photo by emily jewer
Dan Bray’s original sex farce Criminal Negligee is a beautifully satisfying, hilarious romp lovingly pastiching the style of the Grand Guignol Sex Farces, popular in the first decades of the Twentieth Century.
Jimmy MacDonald plays an arrogant, rich gentleman who encourages his friend, a murder mystery writer, that he needs to experience the reality of his art, which leads to them planning the perfect murders of two prostitutes. Things get bumpy when the ladies arrive with lecherous plans of their own.
Bray’s dialogue is brisk and literary, with lots of campy humor that brings the genre immediately to life. MacDonald is commanding and pompous, with a nice mixture of charm and vulgarity. Ira Henderson is sweet as the bumbling, awkward and jittery writer. Keith Morrison has great vocal and physical comedy as the Butler and Colleen MacIsaac and Genevieve Jones titter hilariously as the prostitutes. Director Stephanie Kincaid keeps the pacing of the banter between characters sharp, while milking every opportunity for melodramatics and absurdity.
In all, this is a great little gem from Taboo Theatre’s Evening of Grand Guignol.
TWISI Rating: 
Criminal Negligee at the Atlantic Fringe Festival has closed.
