2025 Fringe Festival Review: ‘The Alberta Hospital For The Insane’

If there’s one thing you can guarantee the Edmonton Fringe Festival will offer, it’s variety. While plays are the primary focus of fringe, there’s also comedy, improv, music, and puppet shows. 

The Alberta Hospital For The Insane, written by Calla Wright and co-directed by Meegan Sweet and Philip Hackborn, is a puppet show that revolves around the mental hospital in Ponoka, Alberta. Taking place in the 1930s, not long after the hospital was opened, the show follows a mother who takes a job at the hospital after the family farm hits a rough patch. 

It’s an incredibly touching and well executed show that tackles tough subjects with a lot of care and in a little bit of a wacky way.

As Gin (Calla Wright), the protagonist, works at the hospital, they meet some of the patients — or some maybe not patients. It’s never totally clear if one of the characters is or isn’t a patient. And as they navigate the hospital, they begin to discover things about their sexuality and gender. 

Spoiler alert: Gin is transgender. The setting of the show inevitability complicated this discovery, as queerness and being transgender is treated as a mental illness. To the extent that queer and trans people are institutionalized and “treated” for their identity. Considering that Canada only banned conversion therapy in 2022 and it continues to happen in other countries, this is still a very relevant topic.

Being a puppet play, I had no idea what to expect, especially for the tone of the play. Near the beginning of the play, I was worried it might not be taking the subject matter seriously enough. Largely because of the corny punch sounds playing when Gin’s husband (Ekeajia Vieira) beats her. Also partly because it’s a little hard to take puppets seriously sometimes. 

But the show did handle the subject matter with the necessary seriousness, and levity at times. The connection between Gin and Jenny (Vieira), one of the patients at the hospital and a trans woman, is touching. And, the way Jenny is able to recognize Gin as trans before they are able to recognize it themself was beautifully played. 

The puppets themselves are honestly not the prettiest to look at. But the set and the puppets make up a slightly wacky, artsy look that somehow fits the show. Most of the show was done with the puppets showing through two large windows of a cardboard replication of the hospital. The background of the windows were changed throughout the play to signal a change in setting. Altogether it was done very well.

Some of my favourite, and some of the most impactful scenes, were when the actors came out from behind the puppet stage. The actors had massive masks that covered most of their bodies and matched the style of the puppets. 

The two actors at one point, brought out puppet Gin and Jenny to dance. The two actors, after making their puppets dance for a few moments, danced together. It was incredibly touching, given the set up for the scene being Jenny reminiscing about the gay bars in Europe that offered freedom and discovery. 

Towards the end of the play, Wright, behind a giant Gin mask, stepped out from the puppet stage. They tore off the mask to reveal another layer of the mask, which was slightly grotesque. The mask was further stripped to an even more grotesque yarn rendition of someone’s face with no skin. Finally it was Wright standing there with no mask — just themself. 

But even behind the puppet stage, the actors’ skill shone through. The puppets’ movements were expressive and even a little absurd at times. But, I can’t imagine puppets telling this story in a better way. How the actors managed to move the puppets from behind the cardboard and hit their cues is beyond me.

The Alberta Hospital For The Insane exceeded any expectations I could have had for a puppet show. Between the design, acting, and storytelling, it came together to be a beautifully touching show.

You can catch The Alberta Hospital For The Insane at the Edmonton Fringe Festival until August 24.