Ok, I admit it…let’s get it all out in the ooooooopen; I made one of the theatre world’s first cardinal blunders last night. With only a minute or two left before show time, I made my beeline rush towards the bathroom door and not the one leading into the theatre. Apologies fine folks of Fringe but those three coffees and a Polar Pop had to go somewhere. Thankfully, I was quickly patched into another production that was about to begin.
You see, one of the great things about Fringe is that, with so many plays jostling for your attention, there seems to be a new one starting every couple of seconds. Arts Court alone is rocking a couple o’ performance spaces during the fest with the ODD Box, on this night, doubling as the strangest school this side of Wayside.
The play I was settling into, a sort of Degrassi Junior High School Musical, was the all singing, all dancing (no wait, there was no dancing but mucho singing), new piece by Alli Harris, one half of O-town’s comedic dynamic duo Rhythm and Burgundy. If you’ve seen before (and you really should!), you’ve been formally introduced to Harris’ humour and, like me, probably knew that High School High wasn’t going to be a complex portrayal of adolescent social classes encapsulated within the merciless educational walls of “the system”.
Well, weren’t we wrong-oh McWrongersons as it kinda’ was…only with more laughs!
Before Harris and her guitar appear, the audience is faced with a nostalgia inducing blackboard. Upon it are the scrawls of our days gone by: that substitute we drove insane, those math problems Will Hunting and John Nash couldn’t solve and, ack, Grade 10 French verb conjugations! I started hyperventilating flashbacks. Suddenly hundreds of tests were thrust at me by the horn-rimmed encircled eyes of Madam Manson….her name was Manson, I tell you! The papers told me to “vous” and to “nous” and to “tu” and…and…and they all said F+++!
I was snapped out of this high school nightmare by Harris’…well, Harris playing the character of Maddy playing the character of Maddy’s mom dropping her off at school with hilariously embarrassing results. Class was in session and the deluge of the multiple personalities that would roam the halls and rooms of Alli’s educational dystopia had started. Best take a breath, folks, because –unlike a school day—it all moves exceptionally quickly.
Harris’ musical style blends an interesting combo of folk, hip-hop and spoken word akin to some of Ani DiFranco’s earlier recordings if Ani opted to veer off into “Weird” Al territory from time to time. She does comedic awkwardness well in songs that often move at a breakneck speed tossing you rapidly from one joke into another. There are more words in this show than a thesaurus strapped to two sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica so best pay attention when Alli schools ya’. Even rogue guitar picks will not stop her high octane delivery!
By the witty way Harris quick change transitions into new songs, (they really could be all part of one loony-tunes kinda’ fun concept album), you’ll meet the socially inept, borderline demented and Dirk. Do you dare discover what really goes on in portable 12 and, oh yeah, best avoid the bake sale bitch!
Though these kids were probably not part of your own school daze, you kinda’ feel as though you know them. Class is back in session when High School High returns to the ODD Box Friday and Saturday night!
“We must all die an everlasting death.”
Hummm, with my stage hop up into the Arts Court Theatre, it appeared I wasn’t in the land of wits and giggles any longer. Things were about to get dark Elizabethan style. Gone was the blackboard, the stage now a mess of screens rotating endless media into the wide eyes of one Dr. Faustus. In a scene out of A Clockwork Orange, the mad Doc gorges himself in the ultimate digital transfer in this new telling of the age-old tale, #Faustus.
Christopher Marlowe’s journey through lust a wickedness has been told in various incarnations since its first performance circa 1592, but I’m sure this is the first time Faustus has logged into FaceTime. This is a descent into the darkest parts of the Dark Web and William Beddoe deliciously plugs into to the madness of the titular character.
The tale remains pretty well intact. Faustus makes a pact with the Devil, selling his soul for a day of debauchery. Pulling out the tastiest of Marlow morsels, the past ventures down the cyberspaces between it and a future still fitting of the excess the character has always looked to wallow in. I mean, what better place to become a self-absorbed lustful maniacal fiend then in a world of selfies, READIT train wrecks, endless pornography and #FAKENEWS? Here the Seven Deadly Sins are but a download away.
Steph Goodwin plays Mephistopheles, the link, if you will, Faustus has to click on to obtain 24 hours of ultimate desire. Not since Elizabeth Hurley’s scrumptiously sinful turn as a demon in 2000’s black-comedy Bedazzled has the portrayal of the dark one been so sensuously satanic.
Still, hacking into hell isn’t easy for the determined doc. What can one do in 24 hours, Faustus inquires? You could always ask Kiefer Sutherland or, if you’re this version of the character, barefoot and laughing, you just opt to use your time to cause financial distress, a whack of car crashes and nuclear annihilation all by way of a few taps on your iPad. (Terminator, you were wrong. it’s not an Android but an Apple that will cause our ultimate destruction!”
Director Graham Price uses screens perfectly timed to the actor’s motions like a sinister Wii game. There, other characters interact with the principals in the form of online conversations or Oz-sized heads. This device works well to carry to online theme and takes us deeper into the tortured mind of Faustus.
It’s amazing how this story still finds ways to be told anew and this cyberpunk styling by Plan B Productions totally deserves a swipe to the right! Two more performances remain on Friday night and Sunday afternoon.