Fringe time again!

Hi, all,

It is fast coming to be Fringe time again. I am a little less ambitious this year, and have so far only planned to see 40 shows. I will likely not put up reviews for all of them as I did last year, but will likely comment on things I particularly enjoyed, or didn't enjoy.

In any case, for those who are interested, here follows my schedule.

Show	Date	Date	Time
Chasing Margaret Flatwood	Thursday	03-Jul	8:00 PM
When All Is Said	Friday	04-Jul	1:15 PM
The Dark Fantastic	Friday	04-Jul	3:00 PM
Baker's Dozen	Friday	04-Jul	4:45 PM
Punch Up	Friday	04-Jul	7:00 PM
Parallel Play	Friday	04-Jul	8:45 PM
The Urinal Dialogues	Friday	04-Jul	10:30 PM
Radical	Saturday	05-Jul	9:15 PM
52 Pickup	Saturday	05-Jul	10:30 PM
I was born white	Sunday	06-Jul	12:00 PM
Three Men n a boat	Sunday	06-Jul	4:00 PM
The Devil's Circus	Sunday	06-Jul	6:30 PM
Prisoners and Crminals	Sunday	06-Jul	8:15 PM
Dr. Frightful	Sunday	06-Jul	10:30 PM
50 time s aroudn the sun	Monday	07-Jul	1:00 PM
The Art of Traditional Head Tying	Monday	07-Jul	3:00 PM
Arabian Nights	Monday	07-Jul	4:30 PM
Tikva's Orchestra	Monday	07-Jul	6:45 PM
Potosi	Monday	07-Jul	8:00 PM
Aiden Flynn	Monday	07-Jul	10:15 PM
Cirqular	Tuesday	08-Jul	1:15 PM
The Legend of Whtie Woman Creek	Tuesday	08-Jul	3:15 PM
Myth of the Ostrich	Tuesday	08-Jul	4:30 PM
Ancient History	Tuesday	08-Jul	6:45 PM
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander…	Tuesday	08-Jul	8:45 PM
She's Black…	Tuesday	08-Jul	10:15 PM
No Chanc e in Hell	Wednesday	09-Jul	1:45 PM
Birdy	Wednesday	09-Jul	4:00 PM
Confession of an Operatic Mute	Wednesday	09-Jul	5:45 PM
Komunka	Wednesday	09-Jul	7:30 PM
Karenin's Anna	Wednesday	09-Jul	9:30 PM
Oni	Wednesday	09-Jul	11:15 PM
Time stands still	Thursday	10-Jul	12:00 PM
Never Swim Alone	Thursday	10-Jul	2:15 PM
An Ode to dyads	Thursday	10-Jul	4:00 PM
The Assassination of Robert Ford	Thursday	10-Jul	5:45 PM
Lost and Found	Thursday	10-Jul	8:00 PM
Who Killed Gertrude Crump	Thursday	10-Jul	9:45 PM
Tarrare	Thursday	10-Jul	11:30 PM
Hugh and I	Sunday	13-Jul	7:00 PM

Breathe in - Breathe out

Hi, all,

This will not be my usual long-form review as I am pressed for time tongiht, but I did want to put up a post about the show I saw tonight.

That show is Lungs, by Duncan Macmillan.

The show, while perhaps not being particularly profound, is still a very tightly written, directed, and performed piece, well worth seeing.

The action concerns a couple, credited only as W and M, played by Lesley Faulkner and Bredan Gail respectively. As the show opens, M has just brought up the possibility that he and W might try to have a child.

What follows is a fast-paced 75 minutes exploring their journey through the possibilities of parenthood. While the

Though billed as "a conversation" it is Lesley Faulkner who carries the majority of the spoken text.Brendan Gall as M, does an excellent job as well, complementing Faulkner's overanalytical W with a more heartful (and I found more sympathetic) M.

The script, I feel, tries to address too much. Ideas of carbon footprints and the ethics of bringing a child into a world careening to disaster are tossed around, but with little really sticking. Where the script triumphs is in the ups and downs of the relationship between M and W, and it is that relationship that really pulls the audience along for the ride.

Set designer Ken Mackenzie gives us a wonderfully IKEA-inspired box set in which we observe M and W, almost as caged versions of ourselves. The set here is wedged in the corner of the Tarragon Extra Space (a configuration I have not seen before), physically confining the two characters who, are themselves often confined by analysis and expectation.

Director Weyni Mengesha stages the show simply, with no props or additional set pieces, and it works. Megesha is very conscious of movement, keeping the first part of the show rather static (to the point that I found myself thinking of a 2-person stand up performance), but slowly ramps up the speed and movement as events in the lives of M and W unfold. Once established, Mengesha is able to use what was likely 10 seconds of stillness (if that) to ratchet up a feeling of tremendously effective feeling of discomfort and concern, and (in that short time) convey a significant passage of time.

In all, this is not a deeply profound piece, but it is a truly satisfying one.

Overall, recommended if you can get a ticket!

Lungs pays at the Tarragon theatre until March 30.

Double Your Pleasure

Just in from seeing The Double, a TheatreRUN production currently in performance at the Tarragon Extra Space. Here are my thoughts:

The Double, adapted  from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name, is a splendid love-child of absurd style and vaudevillian aesthetic.

There's mime work, caricature, sly (or not so sly) acknowledgement of the audience, and a darkly entertaining story. Ken Macenzie's set evokes a certain "Waiting for Godot" feel with its bare stage and stark lighting. I actually would call out Adré du Toit's lighting design as being as much a player in the show as anything else.

The story of the piece revolved around the "poor fellow" protagonist Gloyadkin, who works as a clerk, and is in love with Clara. She, however, is not in love with him, and he has recently been passed over for promotion. His boss, Clara's father.

In act one, we are introduced to our bass-playing narrator, performed by Arif Mirabdolbaghi. He begins narrating the rather sorry life of Golyadkin, played by Adam Paolozza, while Viktor Lukawski plays most everyone. It is a sorry, though amusing, affair of self-doubt and general unnotability. Almost anyone, it seems, might do a better job of Golyadkin's life than he. And at the end of the act, such a man appears. The double of the title, also played by Paolozza, and that is where the play takes off!

The performance of the show is highly stylized and artificial in nature, and while the pacing and shape of the play take some time to warm up to, it takes you for a good ride. Mirabdolbaghi's narration is smart, though not as sharp out of the gates as I would have liked. His performance on upright bass, however, is brilliant as he continually underscores the highly physical performances of his partners on the stage in a manner putting me in mind of a classic Warner cartoon, but more laid back.

Act I moves apace, and both Mirabdolbaghi and Lukawski do excellent work. It is in the second act, however, that these performers shine! Mirabdolbaghi moves between his two doppelganger characters with ease, at one point causing me to almost forget that they were the same actor. The pair of them reach a moment of brilliant physical theatre in what I can only describe as a moment of human puppetry.

As the show progresses, the script moves ever more firmly into absurdist territory, and progressing to an abrupt and satisfying, if somewhat cruelly humorous end.

This is not theatre to move you deeply or cause reexamination of much, but it does provide a good solid evening of theatre, and enough meat to talk about with your friends afterwards. Also, you will never really look at stringed instruments quite the same way again.

In a nutshell — a fully enjoyable evening of theatre that provides good conversation afterward. Recommended.

The Double runs until November 24th at the Tarragon Extraspace. Tickets available from http://tarragontheatre.com/