Sexual Perversity in Chicago
@ Royal St. George’s Theatre
A sign on the wall of Royal St. George’s auditorium reads “Manners Maketh Men.” Enter Bernie Litko and Danny Shapiro. These two self-aggrandizing twentysomethings spout lines like “My fucking heart is pumping pisswater for you” and “Some faggot queer’s got the hots for my joint at the cartoons” as they live it up at the smutty height of the swinging ’70s.
Manners indeed. But making humourous heroes of these reprehensible men is where the genius of American playwright David Mamet (American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross) truly lies.
This production, in direct opposition to the slogans adorning its venue’s walls, shows just how effective the Fringe is at bending the rules and challenging common decency. While Bernie constantly weaves fictitious monologues about his past conquests, Danny actually succeeds in settling down with an unlikely love, Deborah. In the role of Bernie, Randall Connoly started off a little shaky, sometimes losing his verbal footing during the infamous “flak suit” monologue, but grew increasingly more natural and confident as the play progressed. This worked in part thanks to his picture-perfect appearance (a combination of a mustachioed Jason Lee, a young Nicolas Cage, and Dave Grohl playing the airline pilot in the Foo Fighters’ “Learn to Fly” video).
In the role of the less self-assured Danny, Len Silvini was more than competent, although when he flew into a vengeful rage he sounded an awful lot like Al Pacino playing Richard Roma in Mamet’s other masterpiece Glengarry Glen Ross.
While the choice to use cheesy ’70s hits as bumper music between some scenes was a no-brainer, it should have been done between all scenes, as the ones lacking a musical transition were markedly more awkward. All in all this was a hilarious production of one of the funniest plays ever written. Whether or not revivals of such classics belong in a “fringe” festival is another question altogether. -JB
Rating: VVVV
It Was Kit: The “True” Story of Christopher Marlowe
@ Tarragon Theatre Mainspace
While one must give kudos to playwright Allison McWood for having not one, but two entries in this years Fringe (musical Welcome to Eden, Population: 2 being the other), the relative weakness of her fictional take on Christopher Marlowe’s last year on earth leads one to think she’d be better off sticking to song and dance.
While McWood’s cheeky historical references are amusing and her characters witty, the script’s modern dialogue sounds out of place amidst the Elizabethan costumes and setting, and suffers from trying far too hard to be clever. The production is saved by a few solid performances, particularly Chris Coculuzzi’s multi-faceted portrayal of the title character.
Jeff White makes a hilariously spacey Thomas Kyd, and Kevin Risk’s nebbish Will Shakespeare is a nice contrast to Coculuzzi’s devil-may-care rebel of a Marlowe. When these three are together on stage, the energy picks up considerably; misguided attempts at humour led by extraneous characters such as two wandering atheists could easily be cut.
In the end, the show is mildly interesting, but not enough to be anything more than mediocre-and would Marlowe not have considered mediocrity a bigger insult than flaming failure? -YS
Rating: VVV
Real Time
@ Theatre Passe-Muraille Mainspace
Boy meets girl. They date, get to know each other, and maybe, just maybe, fall in love. Sounds clichéd? Perhaps, except that in Matt Alden’s über-charming Real Time, the boy, Billy (Dan Jeannotte) is a computer nerd, the girl, Jessie (Caitlin Howden), is a beer-swilling rebel under house arrest, and they meet online during a particularly intense game of D&D.
Alden’s script is a romantic comedy for the 21st century, and Jeannotte and Howden handle it deftly, playing not only the opposites-attract central duo of the tale, but a dozen other characters while they’re at it.
Director Murray Utas keeps the staging simple and uncluttered while moving the story along at a brisk clip, handling transitions from the online world to the “real” world without missing a beat.
The key ingredient in a successful love story is making the audience actually want the lead pair to end up together, and this is where Real Time succeeds in droves. With clever, likeable characters, sympathetically portrayed by two extremely talented young actors and quirky, yet heartfelt dialogue, one can’t help but cheer as the play’s awkward couple finally finds love beyond heart-shaped emoticons. -YS
Rating: VVVV
Minotaur
@ Robert Gill Theatre
A mystery-horror play set in Toronto, Minotaur had me rapt up until the very end. At which point the real horror was the tacked-on ending which avoided a plethora of more interesting, scary, and meaningful solutions.
