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written and directed by Daniel Jade Levia

Bot 2B Confused With, Toronto Fringe Festival, Cameron House, Toronto

July 3-13, 2003

Two Canadians, an anti-globalization activist and the policeman who gassed her in Quebec City, find themselves trapped in the rubble of a collapsed hostel on 9/11 in New York City. Author Levia sets up the policeman as a dim-witted God-fearing, macho, red meat-eating, homophobic straw man so that the smart-ass existentialist, feminist, vegetarian, lesbian activist can win every argument against him.  Coincidence, pretence and didacticism combine with TV-style dialogue, awkward staging and poor acting from Tony Pappas as the policeman to create 70 minutes of tedium.  Meanwhile the three-person Chorus of this risible would-be tragedy portrays rubble and makes sound effects.   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2003-07-10.

Photo: Toronto Fringe Festival logo.