Nicholas Eddie in One Night Only
If you have ever taken stock over the last six years and thought to yourself, “Wow. We really live in a fucked up time,” I implore you to go see Nicholas Eddie’s play One Night Only at the Halifax Fringe.
The basic premise feels like a Chekhov joke. Our protagonist discovers for the first time that there is a gun in his house, the RCMP are coming to collect it, but not until the following morning. Suddenly, there is this overwhelming pull on our protagonist to use this gun, and the more he is left with his rollicking mind, given the state of the world, the more convinced he is that in this long night standoff the gun is going to end up the victor.
The play is frenetic in pace, with insights that are both creative and clever into how we, as a society, can be so perpetually busy and connected, yet at the same time so isolated and lonely. It also plays with the audience’s expectations of the theatre, which I think forces us to take ourselves off of our own auto-pilot and to give more of ourselves over to living in the ticking clock experience of right this second, here in this room, with these other people, in this moment of our lives.
Eddie gives a tour de force performance creating a character who the audience doesn’t quite trust, but who is quite easy to empathize with, and whose chaotic switches in topics and tactics for staying away from the gun onstage are always clear, and easy to follow. There is one especially amazing moment where our character turns into a sort of small talk robot of sorts, just spewing out all the jargon you might overhear people say to one another at an Opening Night Party or something. Eddie lights himself with his pretend cell phone’s flashlight on the dark stage, so his face becomes eerie and campfire-like. The way Eddie changes his inflections and tone with each different familiar small talk phrase in rapid succession is really impressive.
The piece is well directed by Sepehr Reybod, building the tension for the audience up slowly to the last minutes of the show. The tension is so palpable, despite the fact that we have all been reminded that Eddie is an actor, and the play is just pretend. That, I think, is what is so exciting and magical about the theatre, we feel nervous for our protagonist, against our own better judgement. Our empathy overrides our logic.
The play may be difficult for some folks, it deals very intensely with themes of suicide and mental health, and in often surprising ways, so it may be difficult for audiences to gauge how they might respond beforehand. For me One Night Only felt true to the complexities and absurdities that can accompany a spinning mind in a chase for happiness. Hopefully this show will inspire a lot of thoughtful conversation in the lobby of the Bus Stop.
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Jump!
One Night Only plays at The Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) at the following times:
September 4: 10:15PM
September 5: 7:15PM
September 6: 9:15PM
September 7: 11:00PM
September 9: 7:15PM
September 10: 2:30PM
Next I saw Benjamyn Garreth’s new musical F*ggotland, also at the Bus Stop Theatre. There is so much that is great about this show created by very young performers and writers. Firstly, I found the audacity of the title of the show and the opening number (I assume of the same name) immediately grabbed the audience’s attention. As someone quite a bit older than these performers it’s been rare for me to hear this pejorative in a joyful reclaiming context, so right away this musical is pushing against my own sensibilities and inviting me into a world where I can see a different possibility for a relationship with this loaded word. The musical also starts out with a delightful Old Music Hall or Vaudeville vibe, which I loved; it might be interesting to keep more elements of this style throughout the narrative.
The narrative focuses on three characters You, played by Sunny Babcock, Me, played by Lacey Wolfe, and The Other One, played by Garreth. You and Me are in a relationship, but it has hit a difficult patch because You is struggling with feelings of dysmorphia, and as a cisgender woman, Me can’t understand why, despite the fact that she’s caring, and considerate, and patient, You can’t be happy in intimate situations with her. You is also struggling to make sense of their own mind, suggesting perhaps they have ADHD or are Neurodivergent more broadly, and this further hampers their ability to really connect with Me in the ways that Me needs. This is all really beautifully shown, largely through music (by A. Laurel Lawrence), and in the arc of an especially powerful performance from Babcock. The Other One is adjacent to this, I wasn’t always sure whether You and The Other One were separate people, or two different representations of the same person, but The Other One provides You with unconditional support and advice throughout their journey in this relationship with Me.
The one suggestion I have is that while we see when You and Me meet, and then we see when You struggles to be the romantic partner that Me wants them to be, we don’t see the relationship flourishing in the middle. I think audiences will be even more invested in this relationship if they have the chance to see these two characters falling in love with one another in a non-sexual capacity, becoming really best friends who love each other, then the stakes for them when they attempt to take the next step will be higher.
This musical is still in its very early stages, it is Fringe after all, but it’s a poignant story, creatively told by three performers with absolutely gorgeous voices, and excellent stage presence. It’s definitely worth seeing and enjoying at this stage of the process! I hope Garreth and Lawrence will keep working on it, and that we will see another iteration come along sometime in the future!
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Up!
F*ggotland plays at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) at the following times:
September 8: 6:00PM
September 10: 7:15PM
I ended my day with Moeflo’s Chaotic Improv Show, which was a bit of an unfortunate choice because one of the three improvisers in their troupe is sick, so I’m not sure how accurate tonight was of their usual dynamic. It’s difficult to carry an entire hour improv show with just two improvisers but Juliana and Aaron did very well with it! I likely won’t be able to catch them again this Fringe, but will certainly try to see them again some other time.
They have a very solid premise for their improv show; they get three suggestions from the audience, and these suggestions help to inspire the subsequent scenes. At any point during a scene one of the improvisers can (as smoothly as possible) transition into a brand new scene, and throughout the hour they attempt to develop a series of separate narratives that they switch back and forth between, with the goal of reaching some kind of resolution in all of them before the end of the show. This conceit works really well, and has some magical moments as certain themes crossover between narratives, and characters in different scenes and stories start to mirror one another in interesting ways.
Aaron and Juliana are both proficient improvisers so the audience is able to sit back and relax and trust that the scenes will emerge painlessly, and together they will continue to weave these narratives together in interesting and amusing ways. Again, this may have just been because Becca wasn’t there, but I found that there is room for the improv within this duo to be a little more balanced, with both improvisers taking the lead in offering new ideas and starting new scenes. It’s often easier for Improv scenes to have their momentum stalled when they’re entirely dialogue based; it might be helpful to keep working on finding ways to work some more physical action into these moments.
Overall, though, I enjoyed Moeflo’s Chaotic Improv, and I’m looking forward to seeing them again with their compatriot Becca.
Moeflo’s Chaotic Improv plays at The Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street) one more time tonight, September 4th, at 7:00pm. Hopefully Becca is feeling better and can join them!
Halifax Fringe runs from August 31st to September 10th, 2023 in a myriad of venues throughout the Downtown and the North End of Halifax. For more information and to purchase all your tickets please visit this website. Masks are mandatory again this year inside all Halifax Fringe spaces. For more information about accessibility at the various venues please check out the 2023 Program Guide here.
You can follow Halifax Fringe on Facebook. Instagram. TikTok.
A Note On TWISI Fringe Ratings:
I have never liked rating Fringe shows, or any shows, using the 5 Star system as I have done in the past, so this year I’m doing something new. From now on I will just be highlighting what I think are 4 or 5 Star Fringe Shows. A Two Thumbs Up Rating equals roughly to 4 Stars, while A Two Thumbs Jump Rating equals 5 Stars. I have stolen (with permission) “Two Thumbs Jump” from my friend Lenny Clayton, who is awesome, as she has used it in her film reviews in the past.