Set in a university classroom an eccentric, self-centered professor (is that redundant?) introduces the audience, his new “class”, to both the mystery of the Underwood Property, a century-old house with an enigmatic shaft plummeting down from the basement, and his bizarre academic method of uncovering what happened to a disappeared couple who briefly owned the home.
Using incomplete bits of multimedia and artifacts (a bit of video, some audio tape, rants scribbled down on to paper towel rolls) recovered from the bottom of the shaft, the professor has his two TAs, Kieran (Chris Hanratty) and Nora (Trish Lahde) assume the identities of the perished couple and, using a Stanislavski-like method, attempt to re-enact the horrific events in the darkened classroom.
Borrowing heavily from nu-horror flicks like The Ring and The Blair Witch Project, Minotaur comes complete with spooky noises, hag-like creatures, and lots of blackouts accompanied by heavy, fearful breathing. In addition to the horror, there are lots of funny moments in Minotaur many of which involve classroom humour. Despite the flawed, summary conclusion, this show had many redeeming and promising aspects. -JB
Rating: VVV
Three Billy Goats Gruff
@ Palmerston Library Theatre
What do you get when you take Toronto’s most innovative comedians, original music by Sebastien Grainger (of local noise-rock duo DFA 1979), and a classic children’s story? One of the best shows at this year’s Fringe festival, that’s what.
This fantastic, sarcastic, and ironic take on the story of Three Billy Goats Gruff was created by and stars Katie Crown (Brenda), Terrance Balazo (Smithson & Twizzly), Maggie Maloney (Peanut), and Aaron Knight (Troll), and was directed by the inimitable Kathleen Phillips.
The story’s skeleton is the same as you might remember from childhood-save that this story’s villain is a pinstripe-wearing, greasy-haired Business Troll, who dupes the youngest Goat Gruff into signing a slavery contract when she asks to visit his lush and lovely “West side.” With the audience’s help, her elder siblings have to hatch an elaborate rescue scheme that involves disguises, secret admirers, and even a brush with cannibalism.
Throughout the year, The Cow Over Moon Children’s Theatre Company puts on this, and similar productions in Mississauga, and if this play is any indication, it’s worth the trek to the West side to see what they’ll come up with next. -JF
Rating: VVVVV
The Lab
@ Royal St. George’s Parking Lot
Yes, it’s another one-man show, but don’t fear, The Lab was refreshingly more than just another Toronto theatre actor alone on stage talking about himself. Staged in a long, dark semi-trailer, the spooky environment is perfectly suited to the story: a young man (Michael Payne) answers a want ad and lands a job in a mobile cloning facility.
The opening 20 minutes are captivating as the eccentricities of his coworkers and the rules of the enigmatic job are revealed with brilliant, somber story telling. Director Ruth Madoc-Jones uses simple conventions that are clever but never too indulgent; for example, the only lights used to distinguish the six characters are attached to small props (designed by J.P. Robichaud).
However, once our hero settles into his post, Payne’s story can’t keep up with his performance. Ultimately, science proves to be the only language that can answer the questions so brilliantly posed at the top of the play. And sadly, science is a rather boring language to listen to in a dark trailer. -FCO
Rating: VVV
Giant Killer Shark
@ Helena Gardiner Theatre
It’s official: Fringe audiences love irony. And Giant Killer Shark is just what the doctor ordered, serving up large portions of cheesy choreography (jazz hands abound!), absurd props (Nerf guns and beanie babies), and a flurry of references to Spielberg’s 1975 hit about a certain fish with a taste for young swimmers.
Here’s the funny thing though: it all works. Sam Sutherland’s emo/electronic score is a beautiful accompaniment to the great direction of Amy Duncan. The actors are spot on, and they’re good singers to boot. The camaraderie between a scientist, a hardened New York City Cop and one very drunk fisherman is apparent, and the oddly expository lyrics (“I’m dead/I’m really, really dead”) only resulted in whistles and standing ovations from the audience.
