Over the hump and onto the second half of the Ottawa Fringe festival 2014, but still so many shows to try and see! I’m somehow keeping up on my reviewing schedule, although I think my body is going to have a few strong words with me about my methods in the days to come. Stupid mortal body, so unreliable!

Not that I’d be any happier living forever, if Caitlin Corbett’s IMMOLATION from Here Be Dragons is any indication. A dark but fantastical two-hander playing in Arts Court Theatre, the show stars Corbett and William Beddoe as Kes and Kit, a pair of eternally at-odds lovers who are doomed to be reborn and reborn into different bodies and lives, and can’t seem to stop themselves from finding one another and making a bloody mess of one another. Theirs is a long story indeed…10,000 + years of emotional baggage have messed Kes and Kit up but good when it comes to their relationship. Except that one of them may have figured out a rather drastic way out of their undying dilemma.

Directed by Nick Alain, this is a mightily goddamn intense piece of theatre, and surely has the most intense opening scene I’ve witnessed in a good long while. Caitlin Corbett is a solid writer and has created a pretty crafty bit of fantasy-drama here, with a clever premise that allows it to be cast with virtually any combination of actors. I found the play itself had a tendency towards the overdramatic, and felt a bit too over the top at times. But the story itself was fascinating (even if I did miss a salient point or two about just how our hapless heroes came to be in this predicament, but I might have just not been paying enough attention), and I loved the everyman quality that Beddoe brought to the table as long-suffering Kit. A worthy show to see for your dark fantasy fix…and watch out, things WILL get bloody. Peace, love and soul,

Kevin Reid