Editor’s Note: In the review of Sherlock Holmes & The First English Gentleman by Sam Mooney she mentioned that she saw the show with "My 82 year old mother and 15 year old niece are fringing with me for three days" – Fredde Clarke is the 82 year old mother she was referring to.
I came from Eastern Ontario to see 4 plays in the Toronto Fringe Festival – The only one I specifically chose that I really wanted to see was A Girl Named Ralph. I certainly was not disappointed.
The piece was so obviously true life. Makes one feel both happy, and a little sad. It was not a long play, but a most enjoyable one.
The fade outs could have been much shorter, either just a dim out, or stop action while Ralph came in to speak. I enjoyed the players and have no real criticism of any of the acting.
Review by Lauren Hatchard (Megan Mooney’s 15 yr old cousin)
A deep plunge into the pool of laughs and hysterics. Teaching the Fringe goes into and analyses a letter from an appalled fan.
Using voices, facial expressions and twinges of words and irony, the show satisfies your laugh craving. The only thing I didn’t like about this play was that it was a tad drowned out. Otherwise, a must-see for those who are looking for an amazingly timed, easy laugh.
Editor’s Note: In the review of Sherlock Holmes & The First English Gentleman by Sam Mooney she mentioned that she saw the show with "My 82 year old mother and 15 year old niece are fringing with me for three days" – Lauren is the 15 year old niece she was referring to. And now, without further ado, on with the review (see how that rhymed? pretty cool eh?)…
From the perspective of three generations, this play could have been worse, it could have been better. Sherlock Holmes & The First English Gentleman has potential, but also a broad area with room to improve (including cutting the painful chant at the beginning.) It also had a plethora of humorous moments.
I have been seeing so many shows that I haven’t had time to spend on my site. It’s both wonderful and sad at the same time. But tomorrow (Thursday) I have arranged it so that I’m not going to my first show until late afternoon, so I’ll be spending the majority of the day at Jet Fuel sipping lattes and pulling together content for this baby. I figured in the meantime though I’d reprint some of the reviews I’ve done for blogTO for the shows I highly recommend, since we’re running out of time for the festival. Please note, this is only a selection out of what *I* have seen. So I am no doubt missing some great shows in this list.
Keep reading for reviews re-posted from blogTO of:
– A Girl Named Ralph
– Exploding Breakfast
– JEM ROLLS: how i stopped worrying and learnt to love the mall
First – go see Jem Rolls. Even if you have to skip something else.
His show is an hour of high-energy, full-body "theatricalised performance poetry". I had no idea what that meant when I read the blurb in the program but it sounded interesting so I went with no expectations.
