25 August 2006

Victoria Fringe20: Bolloxed!

As live theatre goes, the Fringe Festivals around the globe are still one of the best ways to stretch your theatre budget, albeit one of the riskiest. If you are attending the Victoria Fringe -- now in its 20th year and running until Sept. 4th -- or the Vancouver Fringe (Sept. 7-17), I have a tip.

See Bolloxed -- it's clever and very funny.



I'll admit, I had comp. tix care of playwright and blogger Darren Barefoot, but for the regular price of $9* it is far better than most of what Hollywood cranks out these days -- plus you'll be supporting the arts (one of whom in this case is wearing an athletic support.... but I digress).

Somewhere between testicular pain and international relations, Jack (a Canadian working for an American company in Dublin) falls for the proudly Irish Aoife. Over the course of an hour, Jack tells the audience how it all happened (and what was wrong with his testicles). There are plenty of audience asides, delivered with comic flare by Paul Drexler, and Mercedes Dunphy pulls off multiple roles -- and accents -- in addition to Aoife with apparent ease.

The set is sparse -- three chairs and a pair of pants hung on a screen; the props, limited -- a softball, some glasses, a pole and a couple of cell phones -- but the actors use them well.

The subject matter -- like most Fringe productions -- is adult oriented. Bolloxed has cursing a-plenty for starters (though much of it is delivered with an Irish accent care of Aoife) and of course there is a lot of talk about testicles. All of it is funny -- eye-watering, laugh-out-loud funny.

I'd write more, but really, you should just go see it. (If you do, come back and comment; I'd love to hear your take.)


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*the play admission is $9 but you'll also need a Fringe button for $5 -- good for the whole festival no matter how many plays you see.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad you enjoyed the show--thanks for writing a review.

If you've got a couple of minutes, please submit your review to The Craig:

http://www.intrepidtheatre.com/craig/

It's the audience review site for the Victoria Fringe. It's a forum, which is kind of hokey, but I'd appreciate it.