“Three Men in a Boat”: A delightful and thoroughly professional show that carries the audience away on a hillarious theatrical adventure!

Photo. Courtesy Ottawa Fringe.

Such a delightful , refreshing, witty, beautifully performed, impeccably choreographed show was truly an astonishing discovery at this Fringe. Scott Garland, Matt Pilipiak, and Victor Pokinko   breezed through this Jerome K Jerome adaptation as  though they really belonged in that world of middle class English snobbery (with accents and all) seeking a rousing experience in contact with true, unadulterated nature. Mark Borwnell’s adaptation respects the spirit of the story to the letter but it’s these three young men, deftly directed by Sue Miner, who  create magic in the Leonard Beaulne Studio.

On an empty   space, flanked by a few props, mostly a chair and a stool, they sing, they follow through tightly  choreographed and  crisp, physical movements that create the illusion of a boatride down the river,  a walk in the garden, lunch on the  grass. They prepare  meals when they cant cook, they peel vegetables, visit a pub, sit  under the boat getting soaked in the rain,  make  violent war on a tin of canned food that resists opening and experience many many more epic encounters! Every detail of the trip becomes an exciting theatrical moment as each actor  developped his own independant character beautifully: Jay (Mat Pilipiak) was the fop and the poet, Harris (Scott Garland) was the athletic whiskey drinker, the “real man” of the group, and George was the dreamer, and the mime with the elastic face and the rubbery body. This is a  trio of three individuals who unite in a remarkable feat of theatricality that one would want to see on the stage of the NAC.  In fact this show is all ready to go on a professional tour.  Good luck chaps.  You deserve it!!

Three Men in a Boat. adapted for the stage by Mark Brownell, directed by Sue Miner .

A Pea Green Theatre Group (Toronto) . plays at the Léonard Beaulne Studio.