Show: Toronto Fringe Festival 2009 – “Politically Correct Bedtime Stories”

Story by: James Finn Garner

Directed and Adapted by: Jessica Beaulieu

Cast: Marcel Dragonieri, Gwynne Phillips, Kaitlyn Riordan, Ian Ronningen, Jesse Stanley, Thom Stoneman, Briana Templeton, Luke Van Bakel

Theatre: Tarragon

In the mid 1990’s, James Finn Garner released his book Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life and Times, a satirical take on famous children’s bedtime stories that included Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, and Cinderella, among others. Adapting the work to the stage, director Jessica Beaulieu creates an abridged version of a handful of these stories, meant to showcase Garner’s new twist on old classics. The stories function to parody the politically correct modern society and how it would alter the morals laced within the stories we grew up with as kids, and Beaulieu, along with her incredibly talented cast, makes a show that packs in the laughs and never lets go of the immensely inflated energy.

Within a delightfully dizzying hour, the cast of eight actors fly between their roles with shocking amounts of maintained adrenaline. Costume changes happen within seconds, voices and accents shift with ease, and the cast rip through the stage without taking a single breath it seems. The results are so frenetically joyful that you want to withhold laughter just so you don’t miss the next line.

It is undoubtedly an ensemble show and, as a result, picking a favourite performer is almost beside the point. They work off each other so well and they are clearly comfortable with the strengths of everyone on stage. All eight members offer the goods in the various vignettes of the show. They are a tight-knit company without any weak links and are cast within their roles perfectly. Undoubtedly, audience members can pick their own highlight moments, but part of the fun is seeing if the next scene will outdo the scene that came before.

Beaulieu, the cast, and crew have produced a solid show, and Politically Correct Bedtime Stories was undoubtedly one of my favourites of the 2009 Toronto Fringe Festival. A show with this much energy, that's this accessibly funny, and that’s this charmingly crazy deserves to be seen. The show boldly resides within its own delirious nature and Beaulieu has created a remarkably accomplished, complete work. Though it crops down the stories and cuts out some of Garner’s other tales, the one hour time slot is just the right amount for a show of this nature. It hits the ground running, doesn’t stop, and crosses the finish line as one of the best shows of the festival.

Written by :

Gabor Pertic

 

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed