Reviews 2016
Reviews 2016
✭✭✭✩✩
by Dave Carley, directed by Sue Miner
Theatre Gridlock, Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, Toronto Fringe Festival, Toronto
July 1-10, 2016
The first 20 minutes of this 1993 Canadian comedy may have you weeping with laughter as DeAnn deGruijter's down-to-earth urban nun relates the rowdy events that transpire at a nuns’ country retreat.
Unfortunately, the play shifts its focus for the remaining 55 minutes to an absurd, seven-month-long traffic jam in which the nun is trapped along with three characters who are not nearly as likeable or well imagined – a troubled teen (well played by Randy Baumer), a self-important businessman (Walter Rinaldi, who can’t make the stereotype interesting) and an odd woman (Jane Luk in an impossible role) who supposedly has virtual affairs with men, including the businessman.
Based on “The Southern Thruway”, a short story from 1966 by Argentine author Julio Cortázar, the play seeks to depict the formation of a new society from a collection of strangers. This may be a worthy goal but after the exhilarating opening, the second section comes across as overlong and only fitfully amusing.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is based on my review published in NOW magazine July 2, 2016.
Photo: DeAnn deGruijter, Walter Rinaldi, Randy Baumer and Jane Luk. ©2016 Hilary Unger.
For tickets, visit http://fringetoronto.com/fringe-festival/shows.
2016-07-02
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