Death Test, The

The Death Test has a terrific premise: On their wedding day, a couple vows that their love "is so strong that not even Death could part them." Then Death actually takes them up on the challenge. 

It's set in a Dungeons and Dragons-esue world of thieves, staffs and swords, inhabited by people with names like Decessus, Virtus, Guardian Spirit and Mistress Life.

The problem is that the show's creator, Makrenna Sterdan, fails to adapt this world from her imagination to the stage in a way that lets the audience in, too. She presents her show as one long monologue and performs all the characters with roughly the same tone of voice. I muddled through it feeling completely lost.

Sterdan is an 18-year-old University of Winnipeg student who clearly has talent, enthusiasm and great taste in costumes. Now all she needs is a director and a fellow scriptwriter who can help turn her ideas into plays with discernible characters, action, tension and momentum.