Reviews 2014
Reviews 2014
✭✭✭✩✩
written by Tracey Erin Smith, directed by Anita La Selva
SOULO Theatre, Toronto Fringe Festival, Rochelle Rubenstein Studio, Toronto
July 2-13, 2014
Tracey Erin Smith decided to live one year of her life as if it were her last and reports her findings in this show. Framed as a party celebrating her final day of life, Smith tells us about ticking items off her bucket list like skydiving and wilderness orienteering, but she seems unaware that privilege and good health are what makes her highly subjective experiment possible.
She has the audience fill in questionnaires about their own bucket lists and what they would like at their funerals, but Smith makes such cursory use of these that it only reinforces the impression that the show is entirely egocentric. And besides, is facing death really only about bucket lists and funeral arrangements?
Though Smith is a vibrant, engaging storyteller, what gives the show life are the frequent interludes featuring the exciting tango band Payadora and two male tango dancers Christopher Sawchyn and Bruno Cunha. If Smith really wanted to get a sense of what it is like to live a year as your last, why didn’t she visit people who really are doing so – like children in the cancer ward of a hospital? To see how such people cope in the real world might help shake off the New Agey hokum and self-centredness that prevent her “experiment” from leading her to any true insight.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in NOW Magazine 2014-07-10.
Photo: Tracey Erin Smith. ©2014 SOULO Theatre.
For tickets, visit http://fringetoronto.com.
2014-07-10
Memento Mori