LOAF: A 10th Anniversary success!

7–10 Split

“There’s a sucker born every minute,” P. T. Barnum is claimed to have said.

Since I have wishful-thinking trailer trash friends who’ve been burned, I couldn’t help relating to Michael Wilmot’s clever script 7–10 Split about a couple dreaming of getting rich off the internet and escaping their Green Gables trailer park.

What Wilmot calls 7–10 Split, I call Sunday in the park with ________ and _______. And boy, did Peter Evans, Jocelyne Rioux and Dorian Mills nail their characters as couple Earl and Brenda, and her brother Larry. Director Robin Rundle Drake’s comfort zone is obviously comedy and she didn’t miss a beat with her version of Larry, Curly and Moe.

When Crown Prince Gustaf (Johnny Bobesich) showed up, the show turned into Fargo of the North.

I wonder how it would have played out if Bobesich had been directed to play his over-the-top Gustaf with quiet strength aka Godfather Don Corleone — the straight man to these three stooges.

Now that would have scared the sh*t out of me. As it was, Gustaf reminded me of my big brother — a noisy teddy bear, all bark and no bite.

All in all, this production was a crowd pleaser with very original lines like, “Why would anyone want a lap dancing horse?” and a wonderful trashy wardrobe and set design.

7-10 Split was a great way to kick off day three of the LOAF festival and its success here should bode well for its debut in the other London (England) in the NAAA Annual Play Reading Festival in June.

On the Menu

My personal favourite of the nine LOAF shows is On The Menu about an independent catering company that provides delicious “services” to suit any event.

What a talent writer/director/actor Lyndsay Simmons is and her god-given voice is perfect for comedy. How Simmons as Penny and Brit Cruise as James opened the show as two caterers in their automobile on the way to a gig was delicious. When they met up with Kathryn Harter as Lydia and Kathy Quayle as Valerie, they were matched every step of the way.

I forgive any mistakes in a show when the production values, writing and performances are this good. And On The Menu gets even higher marks for working all my senses. I imagined a past and future for all these characters, all the while very engaged in their present. That’s tough to accomplish in a thirty-minute one act play!

I predict we will hear and see much more about Simmons long after her show gathers trophies at the LOAF awards this weekend.

A TechnoEden: Scenes From The Digital Hinterland

The program notes state, “In A TechnoEden: Scenes From The Digital Hinterland slices of modern life just might inform our understanding of where we’ve come from in recent times — and where we’re heading.”

While I don’t think that theme was fully realized I liked the premise. Rooyakkers, Riggins and MacDonald played well together. How appropriate that a hockey scenario was repeated during the production.

Each of the three vignettes — friends recreating their past; a man complaining to his friend about slowing down the media spin cycle; a day in the life of a call-centre worker — eventually made their point. I just wish they were more to the point — more show and less tell.

A TechnoEden: Scenes From The Digital Hinterland fit the mood and spirit of the festival perfectly for we were there, after all, to watch new playwrights at play — albeit, in the hands of nine different production teams.

The third day of the LOAF festival was grand indeed.