✭✭✭✭✭

by Jessica Moss, directed by Naomi Skwarna

Theatre Mischief, Toronto Fringe Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, Toronto

July 4-14, 2013

Toronto Centre for the Arts

July 17, 18 & 31

Jessica Moss's solo show is pure joy. Her immediately sympathetic character Polly Eschfield escapes the boredom of her life and negative self-image by watching romantic movies and imagining that romantic pop songs are addressed to her.  One day an unpleasant voice appears in her head that narrates all she does casting everything in the worst possible light. Her double quest is to rid herself of this internal critic and to find the owner of the seductive voice on the phone who claims to be the real Polly.

Moss displays amazing virtuosity in staging arguments among these three voices, and the show's interplay of verbal, visual and metatheatrical wit is brilliant. The sequence in which Polly tries to "find herself" through yoga will make you weep with laughter.

              

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in NOW Magazine 2013-07-11.

Photo: Jessica Moss as Polly.  ©2013 Mike Ford.

For tickets, visit http://fringetoronto.com.