Apt613 is trying to see every show on opening weekend of the 2017 Ottawa Fringe Festival. Read more reviews at apt613.ca/fringe.
Photo by Allan Mackey.
Underneath It All
by Hannah Gibson-Fraser & Jodie Morden
46 min / Drama / Mature
The Fringe Festival program says Underneath It All is “an intricate look at the lives of two women and their journey through love and tragedy. The choices they have made to get where they are today, and what their future holds.” An important clue to the play – a clue that isn’t in the program – is on the company’s flyer. The flyer says, “If your life hung within a single moment, a single heartbeat, a single breath… Where would your memories take you? Which ones would you rewrite?”
So I was expecting a look at the memories of two women. I was also expecting something about false or falsifying memories. I didn’t get either.
There are two unnamed women on stage. There is no character arc for either woman – just a reiteration of one of the women’s sad life story from age six to the present. The second woman often mimics what the first woman says, and sometimes mimics her actions or gives her anodyne advice.
It took me a while to figure out that the second woman wasn’t the first woman’s therapist. I think she was the first woman’s inner voice or superego.
I didn’t notice any rewriting of the first woman’s memories. She just relived them, sometimes saying, “rewind” but not noticeably changing the memory when she did so. And almost all of them were awful memories of classic female oppression and psychological torment.
There were some significant technical problems on opening night. Chief of these was the actors’ frequently inaudible projection. This was especially evident in the first 10 minutes and whenever there was background music.
I couldn’t figure out until the last two minutes of the play why the stage lights were dim and were changing randomly between combinations of red, white and blue. I found this distracting.
Underneath It All is classified as “Mature” due to its sexual language.
Underneath It All by Hannah Gibson-Fraser and Jodi Morden (PrettyUgly Theatre Productions) is playing at Studio Léonard-Beaulne (135 Séraphin-Marion) until Saturday June 17, 2017. Tickets cost $12 online and at the door. Visit ottawafringe.com for the show schedule and box office info.
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