FRINGE: 3 hilarious COMEDIES
The program notes for Blarney Productions’ Tragedy: A Tragedy (Stage 3) suggest a take on how a modern TV news organizations might report on the end of the world.
It quickly becomes apparent that it’s not really the end of the world at all – just the usual coming of night. As a reporter observes, “It’s an evening much the same as any other.” The reporters, who are working out their own problems on the air, quickly run of out things to say and start filling the airwaves with bafflegab as the silver-tongued anchor, called in the program “Frank in the Studio” (Robert Benz), desperately tries to come up with some Michael Enright insights.
After some initial efforts of filling the time, the external reporter “John in the Field” (Cody Porter), having nothing to say, begins to dissolve. Demands the anchor, “What are your thoughts, John?” Replies John, “Ah, I have no thoughts.”
“Can we get a response from the Witness (Luc Tellier)?” barks the Anchor.
“No!” says the witness – and just stops.
Finally, the nearly destroyed John signs off, “This is John crapping out.”
The desperate host, looking for something – anything – turns to “Michelle the Legal Advisor” (Cat Walsh) for comment from the empty steps of the State Legislature.
“I’ve just got word that we don’t know anything,” she reports breathlessly. Meanwhile “Constance at the Home” (Sarah Ormandy), who is obviously suffering from low self-esteem, tries to find some kind of social content in an empty playground. Quick cut to Michelle who files on a non-report of a non-statement by the governor who keeps churning out meaningless nonsense leading to, “Let the looting begin!”
We see this every day: newshounds trying to make something out of nothing (Are you listening, CNN?) but Will Eno’s (The Realistic Joneses) absurdist play runs out of steam long before the dawn – which apparently will never come. The work becomes more and more surreal and the threadbare one-joke plot palls.
In the service of what is not a real probe into how the media might react to Armageddon or even how a news organization might function (we probably know all that anyway), director Suzie Martin has assembled a well-practised and familiar cast – although she might suggest her female reporters project a bit more. They come off as actors, not newscasters.
Robert Benz is the veteran Mansbridge-like anchor trying desperately to add some humanity and cohesion to the reports, interruptions and technical difficulties – as the world (and many of his reporters) drift into nothingness. Benz is particularly good at adding gravitas to the chaos but even he is reduced to babble as the 75-minute show continues.
At the end, perhaps as a comment on the emptiness of modern news reporting, and possibly on the existential world in which we are living, it is an ordinary man who picks up an abandoned microphone and finally makes some sense of what is going on.
3 out of 5
***
The War of 1812 (Stage 37) is a work from some two decades ago by two Fringe masters – Wes Borg and Paul Mather. It comes from a time when Borg and his fellow trolls of Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie were helping invent the Fringe.
The show has been revived a number of times and its progress across the Canadian Fringe circuit this year could be charted from the waves of laughter emanating from the various theatres.
You know, of course, of the War of 1812 – or maybe not. This minor skirmish, part of the European Napoleonic Wars, was between the Americans and the Brits. It had been largely confined to dusty history books, until last May when Donald Trump, in a testy phone contretemps with the Prime Minister, suggested we burned the White House in what the president elevated into a Canadian act of war. Not true, Mr. Trump – it was the British. (Still, the burning of the White House was greeted with a hearty cheer from a sympathetic audience.)
This comedy also disinters another largely forgotten Canadian icon, Pierre Berton – a crusading journalist in a bow tie who morphed into a most readable pop historian. In this balmy-gonzo Borg-Mather take on the tale, Berton and a young lad are paddling – backwards in a time-traveling birchbark canoe – down a Canadian river.
The surly kid suggests that “Canadian history is lame” and so Berton assails him with the story of the war. By now, Berton is a puppet – “WOW, Gandalf!” marvels the always hysterical Borg. The real Berton even makes an appearance in the production – surprising since he’s been dead since 2004. My guess is that the Great Man was still alive when the first production was staged and graciously agreed to do a bit. Even all these years later and partially animated on film, it still works – and is quite startling (and funny).
The outlines of the fracas are all there but mostly serve as a platform for a rude company of merry performers. The helter-skelter burlesque comes complete with cheesy props, rousing battle scenes and complete with ingenious do-it-yourself special effects.
All your old favourites are there. A well-fed Tecumseh leads his savage band of Indian warriors into battle for the good guys (that’s us) – which launches a (politically incorrect) discussion of the use of the word “Indian.” Canadian heroine Laura Secord gets the big solo from the “land of historically inaccurate musicals” – I’m Just A Canadian Housewife.
The original production has been re-tuned and updated – yes, Trump does make an appearance.
With this motley hoard of clowns on board, it’s hard to imagine any production coming out the same way it went in. The whole rickety structure careens about the stage, often barely held together by the inspired ad-libs of the resident buffoons.
This is not your granny’s history. Given the general tenor and questionable actions of some of the participants and the paint-peeling language, it might not be a bad idea to leave granny at home. Naw! Bring the old dear. She’ll love it.
5 out of 5
***
Alas, The Irrelevant Show is no longer with us. The hugely successful CBC radio comedy show was cancelled by Mothercorp this year for no apparent reason. But buck up, stalwart fans, the show lives on at the Fringe in The Cast Of The Irrelevant Show: Doing Our Best (Stage 30). That’s just what it is – a cornucopia of non-stop laughter and merriment featuring some of the best material from the radio show. You even get to choose some of the skits yourself.
Creator (and funny fellow himself) Peter Brown originally chose his cast from the best comic talent in the ridiculously rich pool this city has to offer and salted them into his program.
The night we took in the show almost all of your favourite performers were back: Jana O’Connor, Neil Grahn and Donovan Workun. Only the protean Mark Meer, presumably too busy in the numerous shows he is performing at this year’s Fringe, was missing – but he’s billed so will probably return. The show was also notable for guest appearances from a number of ferociously talented local entertainers. In the performance we saw the guests were Cathy Derkach and comic-singer Jocelyn Ahlf, who performed a couple of terrific numbers, including her famous mini-opera based on one of her child’s tantrums. Musical accompaniment was from long-time one-man band Jan Randall.
If you didn’t hear the original skits on the radio (or in the live shows) be prepared to discover some hidden gems. If you did – the familiarity will only reinforce your enjoyment. Brown tells us that the show each night is about one-third different.
All the shows were produced and recorded locally before an audience – and no effort was made to “stage” the bits. Like a live radio program, the cast, under Brown’s genial direction, is spread out in a line across the stage behind a series of microphones. With scripts as witty as they were, and an ace cast, as broad as they were subtle, who needed props? Virtuoso sound wizard Dave Clarke’s manic sound effects plus your imagination were props enough. The laughter was non-stop and the interplay between the cast was often as funny as the written words.
Some of the skits include the chummy Westjet pilot (Workun) who keeps bumbling into the mic – at one point asking, “Do you know if that is Winnipeg down there? I thought it was bigger.” We hear how a number of famous Canadians might have auditioned for Peter Mansbridge’s job on The National – including some bang-on impressions of Joni Mitchell, Stuart McLean, Loreena McKennitt, Diana Krull and William Shatner (among others). As well there’s the famous skit about the hockey kid who thinks Mom doesn’t care about him because she doesn’t scream out all the epithets that the other hockey moms do, and what’s more, she drinks chai lattes instead of Tim Horton’s.
And lots more.
This could be the last time you’ll be able to catch this remarkable collection of major comic talent all in one place before they disappear into the CBC’s dusty archives forever. Don’t squander the opportunity.
5 out of 5
