This was the fourth fast-paced one-man show I have seen in this Fringe run. I'm not sure why Fringe performers like to stand on stage and talk about themselves incessantly. I'm also not quite sure why they believe they can ask a bunch of strangers to pay for it at 10 bucks a pop. At least some of them do it well.
I'll be frank right off the top here; this kind of theatre isn't my cup of tea. Actually, I'm one of those guys who thinks theatre shouldn't resemble tea in any way at all, I want it to feel at the very least like a stiff shot of cheap tequila, and at best like a syringe full of epinephrine straight to the heart.
The Sputniks is about a family of Soviet Jews who leave the Soviet Union for Austria and Canada, and find a greater tragedy along the way than the one they left behind.
You find yourself in a room with an endangered species. Is it a polar bear? No. A cougar? ...Maybe. Actually, it’s the Canadian female stand-up comic. Who’s Afraid of Tippy Seagram? is Zsa Zsa’s looks mixed with Ab Fab writing, and it works.
Who's Afraid of Tippi Seagram? Not Team Plank - we like wildlife too
Every once in a blue moon, if you take enough chances with theatre that you know nothing about, you get to share some space with a performer who is quite obviously doing what he was put on Earth to do.
It’s Lenny Breau’s birthday. It’s also the last day of his life. We pass through 24 hours in 60 minutes during this show and as day turns to night, the music feeds us Lenny’s life.
It is great to see that skillful, thought provoking and entertaining political theatre is alive and well in Canada. Doppelganger is inspired by how news items and photos of war and victims overlap in our minds, and horrifyingly lose meaning as we forget them or glance at them and look away.
