Hamilton Fringe reviews: How to Love a Fascist, GO, Townsperson #3 and more

Yeah I know, the Toronto Fringe just ended. But obviously I can’t get enough of short(ish) indie theatre. So I decided to hop on a GO Train and check out a bunch of shows at the Hamilton Fringe’s opening weekend. I’m really glad I did. The festival continues until July 26. Full details here.

A comic gem

I’ve admired Cassie Cao’s stand-up comedy in the past, but I didn’t realize that she’s a first-rate storyteller too, which she proves without a doubt in How to Love a Fascist (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), one of the strongest solo shows I’ve seen in a while.

Educated and trained as an economist, Cao is especially interested in game theory concepts like the Prisoner’s Dilemma, the Ultimatum Game and the Stag Hunt. She explains these via an autobiographical story involving her first ever best-friend, Nat, whom she met in a memorable high school French class and then later, reconnecting after university, roomed with in Toronto’s hyper-competitive rental market. All seemed fine until a washing machine opened her eyes to Nat’s, well... it’s suggested in the provocative title.

Sitting mostly on a stool, Cao has an engaging, effortless storytelling style and enviable audience rapport. Ashley Comeau, a gifted comic storyteller in her own right, directs with a sure, unfussy hand.

A couple of questions linger in the script — what was the basis of her early friendship with Nat, again? And some observations, particularly about the “Asian racism pyramid,” would work better in a stand-up set (their placement affects the tone of the show).

But Cao gets extra points for exploring big issues, like the mysteries of human behaviour and the variables in life we can, and can’t, control. I guarantee you’ll be pondering some of those game theory concepts after the show. And the powerful ending sneaks up on you.

Best of all? She’s a gifted and, if you’ll excuse the pun, completely winning performer.

How to Love a Fascist continues at Mills Hardware (95 King St. East) until July 26. Ticket details here

Go see GO

I missed Fringe fave Laura Piccinin’s GO (Rating: ✭✭✭✭) during its brief, half-a-week run last fall at Theatre Passe Muraille. So I’m glad I had another chance to see it.

The 90-minute solo show recounts her attempt to walk all 336 km of the famous East Coast Trail along Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. She sees many gorgeous sights, slips and stumbles on quite a few rocks and in between periods of total isolation meets dozens of fellow hikers, many of whom ask if she’s afraid doing it as a woman alone.

Piccinin tells the story through vignettes, journal entries and memories about past hikes and trips she’s made — the skydiving in New Zealand story is worth the price of admission alone.

Hovering over the show is the question of “Why?” Sure, Piccinin mentions a bit about the pandemic — the hike took place in the late summer of 2021 — but the piece could use a few more details about her motivation. Was it a reaction to over a year of lockdown measures? Was she, like Cheryl Strayed in Wild, running away from something?

In the end, it doesn’t matter. Piccinin is a terrific storyteller who delivers hard-won insights about life and opportunity. During the course of the trail, she learns to accept people’s offerings for what they are.

While a director could get her to modulate some of her delivery — sometimes, especially with the comic lines, the rhythms are predictable — there’s lots of wisdom in the show.

“Sometimes it’s nice to let someone be nice to you,” she says in one of the play’s simplest yet most profound passages.

And when the title comes, it’s truly inspiring.

GO continues at Mills Hardware (95 King St. East) until July 26. Ticket details here

Basket weaver

Izad Etemadi has starred in several musicals, like Frozen, Elf and Come From Away. Without naming it, he obviously draws on that first show (and his experience in musicals) in this clever and very funny play about what those ensemble members do during the inevitable crowd scenes.

He plays the titular Townsperson #3 (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), who moves stage furniture, skips in a circle and occasionally carries an empty basket. Eventually he meets Townsperson #7 (Julia Pulo), and they sort of become a couple, even though he’s gay and she’s fleeing from something she did before the show began.

The plot and the characters’ motivations could be tightened — maybe even fashioned into a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead type story. The show, which Etemadi also directs, is really a celebration of creative ingenuity and finding one’s true voice, even if your name hidden way down in a show’s credits.

The two performers work beautifully together, each responding to their dilemmas with main character energy. (Pulo, of course, is another musical veteran.)

Much of the fun comes from their full-throttle performances, the dozens of musical theatre references (spoken as dialogue) and a delightful bit of improv involving an audience member.

Townsperson #3 continues at the Theatre Aquarius Studio (190 King William St.) until July 26. Ticket details here

Failure to launch

The story of Icarus and Daedalus is full of rich themes about ambition, hubris and fathers and sons. But very little of that is explored with much depth in Icarus is Falling (Rating: ✭✭), which won this year’s new play contest at the Hamilton Fringe.

Brianna Russell and Owen Carter’s script is certainly ambitious; it’s written completely in iambic pentameter. But it lacks clarity and a proper point of view. It’s not apparent whether the story belongs to Daedalus (Boro Milošević), the brilliant inventor, or to his son Icarus (Carter), who’s longing for some autonomy and finds love with the god Helios (Adrian Pavone).

The script feels repetitive and rather humourless, and at the performance I saw Milošević mumbled a lot of his lines. Abigail Sullivan’s direction doesn’t help things. After Daedalus gets the idea to construct wings to allow his son to fly out of Crete, where they’ve been trapped by King Minos, we’re shown the wings (thanks to Rachel Van Staalduinen’s costumes) but they’re never attached to Icarus. Why?

Pavone is a standout as the focused, conflicted Sun god who ultimately contributes to Icarus’ tragedy. But the writers haven’t given Helios and his relationship with the young man enough dimension for the ending to hit home forcefully.

Icarus is Falling continues at the Player’s Guild of Hamilton (80 Queen South) until July 26. Ticket details here

Cheesy fun

Genial, energetic writer/creators Kristian Reimer and Larry Smith obviously enjoy those cheesy, cheaply produced sci-fi flicks that are so bad they’re good. Their show The Giant Space Monster That Ate Hamilton in 3-D (Rating: ✭✭✭) is a loving homage to them.

When a giant, many-tentacled monster lands in Steeltown in 1963, fishermen, cops, scientists and local TV reporters try to discover what’s going on. The pair have a blast using low-fi techniques — many involving puppets and models on fishing lines — to get effects. They’ve even included 3D glasses with the program, with flashing lights to indicate when audiences are to use them.

The result is an amiable show with lots of local references that, well, could be funnier. Then again, I wonder if people even recognize the genre the two are spoofing. I chuckled at a reference to one character’s “Plan 9,” but no one else seemed to get the joke. Which is a shame.

The Giant Space Monster That Ate Hamilton in 3-D continues at the Player’s Guild of Hamilton (80 Queen South) until July 26. Ticket details here