MASTERS OF FRINGE 2019: No mean girls allowed at inspired drag show
Flora & Fawna Have Beaver Fever (And So Does Fleurette)
Stage 12 (Varscona Theatre)
We are privileged to be allowed to attend the annual meeting of the NaturElles. When we first met the two founders Flora (Darrin Hagen) and Fawna (Trevor Schmidt) and their largely silent companion Fleurette (Brian Dooley), they were but eight years old. They had just experienced a hostile encounter with a group of “mean girls” and had retreated into the forest to their own fairy ring where they were creating their own girl-guide type organization to camp out and do woodsy things.
Fats forward two years in the latest episode of their bucolic adventures: planning a field trip to a beaver dam – which naturally opens the floodgate to an unending and increasingly hilarious collection of beaver jokes:
Historical: The British came to Canada looking for beaver.
Factual: Canadian beaver is the best in the world.
Motivational: Men will do anything to get beaver.
Educational: Get to know your beaver.
Fleurette actually speaks, but only in French, which leads to an explanation of what the French word is for getting around impassable rapids in a river. Fleurette pipes up, “Portage” and Fawna replies, “No thanks. I’ve already eaten.” There will be historical re-enactments, crafts and audience participation.
You have to be willing to make something of a leap – the performers are well into middle age (besides being male). They also write and perform, but inevitably get into some often inspired improv – reaching beyond the usual raunchy gay humour to present a show that is charming while seriously addressing some real issues like friendship, bullying and exclusion. That doesn’t mean that a bit of raunch and more than a few groaners and outrageous puns don’t find their way into the evening. They do. After all, the sponsoring organization is Guys in Disguise and this is definitely not the Kid’s Fringe (show is rated PG).
There is a sense of fun and gentle humour, leavened with just a hint of heart-tugging, as these spunky kids find their way in a hostile world. In the hurly-burly of the Fringe, a visit with this trio of plucky young ladies as they prepare for a field trip to their sequestered forest glen is not only entertaining but has a few things to say about what’s important in life.
No mean girls are invited.
4 out of 5
