The cast and crew of The Object at Trash Beach
On an extremely hot day at the Cambridge Battery in Point Pleasant Park during Halifax Fringe Colleen MacIsaac brought us a blustery Fall day at a secluded beach where the tide continuously deposits mountains of trash ashore. Alone and not expecting any company is the beach’s lifeguard, Agla, played by Abby Weisbrot, who is surprised to be joined by trash collecting scientist, Cly, played by Ryan Neilsen, and her exuberant friend, Morgan, played by Vaishali Sachdeva. Together these three notice something strange over the ocean, and begin to speculate what it might be. Agla tries to keep their mind open, and to respond to this mystery responsibly, while scientist Cly shows scepticism of any theory that seems overly fantastical, and is constantly looking for more information to analyze to be as prudent as possible. Morgan jumps immediately to aliens, and is dismissive of Cly’s due process.
It is a fun premise with a great ending, and MacIsaac gives us dialogue that is engaging and also feels realistic within a scenario that might end up being science fictional. Logan Robins directs the piece finding fun and plausible ways for the three characters to move, shuffling through the piles of trash at their feet. Robbins also adds some silly moments of physical comedy, especially surrounding a pair of binoculars that work really well.
I was curious about Cly’s trash project, I wanted to see them working with the garbage as they had intended to when they came to the beach, before they got distracted by Agla. Morgan arrives and is immediately at a ten in energy, volume, and exuberance, which doesn’t give them anywhere to go as the stakes of the play rise. It might be helpful to have Morgan pace themselves a bit so we get the same kind of build as we get from Cly and Agla over the forty-five minutes.
Overall, The Object at Trash Beach is an exploration of our visceral responses to phenomena that we don’t immediately understand and the perils of not stepping back and examining whether our gut instincts are the most helpful, logical, and perhaps most importantly, malleable to accepting new and better information.
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Up
The Object at Trash Beach at Halifax Fringe has closed.
Forest World by Louise Fox and Matthew Burley, which plays at the Cambridge Battery in Point Pleasant Park as part of the Halifax Fringe, takes place in a tree planting camp where the workers have become disillusioned and burnt out, and this brings out the tensions between them in strange and destructive ways.
The boldest thing in Forest World is the character of Oliver, a theatrical narcissist who treats everyone like absolute garbage, especially the sweet hippie Orchard, who, for reasons that don’t really make sense, is infatuated with him. Graham Bolton gives one hundred percent to creating this truly deplorable human with few, if any, redeemable qualities. The challenge is that there is no reason whatsoever for any of the other characters to be friends with Oliver, or to want to spend any time with Oliver, let alone wanting to be Oliver’s roommate or Oliver’s girlfriend. In fact, it’s such a toxic situation for Kiana Josette’s sweet little Orchard that watching her get gaslit into staying at the camp gave me heart palpitations, which I don’t think is the play’s intention. The subplot, which isn’t explored in-depth, a love triangle between Vale, played by Sam Cooper, Orchard, and Cat McCluskey’s character works much better, and I was really interested in how the dynamics of friendship are strained when one friend, in this case Marlowe (Mahia Tench), becomes the supervisor. I think there is a lot more to play with on that front. I think the character of Oliver could work in this mix, the audience just needs for him to be a more loveable kind of asshole so we see immediately why the others put up with his drunken shenanigans, or conversely, I think the audience would delight in seeing him meet the consequences of his actions.
Dorian Lang directs the piece making very good use of the Cambridge Battery space, and really creating the ambiance of a tree planting camp.
I was honestly the most interested in Josette, Tench, and McCluskey’s characters. It might be interesting to explore more of their relationships with one another, and the dynamics of a supervisor, a cynical seasoned worker, and an enthusiastic rookie, in lieu of focusing so much on how they exist in relation to the men in the play.
Forest World at Halifax Fringe has closed.
Every few Fringe Festivals there is the show about the playwrights who are writing a Fringe show and it is not going well: they don’t have a script, and they’re running out of time. This year this show is TK Fringe Show TK. It is written and performed by Morgan Mullin and Caora McKenna, who are both journalists, Mullin writes for The Coast and McKenna writes for The Globe and Mail, and the premise is basically that Morgan and Caora have no idea how to write a play, have no idea what they are doing, question whether they have any right to put on this play in the first place, and decide that they want to go for it, for their own love of performing and the joy that it gives them.
The most obvious thing about this play is that Mullin and McKenna are having fun; the joy that they have derived from creating and performing this show is literally baked into the play in a metatheatrical way, and that’s really fun to watch. It’s also clear that the show isn’t meant to be compared to something written or produced by professional theatre actors. I found watching these two empower one another to take up space, to be brave and do this thing that neither really knew how to do, to be quite endearing. There is space in Fringe for everyone, that’s what makes the festival so special.
TK Fringe Show TK at Halifax Fringe has closed.
Friendly Neighbour’s Theatre’s play What Should I Caption This is an exploration of how social media can hijack relationships, especially between younger folks. It is written by Taryn Hanrahan and Sid Nesbit and features both of them, along with Wesley Giffen.
