✭✭✭✩✩

written and directed by Maya Rabinovitch

Caterwaul Theatre, Toronto Fringe Festival,

Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, Toronto

July 2-10, 2010

When Uzi’s, an Israeli coffeehouse, opens in the small town where teenaged do-gooder Jenny (Shannon Currie) lives, she is split on how to react.  In fact, she is literally octupled or more representing all the competing points of view on whether the right action is to boycott, destroy or support Uzi’s.  Currie’s Jenny is engaging and playwright/director Maya Rabinovitch’s staging is highly inventive though the Sesame Street-style format is an odd choice.  The play suggests that people should not act until they have all the facts about an issue but that having all the facts is impossible.  When exactly a person can justifiably act Rabinovitch leaves unanswered.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2010-07-03.

Photo: Toronto Fringe Festival.