The Other Side:

The Liminal Space Theatre Collective had a lot on their plate. This group of UBC theatre students were writing an epic heroes’ adventure. They had about three months to write, stage, rehearse and show the piece. And they had to keep it within 45 minutes. This would have been difficult enough in a standard theatre setting; but throw in the fact that this show was staged in the Granville Island Water Park, and the task becomes almost as epic as the tale they were trying to tell.

The Collective clearly has some good ideas. The story revolves around an unwilling hero (Vanessa Bliss as Adele) thrust into a world where rain turns people to stone. Rather than keeping the audience seated in one place, they broke the water park into zones and moved the audience to various parts throughout the show. It worked pretty well and allowed the show many different sets within the same space, so the piece was more visually diverse than most at the Fringe. And the final battle scene was an excellent idea: they used the yellow walkway above the water park, and the spotlight on that area gave it a very separate look.

But the good staging ideas and premise were hampered by the execution. The actors had two weeks to rehearse after the script was settled, and it showed. I think they were nervous for their first show, because they ran 15 minutes shorter than the scheduled time. The rushed performance caused basic execution errors that I found hard to get over to get into the story

Ultimately, the scope of the story arc was too big to be covered well in 45 minutes, much less 30. It’s an epic saga where the reluctant hero crosses into another world, discovers its nuances, meets her adversary, decides to fight (including a fight training montage), starts to have feelings for the mentor (Ryan Michael Caron as Aidan/Umbrella Maker), and goes back to her home world. They didn’t have enough time to lay this out properly. The ending surprised me with its suddenness; it felt like the story just stopped due to time constraints. There were a couple of story threads that could have been explored with the characters from the Other Side, but they were left hanging.

Good effort, but these players bit off a little more than they could chew. I really admire them for the challenge that they took on, and they way that they handled themselves after the show. A cast member came out to the audience afterwards to give them a thank-you card for seeing the play, and to ask for honest feedback on how the show could improve. That’s what the Fringe is all about! But I’d just like to see what they could do with more time for their story, and less nervousness with the time they did have.