First Rate Friends
Are you lonesome tonight? Well, yes and no. TJ Dawe has established himself as one of the Fringe circuit’s most anticipated lights each year, and this two-hander he co-wrote with Michael Rinaldi is one of his funniest and most touching efforts in an already-impressive canon. Working on a deceptively simple theme that women and men “can’t be friends because the man always wants to have sex,” we travel along the twin rails of a relationship between deadpan savant Wallace (Rinaldi) and free-spirited, no-slouch Chantry (Tallulah Winkelman). Life would be easier if we had friends like these, walking repositories of nifty popular culture lore, blessed with wicked wits and hearts that beat. Not that the thoroughly believable arc of their friendship doesn’t sound a wistful, happy-sad note. Along the way, you’ll also discover dozens of new ideas for your languishing fridge magnet poetry. First rate, with an absolutely perfect cast and clean, unfettered direction by Ami Gladstone.
Alan Kellogg
Edmonton Journal
