg’s mom, who passed away. That thread of her mom and the Beanie Babies strings the entire show together. The Beanie Babies themselves don’t tell any stories, but rather Rosenberg uses them as signifiers of memories. With that, each Beanie Baby Rosenberg introduces the audience to is the start of a story.

A lot of the stories go back to Rosenberg’s experience coming to terms with her gender and sexuality and her mom’s passing before she was able to come out to her. While it’s sad, there’s something comforting about the way Rosenberg holds onto her mom’s legacy. Not just the Beanie Babies, but her thoughts and words.

Throughout all of it — even the sadness of the show — Rosenberg brought plenty of humour to the stage. Many of her jokes were inside jokes for lesbians, trans people, neurodivergent folks, and those with chronic illness. The U-Haul boxes scattered around the stage were a cherry on top. They were hilarious and provided a good balance between the raw vulnerability and grief of the show and the joy of it. 

Unfortunately, there were some moments in between the stories that took away from the vulnerability and humour. Another part of the show was re-enactments of scenes from Rosenberg’s life. They didn’t quite land for me in the same way her telling the stories directly to the audience did.

Rosenberg switched between characters, largely signalled by a change in her voice and a prop like a fan or a hat. While funny at times, it felt separate from the rest of the show. Furthermore, Rosenberg took on the character of a faerie multiple times throughout the show. They would interact with the audience and bicker with Rosenberg. It, again, felt totally different from the tone and rhythm of the rest of the show.

With that, the show altogether was a bit of a mixed bag. The intimate storytelling directly to the audience, using the Beanie Babies to help tell the stories, worked really well. It hit home and Rosenberg’s humour was a highlight. The switching between characters didn’t work quite as well for me, though I still got plenty of laughs and left with a smile on my face.

A Lesbian in a Bear Store is on at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival until August 24.