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written and directed by the company

The Coincidence Men, Toronto Fringe Festival, Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, 30 Bridgman Ave.

July 6-16, 2017

What if Shakespeare had written Ghostbusters (the 1984 version) as a play?

The Coincidence Men, a group of veterans of Toronto’s improv and sketch comedy scene, gives you a chance to find out in this hilarious escape from reality. Turning sci-fi films into Shakespearean plays isn’t exactly a new idea.  Ian Doescher has been doing it with the Star Wars movies since 2013.  Still, it's a show no comedy buff will want to miss.

For most of the audience the main attraction is seeing a favourite movie performed live on stage. The group recreates the film’s special effects with inventiveness, handily overcoming a tiny budget. Yet rewriting the story in the style of Shakespeare focuses attention as much on the language as on the action. Humour constantly flows from the clash between antiquated speech and sci-fi lingo, as well as from modern terms translated into supposed Shakespearean formulations. Thus the title characters become “The Busters of Ghost."

Kerry Griffin as Venkman, Ralph MacLeod as Stantz, Robert Hawke as Spengler and Tim Blair as Zeddmore make just as good a team as did their film originals, and Jennifer Goodhue subbing for Patrice Goodman is fantastic as the demon-possessed Dana Barrett (originally played by Sigourney Weaver).

So visit a a newly poeticized 1980s when the creature bent on destroying the world was only a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Show length: 75 min.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in NOW Magazine on July 9, 2017.

Photo: Patrice Goodman Ralph MacLeod, Kerry Griffin, Tim Blair, Rob Hawke, Marcel St. Pierre, Gord Oxley and Jessica Perkins. ©2017 Marcel St. Pierre.

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