By Katie Stobbart (The Cascade) – Email
Brewers Fayre
By David Grieg
Directed by Dylan Coulter (UFV)
Running time: 45 minutes
Showings: Saturday at 1:20 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m.
Warning: Strong language and sexual themes
The first thing I noticed upon entering the studio was the assortment of costumes worn by the four actors. Think black dress and combat boots, electric blue track suit, and plaid tweed.
The first line: “Imagine your worst fear.”
From there, prepare for Christmas caroling, fishnet stockings and tear-away pants. (And yes, they do get torn away.) Learn why Christmas is a good time for an affair. Is the world going to end? Maybe.
I enjoyed the clever way the subplots eventually linked together and most of the dialogue was strong and humorous, but a lot of the humour did seem inaccessible, like it was aimed at the theatre students in the crowd.
Another interesting aspect of this play was audience participation – we had lines! These were displayed on a screen above the action for the audience to read in unison. The only flaw in this plan was that some inflection was lost in certain lines and it seemed to take everyone a second to realize the line was misread, but overall it was a unique idea to have the audience play an actual character, and it worked well.
Apparently, the missing apostrophe in the title is intentional – you’ll see!
The cast included Eli Funk, Blake Kimber, Jonathon Winterburn and Ashlyn Tegg.
