Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Victoria Fringe Festival '12: How Do I Get You "Alone?" and Future Plans

*Spoiler alert.

Director/writer: Tom Stuart.

Cast: Michael Bell, David MacPherson and Alex Frankson.

When Hollywood cannot deliver a good movie that takes inspiration from The Exorcist, like its recent release, The Possession, perhaps going to live theatre is required. At the Victoria Fringe Festival, one of the final performances for the week included a dark study in what some individuals may experience when "Alone" in the dark.

Parts of the play takes a few cues from Interview with a Vampire and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and gives it a more pathological spin. That includes suggesting how a teacher should or should not treat a star pupil, how logical deduction can overrule dogma, and how one 14 year old boy, Peter (Michael Bell), needs his personal space.

Father Daniel (David MacPherson) disagrees with Father Elliott Lynch (Alex Frankson) in how Peter should be treated, and most of the story takes places in Daniel’s utilitarian office. Nearly everyone in the parish’s school believes the boy is possessed. While Daniel offers compassion and companionship, Elliott sees disassociation and distance. Which is better? In an exorcism, the evil spirit is commanded to leave the host "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" and that Trinitarian formula is at the heart of this play.

The playfulness in redefining this passage is well concocted by writer/director Tom Stuart. Just who is the true father in this play? Which member of the priesthood does Peter find himself more comfortable with? He is sometimes referred to as ‘my friend/my son’ in the dearest sense at times, but is it with good reason? A horrible secret may be lurking here. And whose spirit is being saved?

Elliott does not seem to care where his soul goes. He’s on a mission from God: to find evidence of real demonic possession. Daniel reveals that he spent many years to establish his reputation. But for the star of the show, Peter confides the fact that he has been bullied. But where does that lead? The revelation is in the strong performances that appear ripped from real life.

The on-stage fights with the demon draw audiences in to becoming the unlikely spectator far better than any movie will provide, and the possession Peter experiences suggests that a stronger male beast needs to come out. Bell does an excellent job in both being meek and insecure in one moment to becoming an angry God of Thunder. When Fringe theatre cannot always include stage effects, a supernatural play has to rely on the actor's experience than the use of stage magic to create a ghastly moment. Here, just who commands the game of thrones, a simple chair, seems to be the goal here.

As for where this play will land next, Stuart reveals that he has plans to take the show to Toronto in hopefully within a year, if not less. Hopefully, the theatre company’s website or Facebook page will see quicker updates to the shows being run.

Overall: 8.5 out of 10.

To visit Theatre Cordis’ previous show, Requiem, please visit:

Theatre Cordis



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