Reviews to help you through the hit-or-miss loveliness that is the Calgary Fringe Festival
Dale Beaner and The Turtle Boy
Posted by Drew Anderson in Fast Forward Fringe BlogDale Beaner and The Turtle Boy
Lantern Church basement
July 30, 2010
Connor Thompson and Devon Hyland run a tight ship. Rapid fire exchanges between the two improvisors are almost too fast at times, meaning it's hard to catch everything they say.
Though their exchanges are impressive, and the story is often funny, at about the half-way point this show hits a wall. Not because it's any less funny, or ridiculous, but because there's just too much of it.
Following the antics of washed-up child star Dale Beaner and scientific oddity Turtle Boy at a baseball game, this show requires just as much energy from the audience as it does from the actors.
Mishaps on a baseball field leave one dog dead and a handful of handicapped children beaten and scarred. All of the onfield antics are skillfully told by two broadcasters (Thompson and Hyland).
The sportscaster roles are the best ones from these two performers, with Hyland taking the upper hand. For the rest of the characters, including the two boys over-possesive fathers, it's Thompson's performance that shines through.
Some of the best moments come when the two actors let down their guard, improvise and crack each other up — a welcome respite from the seemingly polished sonic onslaught of their perormance.
Sure it's funny, for a while, but Dale Beaner and The Turtle Boy drags on a bit too long.
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