Giant Killer Shark has all the right ingredients to be a crossover hit for irony lovers everywhere. Now all Sutherland needs is the right actor to play E.T. and he’ll be set for Fringe 2007. -CL
Rating: VVVv
The Catering Queen
@ Tarragon Mainstage
For playwright and actress Alison Lawrence, it looks like the 14th time’s the charm. Her first-ever Fringe acceptance (the festival is organized on a supposedly “random” lottery system), Lawrence’s Fringe debut is a “you go girl!” saga of a woman in her mid 30s stuck in the ultimate dead-end job, catering.
As the daughter of a caterer myself, I loved Lawrence’s witty observations on the art of serving food to rich people and what really happens behind closed kitchen doors. Well-developed characters, tons of zingers and great chemistry between leads save The Catering Queen from being Mary Tyler Moore with a side of tuna tartare. -CL
Rating: VVVv
You Talking To Me?
@ St. Vladimir’s Theatre
Alright, so this play involves a character who has a psychological disorder where he can only speak lines from famous movies, but the story’s not about him per se.
It actually centres around his pregnant, guardian sister and her seriously flawed relationship with her loading-dock, blue-collar playboy fiancée. Does this sound like a winner or what? Basically what happens is that the crazy movie guy actually gets set up on a blind date thanks to his sister, but as it turns out, his “date” is loading-dock-dude’s ex-doxy who he was banging on the side a few years back.
The four go out for Chinese food, and while preggo is in the can, the homewrecker makes her move to lure loading-dock away to booze it up in Vegas. Even though our filmy “Rainman” overhears the whole thing, he struggles with his verbal impasse (which is never explained!) to warn his sister about the impending exodus.
In hindsight, I should have brought a pack of crackers to this show, because the whole thing was one giant ball of cheese. From the painfully predictable and sappy movie quotes, “life is like a box of chocolates” (oh, God…), “don’t cry for me Argentina” (kill me, please), “you had me at hello” (fuck, fuck, fuck, get me the fuck outta here!) to the ultra-super-overly expository monologues, to a stage “fight” that looked like it was choreographed by a blind pacifist, this show sucked. There’s no two ways about it. -JB
Rating: V
Secondary Wishes
@ Factory Theatre Mainspace
Borrowing heavily from Disney and popular teen television, Secondary Wishes is Aladdin with a twist. Instead of a street urchin traipsing through the sand dunes of Agrabah, we’ve got typical high school student Tom (Duncan McCallum) glumly walking the halls of a secondary school in small-town Ontario, hoping bookworm Kristen (Melody MacDougall) will notice he’s alive. When he lands himself in detention for mocking a fellow student, Tom discovers a magic lamp amidst the drama props and finds himself on the receiving end of three wishes from a young genie named, uh, Jeanie (Jenn E. Young). Yes, you can groan now. Be careful what you wish for, blah blah blah, and so forth…. Of course, Tom uses his first two wishes unwisely and finds himself more miserable than when he started. This is the perfect occasion for some power balladry, a so-bad-it’s-funny rap number, and even some random, semi-choreographed dance numbers! While the characters are, for the most part, rather endearing in that awkward, stereotypically high school kind of way, it is most unfortunate that the bulk of the cast can’t really sing. They’re darned cute, though, and their charisma and energy goes a long way towards making the show-which is at least thirty minutes too long-easy enough to sit through. Long on charm if short on technique, Secondary Wishes could make a good junior high touring production with cleaned-up language and a few smart cuts. It’s just not quite ready to play with the big kids. -YS
Rating: VVv
Piece
@ Theatre Passe Muraille
Piece is a play that requires a pitch-perfect performance and sadly, simply doesn’t get that here at the Fringe. First time playwright Reid Neufeld has crafted a provocative, politically-charged love story about an AWOL Canadian soldier and his drug-dealing host. The story relies heavily on two main themes: the danger the characters face, and the relationship that is born as a result. Now I know that this is a festival show, so naturally we should turn a blind eye to low production value, but a safety-orange nozzled toy gun cannot evoke the physical threat that’s needed to drive this kind of action. Another aspect which was well below par was Lara Arabian’s complete lack of charisma as Gloria. While Jim Gilbert is wonderful as Dove, the complex young solider, he looks a little silly when he’s inexplicably overwhelmed by his host’s charm and power, qualities that simply aren’t there. The scope of the show should be applauded, but as is so often the case, it’s these subtle shortcomings that kill. -FCO
