FRINGE 2019: What is your BUSINESS in Canada?!
Border Breakdown
Venue 34 (Varscona Hotel, Thomas Bennett Room)
Any notions that Canada is becoming Snowflake Central for travelling millennials is a myth – especially if you try to get across the border. Never mind the Syrian refugees for whom Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swung open our doors for “illegals” from the U.S. trying to escape the wrath of Trump.
Just ask a 20-ish gay German named Lukas who thinks getting into Canada to experience a year’s worth of scenery and legal pot would be like a walk in the park – that is until he’s selected by random for interrogation by hardnosed customs officials.
Meet Minot, an irritatingly snobby Francophone questioning why the German prefers to answer in English instead of French. And Morley, her Muslim cohort who’s blended well into the law enforcement system and peppers Luckas with every trivial question to trip him up. As in, “Why did you choose Canada?”
Lukas is befuddled and feels like he’s being set up by officials far too caught up in their diligence that they don’t realize their line of questioning is absurd. Absurdity is what playwright Giorgia Severini is shooting for here, and in that regard, she succeeds.
As a three-hander, Border Breakdown would have worked very well.
Add Lukas’s partner, his mother and a double-talking Aussie into the mix and the proceedings get confusing, devolving into circular logic deliveries that go nowhere.
The again, you can’t go wrong with a twist involving a busted beaver. (Read more beaver jokes in review new Fringe play from Guys in Disguise.)
2 out of 5
