Review: A Madhouse Dramedy

by Dave Ross

Dramedy serves this piece well. It’s funny, and I laughed, and the audience laughed. It’s an austere production, with the men wearing near-identical costumes, and the set consisting of two chairs and a handful of books. There is nothing to mention about the lighting, nothing to say of a sound design. This is a character piece, driven by the four actors and nothing else.

The story of a family, living together and loathing each other unfolds on the stage. It would be a challenging piece to perform, and I have to give kudos to the cast for managing the dialogue—the first section is entirely alliterative, resulting in a tongue-twister of a script. Rage delivered with a series of P-words is nothing easy to pull off, but the entire cast manages it effortlessly. 

Of the shows I’ve seen at the Toronto Fringe so far, this is the one I would recommend. The script and the delivery are consistent, and there is nothing I love more than being continuously amused by a production. Special mention goes to out to the therapist, who spends much of the show performing as a corpse. I won’t say more than that, as I wouldn’t want to spoil the show for those yet to see it, but it can’t be easy to pull off an Irish jig while deceased. 

While the alliterative dialogue is amusing, the script ends it just before it could become irritating, but without it being something to notice—you just realize that the alliteration has ended. The pacing of the show is perfect for the story, and each of the cast members puts on a strong show. This show is dark and amusing, and I’d recommend it to anyone with a dark sense of humour.

As an aside, I really do wish that Fringe shows were able to provide a program… I’d like to mention this great cast by name!

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