Rating: VV
Broken Record
@ Sonic Boom Basement
What’s worse than seeing a terrible example of absurdist theatre? Seeing it staged in the tiny basement of a record store across four dramatic centers of the room that you are sometimes uncomfortably close to and sometimes incredibly far away from, sitting for an hour on a busted milk crate. While the staging of Broken Record was certainly “theatrical” a haphazard script about a group of clichéd record store employees and a day’s events that don’t quite add up left me wishing I could be flipping through vinyl instead. All the trite occurrences are there: the singer-songwriter too scared find her voice, the angry boss threatening bodily harm against his employees and then tearfully opening up about his ex-wife and the coked-out record store employees who sleep at the store on weeknights. While the beauty of the Fringe is giving everyone a chance, sometimes not everybody deserves one. -CL
Rating: V
Stealing Venus
@ St. Vladimir’s Theatre
Hailing from South Africa, Anton Smuts worked overtime in this fast-paced one-man adventure drama, playing everyone from a fat, pot-smoking Jamaican to a jittery, nicotine deprived Irishman. The play takes the form of a parole hearing in which the central character, Quimby Bird, a rough-around-the-edges South African national, is attempting to explain the unlikely string of events (being blackmailed into stealing The Birth of Venus by Botacelli in Florence while desperately pursuing a lost love) which lead to his incarceration back home. Although at times his accent was unsteady, it never flew off the rails, and usually only slipped to allow his bug-eyed enthusiasm to hit its peak. And despite the German blow-job scene being lifted straight from an Austin Powers movie, Smuts’ gift for story telling kept the large and giddy audience at the edge of their seats right up to the funny twist that the play ends on. -JB
Rating: VVVV
Teaching as You Like It
@ Glenn Morris Studio Theatre
The third installment in Keir Cutler’s Teaching Shakespeare series (Teaching Shakespeare and Teaching Detroit held slots in 1999 and 2001), has this hardened fringe veteran reviving his terrible teacher persona in a 50-minute monologue battling not only for the attention of a high school English class, but his own inner demons. It seems that Cutler’s creation has slipped again, falling down the ranks of academia from a tenure-tracked University professor to the bottom of the barrel, the dreaded high school substitute teacher. The writing is developed flawlessly as we are led into today’s lesson, a reading of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It. Slowly we hear Cutler begin to wax rhapsodically about his doomed love affair with-yikes!-his 15 year-old student, aptly named Rosalyn. Cutler’s character may be pretentious, arrogant and despicable but he’s also beautifully human. While watching I couldn’t help but reflect on the potential love has to transform and reveal our most desperate desires. For a 50-minute fringe play, it looks like I learned some valuable lessons of my own. -CL
Rating: VVVV
My Script and Me
@ Helena Gardiner Theatre
Why do plays about playwrights trying to write a play always end up sucking? Maybe it’s because playwrights never remove themselves from their own egocentric point of view. My Script and Me is no exception. In this case the author/subject reflects on the girls who rejected him in high school (thinly veiled as “the Muse”), the people he wishes he could be ( an actually talented writer) and the obsessive scrutiny of the person he is (an unlikable dolt). Dissecting the psyche of the token male protagonist and shamelessly developing the subsets of his personality into mythic figures of “Muse” and “Conscience”, who are acted out by hot chicks who continue to throw themselves at a total dweeb, makes for a trite exercise in ego inflation. High-energy performances from the cast and an adequate staging are nice but don’t revive the play from a contrived formula. My Script and Me also holds the honour of being the only Fringe play that was not only homophobic but misogynistic, so let’s all give a big shout-out to actor/playwright/director Tony “what-a-Streisand” Del Rio. -CL
Rating: v