We are introduced to a puppet (Nesbit) who proclaims themselves to be Social Media, and two human characters, Zoe and Quinten, played by Hanrahan and Giffen respectively, who are anxiously getting ready to go to a party where they are anticipating an awkward encounter with an estranged friend. The puppet provides intrusive thoughts, especially to Zoe, to amplify her anxiety about the evening. The dialogue feels very accurate in its depiction of how contemporary young folks speak, and you get the sense of how Social Media is constantly there looming over them, forcing them not just to live their lives, but to curate them perfectly for the constant consumption of others, in real time.
Our Social Media puppet then becomes Zoe and Quinten’s estranged friend, and we see that the anxiety and nervousness is two-sided. I liked seeing things from the friend’s perspective, as well, but I missed having the Social Media commentary continuing throughout the last section of the play. Also, with the introduction of the friend, I wanted to know more about what her relationship had been like with Zoe before when it worked, or if it had always been a one-sided friendship, I wanted that to be more clear.
Hanrahan and Nesbit are exploring some really interesting and pertinent themes in this play; I think there is much more room to delve deeper into these three characters and their relationships with one another to create higher stakes for Social Media to wreak havoc in their lives.
What Should I Caption This at Halifax Fringe has closed.
Jimmy Hogg: The Potato King is a beautifully crafted one person Fringe show that chronicles some of Jimmy’s dating escapades, and gives weight to the idea that the truth is often wilder and more unexpected than fiction.
Jimmy is looking for love in a society that seems much more interested in more casual entanglements. However, The Potato King starts out in a promising scenario: Jimmy is in Coburg, Ontario meeting his girlfriend’s grandparents. He has brought well-chosen wine with him, he is equipped with an abundance of culinary knowledge and skill, especially regarding the potato, and he is poised to make an excellent first impression. What could go wrong? Unfortunately that day in Coburg left the Potato King feeling a little bit boiled, and suddenly he was back scrolling through Tinder looking for a fresh new possibility for love and romance. Things go from bad to worse as he makes a daring escape from a rock concert, makes a daring escape from a bathroom window, and ends up awkwardly at a Sunday afternoon sex party.
Hogg is an extremely engaging and dynamic performer. His storytelling feels immediate and fresh, as though he is connecting directly with this specific audience and telling these anecdotes for the first time. And yet, there is also a high degree of polish to the arc of the play; the momentum builds for maximum hilarity, and Hogg knows exactly how to pace his frenetic energy in service to the story.
I love when plays open with a specific piece of information, but then the audience gets so invested in the story that that nugget from the beginning is forgotten until it is brought back in again at the end. It’s difficult to construct this scenario in a way that doesn’t feel cliché or heavy handed, but in The Potato King, it felt so beautifully, organically, satisfying. I hope Jimmy Hogg will come back to Halifax Fringe in the future; it was lovely to see him here.
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Jump.
Jimmy Hogg: The Potato King at Halifax Fringe has closed.
I ended both Saturday and Sunday night at the Fringe seeing Clue: A Burlesque Murder Mystery, and it was excellent both nights. The conceit of this show is that, in the spirit of the board game and the film of the same name, there has been a murder, and there are a series of suspects, who each have a colour as part of their name. In this Burlesque show, each suspect performs a routine to a song that provides them with an alibi for the time of the murder. Each suspect is also given a murder weapon prop before their routine, which they must incorporate into their performance in some impromptu way. The audience is able to vote in real-time on who they think the murderer is.
The Clue framework inspires some really fun costumes, and themes for the various routines. The artistry of all the performers was outstanding. It’s clear that the cast was made up of many of the most skilled and prominent Burlesque performers in the region. The lineup included Honey de Mele, who hosted on Saturday night and performed on Sunday, Newfound Lad, Richard Rockhard, Lady Corbeau, Vanessa Buttercup, who hosted on Sunday and performed on Saturday, MissShapen, BeefPattie, Martini Foxx, Oliver Twisted, Jake Jockerson, Elle Lixir, and Tiny Orchid.
On Saturday night I was especially impressed with BeefPattie’s impeccable timing, and MissShapen’s amazing Davy Dinghy routine, which, even though I think the song is from the 1960s, also seemed like something that could be straight out of a Burlesque routine in 1910. I also loved Newfound Lad’s use of “Dentist!” from Little Shop of Horrors, and Vanessa Buttercup’s elaborate cosmonaut routine. I didn’t take detailed notes on Sunday night; since it was the very end of my Fringe Binge, I allowed myself to just enjoy the performance and to experience it more organically with the raucous soldout crowd. This is definitely one of my favourite ways to end a Fringe Festival; the joy and the silliness, and the celebration of sensuality, confidence, bravery, and individuality really captures the spirit of Fringe Theatre quite vividly.
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Jump
Clue: A Burlesque Murder Mystery at Halifax Fringe has closed.
