[CAT] Shakespeare, at nearly 2 am

[REVIEW] RAGE AGAINST The King (Theatre Artaud), Toronto Fringe Festival (#fringeto, #rageagainsttri

RAGE AGAINST The King, a show staged by Theatre Artaud as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival which played at the Robert Gill Theatre, was a show that I had definitely wanted to see. I was curious about this play in its own right, and I had reviewed the two other plays in the RAGE AGAINST trilogy for Mooney on Theatre. What would this one be?

RAGE AGAINST The King was a good play in its own right. The strong cast did a good job of illustrating a script examining issues of fame and creativity in a world where fame is fleeting and memory of our lives shorter.

My fellow Mooney on Theatre reviewer Jonathan Lavallee had a very different take.



RAGE AGAINST The King opens on the night that Izzy P (Tristan Claxton), lead singer of big 1990s Canadian band Banish The King, walked out on a sold-out show. His record company sends Eden (Samantha Vu), a young junior associate long-time fan out to his home to try to get him to return. Together with his 19 year old girlfriend Lilah (Laura Darby), the three end up in a dialogue about the value of Izzy P's musical work, his future, and the fate of creative endeavour in a world where even managed fame dies out.

The actors were the strongest part of RAGE AGAINST The King. I could really connect with Samantha Vu's Eden, a young person who grew up in the same Canadian pop music scene of the 1990s that I was familiar with, a fan who wanted the best for the admittedly relatively obscure and declining group she loved. Claxton also did a good job of bringing to life Izzy P, a man in a mid-life crisis desperate to cling to lofty arguments so as to avoid confronting his bad choices and difficult realities. Laura Darby particularly appealed to me, not only for her uncanny evocation of a young adult young enough to make rash decisions but old enough to have perspectives of her own, but for the other minor characters she depicted. Her steely facts-driven record company executive got the audience to laugh, as did a few seconds' appearance as a Canadian YouTube star big in Japan.

The general storyline of RAGE AGAINST The King was something I was familiar with. The theme of the artist who, in declining years, comes to a crisis about the durability of their works and indeed the very point of creating, is a standard trope. I did very much like the Canadianization of this subject, and I did like the conclusions reached by the play and its characters, but I am not sure that much new was done with this subject apart from this Canadianization and the strong performances of the actors.

RAGE AGAINST The King was a good play, taking a look at an issue of perennial import and offering, through compelling performances, some answers. It was 55 minutes well spent.