Three Descending Notes
The play address a heavy subject without leaving you feeling heavy. Congrats to the cast and crew for blending technology in a way that still employs real actors. It was funny without trying to hard and entertaing.
This show has it all. Laughs, music (wow what music) and highly entertaining visuals. How do you pack so much into a 45 minute show? While being a one-person performance, it does not lack for variety, and shows the great efforts put forward by the team behind the production. The fresh digital assets bring a new focus to the meandering mind of our protagonist. While physically lost at times, her mind is so alive with friends to help her along her way (and sing along too). Highly recommend. I'm seeing this one again!
The staging for this show is incredibly unique and quite spectacular. At times, it felt like the staging was all it was, though. The substance of the story I don't think really dug into Odelia's psyche enough. I definitely felt that sometimes we were supposed to be so entranced by the projections that we didn't notice the fact the story was loose and vague. But maybe I'm no better than a toddler with keys getting jingled in front of their face, because my eyes were definitely mostly glued to the shiny things.
For a musical about dementia, this show was funnier than I expected! And I don't want to give anything away but there were some laugh out loud moments and joyful moments, as well as the heart wrenching moments I expected. Georgia Grant was phenomenal as Odelia. Beautiful voice, vulnerable and endearing performance. The songs were beautiful too, and haunting! Loved the vfx, I really felt I was in her world, and I even enjoyed the occasional glitch, it sort of underlined the strange nature of Odelia's fantasies. Way to go Robin North, Nae Philips, Rachel Cardiello, Georgia Grant and anyone else who touched this wonderful work. (Please excuse any spelling mistakes, I am typing this review from the ttc, doo do do)
Really impressive tech for a fringe show! The storytelling needs work, but the lead’s powerful singing voice helps keep the show moving.
This play, by its originality (VFX) and its design (one live actor on stage), truly makes you dive into the mind of Odelia who has dementia and gets lost in the TTC. The actor manages to make you feel lost with her and yet she is hopeful and funny. Highly recommend.
A heartbreaking glimpse into a life navigating dementia with light-hearted moments of comedy to contrast the fear of being lost❤️❤️❤️
The show is a gentle and thoughtful portrayal of a frightening experience. The use of technology was spot on in purpose and intent. My only wish was to see the story developed further with a few more pieces because there’s so much here to dig into
Shunsho Ando Heng's NNN review of Three Descending Notes from NEXT Magazine.
Contributing Our Theatre Voice Writer Alessandro Stracuzzi's review of THREE DESCENDING NOTES:
THREE DESCENDING NOTES. (Episodic.) Four mermaids, a singing bear, and a pirate enter the subway. No, this is not the beginning of a joke. They are just a few of the human and non-human figures encountered by 70-year-old Odelia. She was simply riding home on the TTC, so how on earth did she end up in a sun-drenched valley where animals hum in harmony?
This 40-minute musical attempts to draw us into the fractured mind of a woman living with dementia. By delving into her hallucinations, Robin North’s book creates intriguing and at times whimsical tableaux, enhanced by Nae Phillips’s surprisingly streamlined projections. The piece takes up a compelling subject with tenderness and imagination. Yet its loose rhythm and episodic structure ultimately leave the audience without a firm sense of direction. Rachael Cardiello’s lullaby-swaying score proves suspenseful: like Odelia, we are meant to feel lost. The problem is that the show too often seems lost, too.
There are not enough stories about the lives of our elders. Georgia Grant, with their operatic voice, brings Odelia to life and leads us on a beautiful, humorous, and heartbreaking hero’s journey. Rare for me to say about any independent musical but, I wish there were at least two or three more songs. I would have enjoyed a longer show and I hope the cast and crew continue evolving this thoughtful offering.