Again I find myself at another Fringe Sketch show. By now, it should be known that I’m not the biggest fan of them, but I wanted to applaud this group for at least taking a theme and running with it in a firm direction.
In many ways, this collection reminded me of an Air Farce sketch. The fingerprints of that are all over this production and the influence is undeniable. I half expect Luba Goy to jump out and join the ensemble at any given moment.
The ensemble itself is fine. Everyone is lovely and is clearly having a good time with the message. It’s clear that this is something they are so passionate about and I commend their spirit and their tenacity to get the message across.
My major issue lies with a lot of the delivery. So much of an obviously left leaning group is bound to make very left leaning productions. As someone who also leans left this shouldn’t bother me as much, but I recognize that the heavy handedness is often delivered with the subtlety of a fish to the face. Air Farce was great because they skewered absolutely everyone in the political realm, whereas this group has a tendency to take it easier on the Liberal and NDP parties which makes their preferences well known.
Now they tackle a lot of good and difficult topics here. Everything from pollution, to recycling, to government and beyond. It’s not that they’re not raising good points, but a little bit more finesse in their delivery would go a long way to making this a more accessible and interesting ensemble.
There are quite a few jokes in here that really work. (No! Zaboo!) But I still feel they could have spent a bit more time in the oven. Hopefully with a bit of finessing they can find a great home outside of this and I am excited to see what they do next.