Review: Ways to Kill Ethyl (Fringe)

by Emma Lee

Two siblings try to kill their grandmother. That is the summation of the hour of this play. Intriguing. Maybe? Not really. ‘Ways To Kill Ethyl’ has some snappy dialogue, a good tag line, a moment or two of giggles, and a lovely running joke about meatballs. However it suffers from complete lack of attention to detail. A folding table, a plastic table cloth, paper plates, real cutlery and office chairs does not a dining room set make – though in a later scene wooden dining room chairs were used to establish an office. This may seem nit-picky but the sloppiness of the set slopped over into most elements of the production. From lighting which made it impossible to see people's eyes to staging which made it impossible to see people’s anything – Ways To Kill Ethyl could have been cleaned up into something crisp, clean, and fun but instead relied too heavily on the fact that trying to kill your grandmother was a plot that would entice people to buy tickets. Not to mention the fact that several plot points don’t make sense, at all, so not only does the story become increasingly convoluted it is also contradictory and undermining of characters' previously established intelligence. Many other flaws could be picked in the 60 minutes: flat acting, awkward transitions, confusion about whether the play takes place in Canada or the States, but at a certain point you have to just sit back, relax, laugh at meatball humor and ignore your growing hunger pains.  

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Review: Speare - part 2 (Fringe)

by Emma Lee

Bear Productions has done something seemingly bold. They have taken their 7 allotted show times and split them between two parts of the same play: Speare part 1 and Speare part 2. Don’t worry; they give a recap at the beginning of part 2 so you are able to see it completely independently like I did. However, in hindsight I wish I could blame not knowing what was going on, on the problems with the show. Speare is a story that starts with a what if – as many good stories do. What if all the best Shakespeare characters met and embarked on one giant bloodlusty adventure together? Possibly a very interesting concept. Possibly, if every element of it were not completely amateur in its vision and execution. Let’s put aside for a moment the pseudo Shakespearean writing that features some of literature's most famous and beloved characters being poorly and inaccurately portrayed – don’t get me started on the idea that Iago and Edmund, two of the biggest badasses of literary history kowtow to a sea captain and Malvolio of all people – and focus on the fact that not one theatrical element from costumes, to props, to set, to lighting, could be labelled as anything but a bad high school production. Dressed in various shades of black with bad red sashes, plastic helmets, and a makeshift tunnel that you get to watch the actors struggle through time and time again, Speare delivers on the worst of Fringe possibilities, leaving the audience not only dissatisfied but scared as they promise a Speare part 3 to make it an unholy triumvirate. 

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Review: Crashland (Fringe)

by Emma Lee

Leonard Cohen wrote the following in his piece How To Speak Poetry: ‘Take the word butterfly. To use this word it is not necessary to make the voice weigh less than an ounce or equip it with small dusty wings….The word butterfly is not a real butterfly. There is the word and there is the butterfly. If you confuse these two items people have the right to laugh at you.” The creative team of Crashland would have done themselves a great service by reading these words and heeding their warning. The play, which is based on T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, promises to explore further the themes found in Eliot’s poem: global injustice, corruption of communication, infertility and the search for God. On paper, this is a great departure point that could lead to no end of moving theatrical experiences. However what is on the stage is far from what is on paper. An hour of actors trying to be the words instead of speaking the words is enough to undermine the most brilliant of scripts, and unfortunately Crashland is far from brilliant. It can be assumed going into something branding itself as Eliotesque that we are going to find a piece that is more poetry than dialogue, more emotional journey than narrative. What is needed for that to be a success is that the staging, acting, and words transport the audience to a place that conventional story telling cannot. Nothing even near the mark is present with Crashland. Sloppy movement, unclear relationship dynamics, the confusion of nudity and sexuality, and yelling (oh so much yelling) results in zero emotional transformation, and with no plot to hold onto, the play has crashed almost as soon as the lights have dimmed. 

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Review: Tam Lin (Fringe)

by Emma Lee

Tam Lin could be the perfect Fringe Show. It is interesting and accessible to audiences while using theatrical devices in clean ways that enrich story, character and our experience. Based on the ballad of Tam Lin, a traditional Celtic story of fairies, magic, evil, and – of course – love, the production promises ‘a dark musical’ and delivers in more ways than one, most notably in music. Unlike what jumps to mind with the phrase ‘musical theatre’ Tam Lin stays true to its roots and keeps it Celtic, opening with the very bold choice of a live bagpipe. The stage is quickly transformed before the audience's eyes, as the cast brings you into the world of magic with simple props, beautiful costumes, and an array of acoustic instruments that are picked up and discarded as need be. Unfortunately, despite all of this, the play falls short in a couple of key areas: acting and dialogue. While the story itself is strong and moves forward, the momentum comes to a halt every time people stand and speak. While the performers prove they have the power to captivate in their group work, something is lacking when it comes to conversation. This drags things along making it feel considerably longer than it is. This may come from the fact that Mairi Mason has her hand in every aspect of the production. Book, music and lyrics are written by her, the play is produced by her and she is, not surprisingly, the lead. While it is understandable that this is a passion piece and that one is reluctant to hand it over, with so many good ideas it is a shame to see Tam Lin buckle under the weight of one person taking on too much.

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Review: With Somebody Who Loves Me - A Gay Dansical (Fringe)

by Emma Lee

The Director’s note explains the concept of a dansical – “a show with no dialogue and no singing. We wanted to create a show where we would establish concrete characters and story by using movement, video and other staging while focusing on dance.” So….a dance show? Never one to shy away from new forms, I was intrigued. And then immediately disappointed. On the one hand, exactly what was promised was delivered. The story progressed without a word. Instead, all the good ole fashion cheese of music theatre got translated into long looks, overdramatic shoulder pats and the ever popular sympathetic head nod. Not that it is surprising that the ‘acting’ failed, there is barely an acting credit among the cast of 8. Likewise unsuccessful were the solo dances that were inserted at the peak of each character's emotional vulnerability. You know, where the power ballads would be. Instead, cliché movement to canned music succeeded neither in moving the story or the audience. Probably the most problematic of all was the intense sincerity of the piece. Look at your title. A Gay Dansical suggests whimsy, fun, and a glorious gay time not neutral mask, shaky videos and feigned emotions (complete with a video at the end that is a montage of the videos you just saw over the past hour). Not surprising, the most successful moments of the show were the ones that should be danced. There are a few tight group numbers that do exactly what one would expect. They are fun, well executed, and even touching. However it is way too little, way too late.   

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