john jack josie - JUICE
A raw, insightful, heartfelt, visceral and deeply essential show. The gift of Josie's vulnerability must be experienced and can't really be put into words. Josie is such an incredible performer, a natural confidence that draws you in, and then a radical rage and grief that speaks directly to the collective and also feels extremely personal. John, Jack and Josie are all extremely personal but also speak directly to what is happening in the collective making this show feel both universal and intimate at the same time. This show will make you feel deeply, and will live in your body after the show, and it feels like this is Josie's intention, to awaken us from ambivalence and into action. However, Josie also brings in moments of warmth and connection, not a fairy tale ending, but beats of souls and hearts connecting, to allow the trauma to alchemize and not feel like a burden the audience leaves with. I would actually strongly recommend this show for individuals who are extreme leftists or extreme conservatives: one of the greatest gifts of this show is that we are left with an empathy for all the polarities because Josie taps into the humanity underneath, and the insurmountable collective grief of disconnection and loneliness permeating through when stories divide us. Strongly recommend, this is such a deeply important show!
With a clown on the poster I didn’t know what to expect going in to the show, but what I got was a deeply raw, intense, and heartbreakingly beautiful piece of art. This is a performance that will stick with you forever, and really makes you look inside yourself. If you have to see just one show this year at Fringe, have it be this one.
It's hard to find the right words to describe this show. Narrated by the clown Juice, we are introduced to three distinct characters: John, Jack, and Josie. They have wildly divergent views, ethics, politics, and personalities... or do they? When the lines between the characters start to blur and the narrative starts to shift, we discover the truth behind all four personalities on the stage. Raw, powerful, and intensely vulnerable, this show is easily the best of the Calgary Fringe this year and is performed with an awe-inspiring level of courage by one of the best solo performers I've ever seen. Good art elicits strong emotions in the moment it is percieved. Great art leaves one with an intensity of feeling which lingers for days, weeks, or months after the moment has passed. This show is unquestionably the latter.
A deep and meaningful show that was able to get to intense levels of raw honesty so quickly, but had such tender offerings that created a wonderful balance. As someone who was raised in the prairies, it was an incredibly relatable show that explored being othered in a place that demands you fit in, a feeling a lot of us have felt and continue to feel. The performer was captivating and it felt like time stopped, the sign of a truly great fringe show.
Juice is a tour de force! The show is deeply vulnerable, intense, and takes you into one person’s incredible, personal journey. The construction of the show was brilliant as Juice showed us three incredible evolutions of her life. It’s clowning, it’s storytelling, and it’s perfect for fringe! Go see this!