FREE KITTENS
Free Kittens is a trauma dump, but it's a trauma dump told by a hilarious and charismatic human who does an incredible job with the material (e.g. life) she's been dealt. I bought merchandise and am happy to have it!
Megan was incredible! She was funny, deep, political and taking a risk of sharing her beliefs and lived experience. It resonated with me and I highly recommend it especially if you are interested in reproductive rights. I rated it my favourite show at Fringe. I bought merchandise!
Poignant but very honest memoir is a tough needle to thread, and Megan does it. Full of the kind of dark humour that makes you wonder if you should laugh or cry, while wondering if the protagonist should laugh or cry. The subject matter is heavy, but treated with an occasional irreverence that is an unapologetic coping mechanism, inviting audiences to be honest about our own coping mechanisms. This is the kind of up and coming theatre I want in a Fringe show.
Whoa. Intense. Full on and fast. No words wasted. Honest and sincere. Little held back. Selling out too. GO.
Fabulous show with an important message told in a funny and sincere way. Plus kitties would definitely recommend
Every single joke landed like a perfect sucker punch. And it was hit after hit after hit. I was five feet away from a star, and joining that standing ovation (and buying a pin) was the best thing I could do to show my appreciation to Megan Milton for baring her trauma-riddled soul to us. She didn't even need props. In fact, her storytelling was so engrossing and hilarious that you forget the piles and piles of kitten plushies are even there. But when you realize why the show is called Free Kittens... yeah, gut punch. I won't ever forget this show.
I can’t even fathom how Megan navigated the serious topic of reproductive rights as a abortion survivor with such humour - it was masterful. “Free kittens” is a simultaneously brilliant & devastating metaphor. Highly recommend!
Smart, funny, blunt and poignant. This show will sell out, get your tickets ASAP.
"the world is just more complicated than you've been led to believe."
Megan is SUCH a smart writer. She manages to deftly handle loaded topics with humour and care for an hour and leave us constantly wondering how this story is going to end. Autobiographical solo shows can often end too tritely, too neatly tied in a bow, but Megan defies this cliche and maintains her nuanced and brilliant approach right to the very end.
You have to see this show. So many lines that absolutely broke me and brought me to tears, but my friends and I were also grabbing each other and choking from of laughter. Megan is a powerhouse. Such an obvious standing O at the end.
The show was full of heart and laughs, and Megan delivered it all beautifully.
Megan somehow weaves together humour, childhood trauma, and political education in a way that makes sense and is well-balanced! This is my third year seeing Free Kittens and it evolves every year, especially this year after the author's actual relationship with her mother took an unexpected twist... Go see this show in its current form before the next evolution!
I took part in the standing ovation (rarely happens). I bought the T-shirt (never happens). I loved this show.
Megan Milton’s comic monologue is about being an “abortion survivor”, somebody who believes her high-school-age mom wasn’t prepared to have kids and should not have done so.
“My parents met at a gas station,” she says. “Which means their relationship lasted three pumps.”
Milton’s timing is like a ride at the PNE. She does this cool thing where she sets up an idea with absolute sincerity — and more than a touch of darkness — then whiplashes into the underlying absurdity or transgression. Most of the time, she tells us, it feels like she and her mom are on separate planes of reality, but they do share a sense of humour: “She will commit to the bit no matter who it hurts.”
Anti-choice advocates insist they’re defending the unborn. But, if Milton’s mom hadn’t had a baby, her goal was to become a cop, so, Milton responds, “I would argue I saved hundreds of lives.”
Free Kittens is a perfect illustration of comedy-as-survival — in this case, the survival of a kid who was wildly more perceptive than her would-be caretaker, basically from the time she could talk.
Free Kittens is smart — and thoroughly, complexly, political.
So many times watching Free Kittens, I found myself laughing helplessly, help-less-ly: my favourite thing. Besides, life’s hard; if you’re not going to laugh about it, what else are you going to do?
You can read all my reviews — including Fringe reviews — on my website, Fresh Sheet Reviews. (The URL is down below.)