Review: Two Fringe plays take actors and audiences on reflective journeys

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Attending a fringe competition is at all times equal components pleasure and frustration.

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There are 14 productions on this 12 months’s Calgary Fringe Pageant and this system’s promo blurbs are equally intriguing however, most of the time, those you deem priorities are taking part in reverse each other.

On our first day, we thought we may squeeze in each Caroline Russell-King’s Absinth Bourbon Vodka & Saki on the Alexandra Centre and Katie Miller’s Flash on the Lantern Church Sanctuary as a result of there was a 15-minute break between them. Not a superb plan. We did make it however with only a minute to spare. Phrase of recommendation. Go away a minimum of half-hour between exhibits.

Absinth is the story of Kenny London (Kathryn Kerbes Kerbes), a seasoned however jaded playwright who agrees to tutor Parker (E.J. Candelaria), the teenage son of a rich businessman. In return, his father will enable London to create a writing program at a rehab centre he helps fund. She has an ulterior motive which slowly involves gentle.

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Russell-King bleeds a substantial amount of humour from the preliminary periods between Kenny and Parker as a result of the boy is such a clear slate. He loves films and goals of writing movie scripts however his dad doesn’t know any screenwriters so he’ll accept a playwright.

To London’s horror, the boy has by no means even seen a play. He skipped the varsity area journey to see Romeo & Juliet, opting to look at a movie model as an alternative. Kerbes’ reactions to those revelations are hilarious.

Candelaria will get comparable alternatives when his character Parker reacts to his new instructor’s eccentricities. At every go to, she assumes a special persona associated to the liquor within the title, revealing how a lot she depends on booze to drown her sorrows and guilt.

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When she drinks absinthe, London sees herself in Paris with the good existential writers. Bourbon transports her to Tennessee Williams’ nation. Vodka takes her to Prince Edward Island and reminiscences of her former husband. Lastly, she turns to Japanese with sake. With these flights of fantasy, Russell-King offers Kerbes the alternatives to be extravagant that actors love however solely work if the performer is as proficient and assured as Kerbes.

Candelaria exhibits his versatility when he doubles as Jake, the younger, indignant, sullen addict who London coaches on the rehab centre. It’s by means of Jake we study what has destroyed London’s peace of thoughts and has prompted her crushing author’s block. She has a most private play she simply can’t end.

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The twist in Russell-King’s play happens when instructor and scholar start to modify roles. It’s finally Parker who can train London how one can exorcise her demons if solely she is going to hearken to him.

Director Valerie Pearson doesn’t simply stage the motion of the play. She choreographs it like ballet and makes wonderful use of the area she has been given within the Alexandra Centre.

Designer Hal Kerbes has given Pearson and her actors a easy however only set, and costume items that assist the actors make their refined however vital character adjustments.

Absinth was written as a 90-minute play however has been shortened to fulfill the 60-minute fringe requirement.

On this format, it could be a dynamite play for Lunchbox Theatre and, as a full-length play, it will likely be a gem for any skilled theatre.

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Flash, a song-cycle musical, is the story of an interrupted journey. It is a superb and highly effective allegory for what occurred to so many artists throughout the pandemic when their livelihood and life’s objective have been threatened.

Katie Miller and John Dale discover this by means of the close to tragedy of 4 buddies on a highway journey whose automotive swerves to overlook one other automobile or maybe an animal on a rustic highway. In that spit second which can resolve their destiny, they share their sentiments with the viewers.

The characters are named for the weather. Andrea Web page is Earth and Jillian Robinson is Air. Katie McMillan is Water and Katie Miller is Fireplace. There may be a substantial amount of angst in most of their reactions, which implies the singers deal with their numbers as highly effective torch songs or arias. It’s all full-throttle singing. Miller and Dale must have a minimum of one comfortable ballad to counter all of the anger and resentment.

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The songs serve to disclose slightly about these ladies, which helps Flash appear way more than a live performance. These are characters. There are backstories. It helps the viewers take care of them and their shared destiny.

When Web page sings I’m Tremendous, she implies individuals consider Earth as being fragile. She insists she doesn’t must be pampered however is as sturdy and unbiased as those that really feel sorry for her. It was most intelligent of the writers to have the complete forged be part of Web page in a reprieve of this music on the finish of the present, bringing new and vital which means to these lyrics.

Fireplace’s fervour relies on her Catholicism. In Fireplace’s music, Attempt to be Good, Miller rails towards God, asking why he would abandon her at this second when she has been so loving and trustworthy. It’s virtually the identical sentiment Miller expresses in Fireplace’s different solo, Can’t Deny, when she feels betrayed by somebody who left her.

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Within the opening scene, Water is the one sad one as a result of she is feeling nauseous. We assume it’s automotive illness nevertheless it could possibly be greater than that, giving added which means to her solo Pull Me Out.

Robinson’s Air appears to be affected by opposites, which explains her solos, Take Your Choose and Can’t Cease.

These are 4 distinctive singers who know not solely how one can hit these excessive notes however to punctuate the feelings within the lyrics. Once they sing harmonies it’s significantly highly effective.

Dale and Alex Bullen present reside accompaniment on guitar and percussion, which is at all times superior to recorded music.

Miller additionally staged the present to make wonderful use of 4 black containers. In a single formation they grow to be the seats within the automotive however then shifting them barely permits the actors to be observers of one another’s solos. The play by no means appears static as a result of the singers transfer purposely from one space to a different.

As Miller and Dale level out, performing within the Lantern Church Sanctuary gives an appropriately non secular really feel to this musical a few near-death expertise.

The Calgary Fringe Pageant runs in varied venues in Inglewood till Aug. 6. Go to calgaryfringefestival.ca for schedules and tickets.