If you see nothing else at the Fringe, see Legoland Times Colonist, Page A9, Review by Adrian Chamberlain Rating 4 1/2 stars out of 5
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Little brother Ezra plays with his Jeffrey Dahmer puppet, wears white stockings and pops a mind-altering combo of Ritalin and Dexedrine to combat his ADD. Older sister Penny is ostracized at school for being a weird lesbo (although she's not gay) and becomes fixated with a member of a boys' band. The results are strange, original, touching and downright hilarious. Legoland was written by Jacob Richmond and produced by Victoria's Atomic Vaudeville company, which regularly stages the best live comedy in the city. Directed with great brio and theatricality by Richmond and Britt Small, the show is a darkly funny coming-of-age yarn. Sixteen-year-old Penny -- superbly played by the engaging Celine Stubel -- has been ordered to give public service speeches to atone for attacking a celebrity. We learn that she and Ezra grew up in a strange Saskatchewan commune until their parents were jailed for growing dope. The kids are carted off to a Catholic boarding school, where they are too imaginative and strange to fit in. | Fuelled by Ezra's drug cocktails, they head out on a journey across the U.S. to find boy band star Johnny Moon. While satirizing consumerist America is well-trodden ground, Richmond makes it fresh again with amusing observations about Wal-Mart employees with jack-o'-lantern grins and vulgar gangsta rappers whose idea of romance is copulatory power tools. It's not easy to succeed with this style of weirdo humour, yet Legoland does. What really makes it a truly superior piece, however, is the vulnerability and intelligence of its heroine. Despite the show's bizarro-world feel, the character of Penny ably captures the mix of exuberance and hurt that marks the adolescent outsider who's too intelligent for her own good. It doesn't hurt that Stubel can summon tears at will. And the deadpan antics of Amitai Marmorstein as the creepy little brother provide a perfect foil. This is top-drawer theatre: sharp, crisp and bristling with naughty ideas. If you see just one show at the Victoria Fringe, make it this one. |