Eye Weekly ~ November 18, 2010 | 96.3 FM

Take a Big Dose of the Cure for Everything ~ Toronto Sun, November 17, 2010

"As they did with YFY, Ardal and director Mary Francis Moore tackle a broad range of characters, working on an even emptier stage than in their first production and limiting themselves this time to a single costume, both courtesy of designer Julia Tribe.

Yet the show emerges as not only a rich emotional tapestry but a visual feast as well, thanks to Ardal’s consummate skill as storyteller and actress. One has to be very, very good to be this simple.

It may not actually be the cure for everything, but chances are, spending 71 minutes with Ardal and Elsa is going to do a lot for whatever ails you." ~ Jon Colbourne

A Cure for Not Quite Everything ~ Globe and Mail, November 17, 2010 ***3/4

Elsa Blooms on Muraille Stage ~ Toronto Star, November 16, 2010 ****4/4

Edinburgh Festival Guide ~ August 20, 2009

Stage Edinburgh ~ August 19, 2009

Maja Ardal and You Fancy Yourself wins 2009 Dora Award for Outstanding Performance.

You Fancy Yourself receives three 2008-2009 Dora Award nominations: Outstanding Production, Outstanding Performance, and Outstanding Direction. Awards night is June 29th.

Fancy travels to Festival Antigonish and PEI (Victoria Playhouse) in July.

In August Fancy will be performed in Edinburgh at the Festival Fringe at Universal Arts at St. George's West.

Fancy will tour in England for Farnham Maltings (outside London) from September 8th-20th. In October it's back to Canada to Stouffville for two performances, and a remount at Theatre Passe Muraille in January 2010. In March Fancy will run for a week in Kelowna, BC.

Contrary Company is developing the sequel to Fancy: The Cure for Everything, supported by OAC with a Creators Reserve Grant, through 4th Line Theatre, and Toronto Arts Council, and Canada Council.

Contrary Company welcomes its newest member, Lisa Karen Cox.

Now Magazine ~ National Post ~ Mooney on Theatre ~ Scene Changes

jam.canoe.ca ~ The Globe and Mail ~ The Toronto Star ~ Eye Magazine

Robin Pittis
View Magazine, Hamilton

Maja Ardal is a master of her craft…her performance is powerful, fluid, physical..
She demonstrates that a single seasoned artist can meet the dual objectives of entertainment and enlightenment. This is a feat to be witnessed and relished.

Gary Smith
Hamilton Spectator

The pain of growing up as an outsider.  The cold wash of despair and ice water thrown over a young child’s vision of the universe are all aquiver in this thrilling piece of theatre.

See it if you admire great acting. See it if you appreciate great language that touches the heart and buoys the soul.

*NNNN Critics' Pick*

Maja Ardal's Elsa is a girl with an imagination and dramatic savoir- faire.
Sly, certain writing and Ardal's deadly good comic timing make this freshly-told,
semi-autobiographical tale of playground politics, Celtic culture and childhood power struggles an entertaining play for everyone.

Don't miss Ardal's brilliant work as Elsa's starchy teacher, her prissy nemesis June, and her raggedy best friend, Adelle.

Recommended. "A wonderful production."

Creating a world with lightning speed inspires actor Maja Ardal. Nearly 20 years ago she played a quartet of roles in Dario Fo and Franca Rame's Female Parts, and I still see her blazing eyes as the child-murdering Medea.

In You Fancy Yourself writer/performer Ardal tackles a dozen contrasting types. In this story of quirky adolescence, young immigrant Elsa tries to fit into 50s Edinburgh society where people tend to be suspicious and judgmental.
Though she began her career as an actor, Ardal proved her playwriting skills in Midnight Sun produced at the Tarragon. Here she transforms people from her own history. "I couldn't get some childhood characters out of my mind" recalls Ardal whose own experiences parallel some of the fictional Elsa's. "Two years ago I began writing poetic portraits of them. But because I'm a theatre person, I tried them out in front of people and they took on dramatic life.

Elsa's world contains fronds (Adelle), and enemies, (ramrod-stiff Miss Campbell) but she sees them through the filter of her Norse imagination. "Elsa lives more in her imaginative world than the real one" says Ardal. "She moves from one unreality to another and when the real world punches her in the face she just invents a new fantasy to survive it. Elsa's imagination enriches the lives of everyone around her, but it causes problems too, when she can't find the balance between fantasy and reality.

Trained by the legendary George Luscombe, Ardal loves working in what she calls "empty space', creating characters from nothing. In this piece we meet more than a dozen figures all of whom Ardal invents with her body and voice. "It's all done internally on the strength of belief but I still need an instant physical sketch for the audience. The curious Elsa's chest pushes forward. The quite Adelle's chest pulls back. Shy David MacDonald has tight lips and narrow eyes, while the prim matron Miss Campbell stands with her hands pointed directly towards her vagina."