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by Ryan Turner and Andrew Chapman, directed by Chris Gibbs

Chapman and Turner Prod., Toronto Fringe Festival, St. Vladimir’s Institute, 620 Spadina Ave., Toronto

July 6-14, 2018

Ryan Turner and Andrew Chapman do themselves wrong when they call False East a “parody” of Sam Shepard’s 1980 play True West.

This show is really a just Canadian adaptation of Shepard’s work. It changes the setting from Southern California to Toronto making Shepard’s examination of the collapse of the American Dream into a satire of the narrowness of Torontonians’ horizons. Shepard’s contrast of Los Angeles versus the desert becomes merely a contrast of Toronto versus Hamilton.

Gary (Chapman) and John (Turner) are old friends – not brothers as in Shepard. But following Shepard, the intelligent Gary is a hard worker while the dim-witted John is a thief. Gary is developing a new menu for Sam’s Café, not a screenplay for America’s Dream Machine.

As in Shepard, the two men gradually change places, John moving up in the world while Gary descends to manically playing “roll up the rim” at Sam’s huge rival Tim Hortons.  

Knowing True West lets one see how very clever False East is, but it’s not necessary to enjoy the show since Turner and Chapman, under the punchy direction of Chris Gibbs, are simply hilarious.

Turner is great at being aggressively dumb, while Chapman’s slow burn of anger leads to one of the funniest drunk scenes I’ve ever witnessed.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review appeared in NOW Magazine on July 7, 2018.

Photo: Ryan Turner and Andrew Chapman. ©2018 Arthur Sylmar Beddington.

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