Reviews 2013
Reviews 2013
✭✭✩✩✩
by Sam Edwards, directed by Alex Ieletzy & Sam Edwards
Theatre Poisons Everything Theatre Company, Toronto Fringe Festival, Robert Gill Theatre, Toronto
July 5-14, 2013
To restore people's faith in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis I (Sam Edwards) decides to stage an abbreviated Second Coming, where an actor playing Jesus (Jeff Russell) exonerates the Church of its sins and pops back to heaven.
After an excellent first scene, the play slips too often into irrelevant tangents and fails to mine the rich vein of humour of its premise. Why include a fight between the Pope’s private secretary (Meagan MacPherson) and a PR consultant (Charlotte Boyer) when there is so much more to satirize? Edwards could certainly elaborate the scene where the Vatican council auditions potential Jesuses. At its best the script has a Monty Python-like outrageousness. Unfortunately, the cast is weak and has little sense of comic timing, while the direction lacks the punch and pacing to realize the script's potential.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in NOW Magazine 2013-07-11.
Photo: James Gagne, Perry Wilko, Sam Edwards, Meagan MacPherson, Alex Ieletzky, Charlotte Boyer and Damien Doepping. ©2013 Theatre Poisons Everything.
For tickets, visit http://fringetoronto.com.
2013-07-11
Jesus Freaks