Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
✭✭✭✩✩
by Kate Fenton, directed by Adam Seybold
The Quickening Theatre & See Bold Productions,
Toronto Fringe Festival,
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, Toronto
July 7-17, 2011
Kate Fenton’s structurally fascinating new play shifts continually among three sets of two characters, all with stories all related to the TTC. Gradually, the stories' subterranean connections come to light. Mister Baxter is a closeted, self-loathing gay man, distraught that he has been found out. Fenton’s setting, however, is the present, not the 1950s or ‘60s. Though Brandon Crone plays Baxter with great sensitivity, the figure is nonetheless the kind antique gay stereotype drama has long since abandoned. The action requires only that Baxter be deeply troubled, so play could still work if Fenton rewrote him as a more original character.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in NOW Magazine, July 14, 2011.
Photo: Brandon Crone as Mister Baxter. ©2011 The Quickening.
For tickets, visit www.fringetoronto.com.
2011-07-14
Mister Baxter