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Fringe Review

Sarah Gignac
OP Contributor

 

Monster Theatre &

 

QuestTheatre — Toronto
Venue 4 Ballard Lederer Gallery
September 11

Purple Fish Productions - England
Venue Studio 16
September 10

 

 

 

september 25, 2002

THE CANADA SHOW

History 113/114 students will definitely get a kick
out of this. The show entails three frighteningly
energetic young men re-enacting Canada’s entire his-
tory in less than 60 minutes. Well, all the good parts,
anyway.

The show starts with some mood music: the
theme from Degrassi Junior High. They then launch
into the fastest, funniest history lesson you'll ever
get. Beginning with how the first people came to
this continent (Bering Land Bridge or abandoned
space aliens?), they use all sorts of devices to teach
the audience. Puppet icons, Cassie and Finnigan, tell
the discovery of Hudson Bay. A life-size beaver is
beaten to death by a foam bat to symbolize the fur

TWO

Purple Fish Productions’, Zwo, by Jim Cartwright,
is another solid show to come out of England. It’s
funny, fast-paced, and has a wonderful variety of
characters, all played by two actors. The story that
connects these characters is a little weak, but that
fault is overshadowed by some wonderful perform-
ances and imaginative directing.

A husband and wife run a popular English pub.
The tension between the two is quickly established,
and the reason for it is the question that drives the
rest of the play. Amid their squabbles the actors also

trade. The many battles between the French and
English are a chess game. And that’s just the begin-
ning. Their top-notch original score includes
Leonard Cohen’s hit Nobody Knows, his ballad about
everything Canadian’s invented that Americans took
the credit for, and a rockin’ tribute to cool Canadian
chicks.

The Canada Show is a \ot like The Compleat Works
of Wilm Shkspr (abridged), a three-man play that
condenses all of the Bard’s many plays into a couple
of hours of fun. But it’s about Canada, so I can for-
give the recycled idea. Copying is nothing new to
theatre, and if Shakespeare can do it (and he did),

then so can Monster Theatre.

play several of the pubs patrons. The customers’
stories stand on their own and are easily the best
part of the play. They show us snippits of lives of all
sorts of people: from the older widower who feels
his wife’s spirit when he touches their teapot, to a
young woman who fantasizes about colossal men
while being married to a wimp. These vignettes give
the otherwise predictable storyline energy and vari-
ety, and allow the actors to demonstrate their wide
range of talents.

 

 

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