goestoshow

Complicateded is the story of a love triangle. With a little extra complexity thrown in. Though it springs from a fairly typical seed, a unique, funny, and touching drama emerges. The performances are all solid, the set design is good, and the play manages to surprise you even when you think you know what’s supposed to be surprising you.

What perhaps carries this play above its common roots is the charisma of the two male leads, presenting a convincing friendship. However, though performed very well, the female characters seem a bit like afterthoughts. They seem mostly there to drive the action for the male characters’ own insecurities, and this brings the play down a notch for me. Haley (Kayla Manuel in particular seems just a little too insightful into the state of minds of the male leads, coming off at times almost as if she’s there to prompt them to fix their lives.

This is definitely one to see, and deserves to have more people checking it out than it seems to have. It’s a bit out of the way of the Fringe grounds, but not really too far. Check it out if you get a chance.

The first line of No Choking Matter asks: “What does the heimlich maneuver mean to me?” Apparently, to the characters in this play, it means very little. Even so, they are attempting to make a video about it to enter into a contest.

This play had a lot of really funny jokes. Jokes that had me and the rest of the audience laughing a lot. But somehow, outside the jokes, it kind of felt a bit long at 70 minutes. The romantic plots didn’t move along quite as well as they could have, and none of the characters felt very likeable. The show has a lot of potential, it just didn’t come together as well as it could have.

As a positive to highlight, though, I really enjoyed Stephanie Wigston‘s mousey performance of Annette. The understated nervousness really contrasted well with the more brash personalities of the other characters, but wasn’t drowned out anyways. And there was always something going on in the background while characters talked, which I always appreciate.

If you’re in the mood for just a silly play that will make you laugh a bunch, you might enjoy it more than I did.