✭✭✭✩✩

by Sarah Cody, directed by Joanne Williams

Phone It In Productions, Toronto Fringe Festival,

Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse, Toronto

July 8-16, 2011

It’s 2013 and the Leafs, unbelievably, are in the Stanley Cup finals. Gen (Sarah Cody) had tickets to the game but lost them. Now she and her nerdy flatmate Will (Luke Marty) race through Toronto to track them down so Gen’s boyfriend won’t dump her yet again.

The play spends so much time on the characters’ various relationships that the dramatic tension fizzles and we nearly forget about the tickets. It’s a clever story but needs tighter editing. Given the chase around the city, a bike messenger (Cassie Muise) as narrator and the bike-riding bounty hunter (Derek Perks) trying to trace her, the action would suit the screen much better than the stage.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in NOW Magazine, July 14, 2011.

Photo: Sarah Cody, Cassie Muise and Luke Marty. ©2011 Phone It In Productions.

For tickets, visit www.fringetoronto.com.