Ottawa Fringe 2013. the Day We Grew Wings at Academic Hall
There are pirates, a jungle scene involving a baby elephant and dim-witted hyenas, a woman giving birth to an unexpected offspring. There are nursery rhymes and snatches of I’s the B’y. Fairies flutter about, a dragon intones doom, periodically a door creaks very loudly.Sometimes we’re in Ireland, sometimes we’re not.
In other words, there’s far too much crammed into this physical, 50-minute, three-hander by Victoria Luloff and Stewart Matthews that seems to be about how we construct our lives — often to our detriment — by telling stories about existence.Zach Counsil continues to impress on stage, moving easily through a mix of spoken and singing parts, and enacting everything from that baby elephant to a midwife.Nicholas Surges warms to the job as the show proceeds.
Luloff frequently struggles to be heard above the sound effects and, one suspects, sometimes feels lost in her own unwieldy script. Matthews directs, but should have spent more time taming the story.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen