#mannaquingirl
This one woman musical was pure fun. Exploring questions around the nature of internet fame and personal worth in a digital age, this show tells the story of Kelsie (aka MannequinGirl), who one day is hit on the head by a mannequin falling for a building. Her resulting injuries bring her, and the mannequin, which she takes home, an amount of Internet fame. What happens next is the subject of the musical.
While some moments felt a bit slow, the overall trajectory of the show was strong. Alyssa Minchillo's performance engages, and the music and lyrics by Eliza Blue Musslewhite are catchy and witty.
A fun hour.
Recommneded.
Alpha Delta 86
Strong clown work from Kiva Murphy and Filipa Mendes keep the audience entertained with a humour that is by turns delightfully cruel and surprisingly kind. As two spies in a diastolic future, identifying citizens infected by love and dispatching them to quarantine or execution as required (a plot that makes me wonder right now if it is in any way inspired but the novel We) we gain clues that they may in fact be hunting down people closer to themselves than they realize.
while the clown worn and specific vignettes are strongly executed, the premise and overall plot line fails to hang together in a satisfactory way. The final reveal, as a result, lacks the intended punch.
That said, as a clown piece in and of itself, it's a good hour.
Recommeded for the clown work, not for any larger import.
We are xx
The Xx of the title refers here to the sex chroma zones of human women.
The piece is a spoken word presentation of the works of the three young women who also perform: Samay Arcentales Cajas, Rafia Salam, and Anne Vo. their work explores themes of inequality and subversive other-ism that pervades even Canada's just culture.
As performers, each has their moments of strength and weakness. Anne Vo is the most consistently strong on stage. However, what impresses most is the content of the poetry and scene work. While some pieces lack depth, other are surprisingly nuanced. In particular, Images around the ttc as relating to freedom of moment, not just within a city, but across national boundaries, felt very topical, especially in these post Brexit weeks. At other moments, scene work displayed a strong grasp of crafting meaningful comedy. If nothing else, these three women show great promise as writers.
At 45 minutes, the piece fields just right. Long enough to make their points, while not belabouring them.
Ali Joy Richardson is listed as the developmental director, Meg Moran as director and Jijo Quayson as dramaturge. Thank you, the three of you, for helping bring the voices of these three young women to the stage.
A voice of youth with something to say. heartening.
Recommended.
Evolution/Mr. Truth
A strong, if strange double bill. Not strange because of the content of either of the two pieces, but strange in the pairing.
Evolution opens the bill, and is an intricate and beautiful pas de deux exploring themes of (no surprise) the evolution of the title. From the opening poses, I was impressed by this piece, and my esteem for the choreographer and performers didn't wane. In particular, the more intricte contact work was engrossing.
This was followed up by Mr. truth, a sketch and movement piece (primarily sketch) exploring the worlds of sex, sexuality, and transgressive sexual fetish. It generally remains light, and even the darkest thread (dealing with fantasies of sadomasochism and abduction fantasies) takes a properly foreshadowed though still unexpected lighter turn. There's nothing particulalry illuminating here, but it moves along and is enjoyable overall.
Where evolution is elegant and poetic, Mr. Truth is more earthy, though it avoids the crass.
Recommended.