Ottawa Fringe 2013: Imprisoned, Windfall Jelly, The Bike Trip.
Imprisoned Rebel Rabbit Productions (Ottawa), Academic Hall
This play by Allie Bell raises serious questions. Is pedophilia a form of madness in which the victimizer suffers from a God complex? How often do we get it wrong when we judge our fellow guilty? Why does evil exist alongside beauty in the world?Unfortunately the show, directed by Paul Dervis, also raises other questions. Why, for example, does a man named Salvatore (Jeff Lefebvre), an apparent pedophile whose artistic vision is matched only by his talent for spotting vulnerable children, speak in the precise manner of an immigrant yet have not a trace of an accent? Why did Bell not give Tom (Doug Phillips), the cynical bulldog of a detective who pursues and jails Salvatore, something more interesting to say at fraught moments than “Shut up!” Why does the show, which deals with intense subject matter including a missing child and a seriously troubled man, have no emotional trajectory?
There are no answers to many questions. But some questions shouldn’t need to be asked in the first place.
Windfall Jelly , Bear & Co. (Ottawa), Arts Court Theatre
This family drama, rooted in intergenerational conflict, a rotting marriage and the coming of winter, exerts an unexpected pull on the viewer. Playwright/director Eleanor Crowder gives us two generations of a farm family as well as a couple of neighbours going about such chores as making apple jelly and repairing a leaky roof as they all drift inexorably toward catastrophe. This is not a happy family: unlike the preserves they make from windfall apples — a capturing of summer’s bounty as a shield against the coming cold — they find virtually nothing in life to celebrate, preferring to dwell on the rotten parts of existence. Crowder hasn’t written a big piece, but she and her six-member cast have done a nice job, despite dull stretches in the show, of recognizing just how small things can abruptly expand, engulfing the inattentive.
The Bike Trip, Martin Dockery Brooklyn, NYC Courtroom.
after Martin Dockery’s whiz-bang solo show based loosely on the invention of LSD some seven decades ago. Too which might be added, “Where does he get the thought processes that lead him and us down a rabbit hole of brilliant storytelling-cum-stand-up-comedy that finds him segueing from a recounting of an acid trip in a Haight Ashbury restaurant to the imagined psychedelic experience of Albert Hofmann, the Swiss inventor of LSD, to the memory of his (Dockery’s) first high school dance to a much later backpacking trip to India, complete with a vision of water buffalo at dawn, and finally to an emotional journey every bit as revelatory as a drug-induced one?” Wherever he gets those thought processes, they’re a sheer and hilarious delight to witness, especially since we recognize our own mental leapfrogging, albeit exaggerated, in them. Dockery’s delivery is flawless, his connection with his audience superb, his brain way more fun than any acid trip. A word of warning: Friday’s show in the small Courtroom was sold out; get your ticket ahead of show time.
The festival continues until June 30 at various downtown venues. Tickets / information: Fringe office, 2 Daly Ave., 2nd floor; 613-232-6162; ottawafringe.com.