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Stupid Cupid (A-)
Love is in the air and all around – which is bad news for Iris, personal assistant to the narcissistic and megalomaniacal Cupid. As she leads others to love, with Cupid stealing her ideas and foisting all the work on her as he enjoys his absent hedonism, she resolves to break his heart – and anything else she can get her hands on. Unlike this workplace from hell, the leads here know their roles and play off each other properly. Our villains are meant to be shocking caricatures and their actors revel in that – Jordan D’Amico as a fantastically sleazy Cupid and Marlowe Baigrie as perky racist Althea are a perfect match. The show’s writer Debora Itimbien as Iris has a more complicated job juggling Iris’ professional obligations, personal frustrations, and the indignities of working as a black woman in those glaringly white office politics – but she aces that performance review too. The show bills itself as About Capitalism as most shows do these days. Its message there isn’t subtle or novel – but it’s more successful for that. Above all, Stupid Cupid is a fun ride that’s very easy to fall for.
The Remainders (B-)
The Remainders opens on a scene that could belong in any TPL branch – a sleeping teen who calls this home; a straggly-haired older man immersed in a crossword; a newcomer climbing his first rungs in Canada; and librarians scuttling around in an endless, futile quest to restore order (a tantrum-prone toddler may be too much to ask for dramaturgically). The odd one out is Renee, who makes a loud arrival with her self-published autobiography as she tries to smuggle it onto the shelves and give unsolicited recitals. It’s easy to write her off as a typical kook, especially when her daughter shows up to cast doubt on this life story, but as we pore through their pages she starts to feel tragically normal (for better and worse). Fittingly, it’s the librarians who keep this show on the road. Aurora McClennan shines as neurotic junior librarian Natalie, determined to be heard inside the library (in hushed tones, of course) and spread her wings beyond it; Emer Kelly is a sharp comic foil as her overbearing aunt and supervisor. Not every story here will land for all viewers but there’s a lot to like here if you can find the right shelf.
outside these walls everyone is sleeping (C+)
This trippy work of physical theatre follows the sleepless nights of Dreamer (Victoria Matchett) as she dwells on memories of a past relationship and tries to rebuild her identity in the present. Matchett and Gaia Micciancio (as Shadow) are powerfully expressive and the lighting, set, and projections combine for a compelling audiovisual experience but as a viewer without a developed interest in purely physical theatre it felt like the show ran up against the limits of its chosen medium. If you know that’s your thing, this may well work better for you.
Night Journey (D)
This full-length play makes its debut in the historic surroundings of the Arts and Letters Club. Its characters aren’t as lucky, exiled to a shabby basement for their night class on The Odyssey with a doddery professor who feels like another species to his motley crew of new charges. It’s an impressive backdrop for the show (and one you’ll want to explore later) but the show itself does little to take advantage of it. That’s the tragic tale of the whole work. Night Journey has the full ninety minutes to explore its world but needs the discipline forced on so many other Fringe shows that have to be out in an hour; its solid cast does their best with a plodding script that doesn’t return the favour. Their characters eventually start to make sense of the Odyssey but we leave without a closer engagement with that iconic text ourselves and its tie-in to their personal relationships and realizations remains thin. The basic premise is compelling but the journey and destination fell flat for me.