This is A Play
Daniel MacIvor
Destined to be a Fringe favorite with its play-within-a-play structure, this show lets the audience know what is really going on inside the heads of a trio of unnamed actors as they perform a campy melodrama about siblings separated at birth and… lettuce
Evolution Theatre
Ottawa ON
BYOV 3- Studio 311
Comedy
14A
| Date | Time | Buy Tickets |
| Friday June 20 | 20:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Friday June 20 | 21:30 | |
| Saturday June 21 | 14:00 | |
| Saturday June 21 | 20:00 | |
| Sunday June 22 | 19:00 | |
| Wednesday June 25 | 20:00 | |
| Thursday June 26 | 22:00 | |
| Friday June 27 | 20:00 | |
| Friday June 27 | 21:30 | |
| Saturday June 28 | 14:00 | |
| Saturday June 28 | 20:00 | |
| Sunday June 29 | 18:30 |
Brian M. Carroll
June 21st, 2008Unlike “Marion Bridge” and “Never Swim Alone”, “This is a Play” isn’t gut-wrenching drama.
Though a comedy, it’s not without serious content. This send-up of pretentious writing, directing, and acting (not to mention bad wardrobe and silly props) had a modest audience on Friday night laughing with recognition at some of the drivel that they’ve had to listen to in the past (and actors, poor souls, have had to perform more than once). I thought one audience member in the front row was in danger of exploding.
Daniel MacIvor has clearly had to sit through his unfair share of self-important nonsense through the years (moi, aussi). He’s distilled it down to a little over half an hour of parody, silliness, vanity, and dumb luck. It may be short, but it’s worth every penny of your ticket price. And then some.
Comedy is hard to do well. Nancy Kenny, Kel Parsons and Scott Goldman earn very high praise from me: they make it look easy. William Beddoe is restricted to audio recording. He only makes comedy sound easy.
So easy, the audience runs the risk of missing some of the fine attention to detail. For instance, don’t just toss your program into the recycling bin. Even the cast bios contain sendups. Nancy Kenny’s “bio” is particularly “in character”, but don’t miss those for Parsons, Goldman and Beddoe.
Yes it’s a looooooong climb up to the venue. The volunteers are no fools and take your ticket at the bottom of the staircase. But one audience member on Friday night made the trek with a cane and no attending Sherpa guides. If he can climb all those stairs, so can you.
This performance is worth every step.
Have I ever lied to you before?
Nadine Thornhill
June 22nd, 2008Worth every step indeed! And if you’re huffing and puffing by the time you make it to the top, don’t expect to catch your breath once you’re in your seat. I guarantee this play will keep you gasping with laughter!
Linda Culbert
June 22nd, 2008Thank you to everyone who’s come out to the show so far! You’re a fabulous audience and make doing what we do possible!
Stephanie A
June 23rd, 2008This show is absolutely worth every bit of the long (long!) climb up those stairs. Very funny writing, and the performances are spot-on. Even this non-thespian could appreciate the send-up of acting, actors, writers, directors, and theatre in general.
Go for it, you won’t be disappointed!!
Ian!
June 24th, 2008This is a very clever script. I loved it. Well done.
Nancy Kenny
June 24th, 2008CBC Radio’s Alvina Ruprecht’s Review
Host: You’ve been to 10 shows. I don’t know how many we’re going to get through, but let’s start with This Is A Play.
Alvina: Ok, that’s it. This Is A Play, it’s a play, the title of a play by actor, Toronto actor/writer Daniel MacIvor, who is one of English Canada’s most brilliant creators of the stage. And that’s what you see at the Fringe. It brings in people from one end of the spectrum to the other: students with little experience, going right up to one of the most, top performers in the country. Anyway, this play is done by Ottawa’s Evolution Theatre and it’s directed by Chris Bedford who is an exceptionally talented young man. This Is A Play it’s a spoof that dissects theatre. It shows actors performing a play but each of them speaks what is really going on inside their minds as they are acting. So what we hear is what they think of the play, what they think of the director, and their colleagues in front of them, and their lines, and so on. And this work is actually meant to destroy theatre, destroy any trace of theatrical illusion. It’s very intelligent, it’s absolutely hilarious and it’s very well done. And I love MacIvor’s slightly campy sense of humour. There were perhaps a few technical problems with the voice off because they had the voice of the director, I think, of somebody coming in, but nothing serious, this can be worked out. Again, This Is A Play, good theatre and it’s waaaay upstairs in the Ottawa University drama department.
Host: It sounds like fun, actually.
Alvina: It is, it’s wonderful. Great fun.
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