REVIEW: The Boy and The Girl @ Ottawa Fringe 2012

In Alex Kirkpatrick’s The Boy and The Girl and The Secrets They Shared, an estranged brother and sister reconnect after many years and delve into their traumatic past.Should you see it?

I don’t even know where to start with The Boy & The Girl & The Secrets They Shared. It wasn’t a play. It was a big messy conversation. A conversation that becomes 90% invalid and moot once the ‘big secret’ is revealed.

Writer Alex Kirkpatrick pretty much just sat down and wrote out an hour’s worth of stream-of-conscious with some psychotic fantasies intertwined that could only come from watching too many late night movies. His characters are despicable and annoying as fuck. They wander around the stage with no purpose as they get passionate about things that ultimately don’t matter – be it English Degrees, working for the government; he even makes adoption seem trivial. At one point his female character, Amelia, says: “no one wants to hear our story” – which was entirely true.

Kirkpatrick seems to know just enough fun random facts to drop into a grab bag of topics and put together into a conversation that borders on ignorant and arrogant. I’m so sorry to anybody who paid their hard earned cash to watch a candid conversation that Kirkpatrick derived to try to be entertaining and shocking but is just painful and embarrassing to watch. Some people can write conversation and make it enjoyable – think Quentin Tarrantino… other’s well – don’t.

A highlight? Lewis Caunter – he can act. I would love to see him in something else where he has a chance to truly shine. 1.

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Matthew Champ

About Matthew Champ

Matthew Champ is the lead reviewer for Production Ottawa's review team, Should You See It, making sure that whether it's local theatre or the latest Hollywood blockbuster to hit theatres, you know whether or not it's worth spending your time or money on.

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