At the Sans Hotel: a lot of things and nothing all

Indie theatre personality Nicola Gunn presents with At the Sans Hotel (on as part of this year's Next Stage Theatre Festival) a quirky and difficult to define one woman show about, well, a lot of things and nothing all simultaneously. Call it performance art, call it theatre, call it what you will, one gets the feeling Gunn could not care less about labels anyway.

Guiding the largely direct address presentation is Gunn's alter ego, Sophie, a skittish, flower-print summer dress wearing French import who charms with visual puns, a sprinkling of philosophical declarations, and stream of consciousness musings about everything from excessive masturbation to birthday parties. Despite her facade of unpreparedness, Sophie has a firm grasp on the audience; at one point she hands out invisible questionnaires with real pencils and gives the audience what feels like several minutes to fill them out (she takes the opportunity to floss during this lull). She breaks the silence by declaring "You have no doubt noticed by now that I forgot to make copies of the questionnaire", eliciting both laughter and an unexpected feeling of foolishness from the evening's patrons.

Gunn does not strain to give her evening a unified theme, but does offer a thematic through-line in the form of an anecdote about a German woman lost in the Australian desert, a device which serves as a point of departure for less tongue in cheek examinations of identity and belonging later in the show. Unfortunately this less whimsical portion of her act does strain the audience's patience, even if it is bolstered by the hypnotic visual of Gunn's legs, and only her legs,  illuminated by black light under a formidable desk.

Gunn may be a master of the surreal and an expert performer, but a master of populist crowd pleasing she is not. This is not meant as a criticism, but rather as either an enticement for those desiring to take a chance on a worthwhile performance distinctly off the beaten track, or a warning for those who wish to stick to more traditional fare.

At the Sans Hotels is on as part of this year's Next Stage Festival in Toronto. For more information take a chance here.