Well I got surprised again by a show labelling itself as comedy/drama instead of storytelling. This was a storytelling show. I was expecting more of a historical, educational play. I don’t know if this is a me problem or an artist description/genre tagging problem but it’s weird that it’s happened twice to me this fest.

This needed more rehearsals. Some lines had strange pacing or needed more time to breathe. There were several moments of hesitation or stumbling over words. We’re pretty close to the end of the fest, so maybe this can be attributed to tiredness.

I was also pretty unimpressed with the stagecraft. I know I’m particularly picky about this, because the theatre community is so robust in Edmonton that even low-budget Fringe shows can have some really amazing lighting and sound. I wanted more from this show. It’s hard to keep people’s attention in a one-person storytelling show, let alone if there’s barely any sound design and only two light settings.

That aside, I liked how the artist connected politicizing moments in his life (primarily interactions with cops) to politicizing moments in William Dorsey Swann’s life. That throughline was a decent way in, even though the setup of a dream during surgery felt pretty ham-fisted. Though I agreed with the message, I wanted less lecturing about racial politics and more embedding of that thesis into the work itself. More artists need to let go of the reigns a bit and trust in the audience to mine the work for intended meaning. Most of the time, we’ll get there.