Part 2 of our review of theatre in Edmonton in 2011. Part 1 discussed the best theatre moments this year, while this part discusses the less-than-spectacular theatre moments of the year.

Jenna: Other than Hunchback, I didn’t feel like a lot of the musicals I saw this year really took my breath away. I mean yes, Little Women, was good, but aside from those two plays… I was a little disappointed. I love musicals… in fact, musicals are what got me into live theatre. I think they communicate in a way that you can’t with just words and actions. I went to five musicals at the Edmonton Fringe… and none of them really left me feeling anything other than mediocre, if not disappointed. Edmonton: Bring back musicals!

Ana: My least favorite play this year has to be Book on Tape. I think that the story has a lot of potential but the execution was a little flawed. The acting was unconvincing and the dialogues seemed fake on more than a few occasions. Although, I believe that with some more work this play could really be something amazing–dealing with the level of isolation that the (ironically named) social media has brought, a play that emphasises its problems is worth seeing.

Jenna: I know I’ve said in part 1 that I want theatre to take me places I don’t necessarily want to go but… I don’t want the plays that do that to be pretentious. Edmonton has got a great theatre scene, especially given the city’s size. And one of the great things about having several plays happening at any given time, is that the theatre scene is accessible to anyone – regardless of their education or previous experience with theatre. However, there were a couple of plays that I found a bit too pretentious for our burgeoning theatre scene. First, although Othello was really well done by the Free Will Players, I found that some actors seemed to use an accent – I’m not sure what kind of accent – that made them seem more “high brow” (mainly lead actors Mark Meer and Belinda Cornish). However, these accents disappeared the following night during Twelfth Night. When you’re doing a Shakespeare play, you don’t need to add an extra layer of pretentiousness, the fact that the audience is attending a Shakespearean play is enough. Another example is Hroses. Although Ana enjoyed trying to figure it out, I didn’t, because I didn’t understand it, and I didn’t even know where to begin to start understanding it. I’m 100% okay with ambiguity in plays (Judith, at this year’s Fringe, for example), but the story has to be at least accessible enough that the audience doesn’t feel completely lost.

Ana: I must clarify, I did not enjoy Hroses. I just don’t know how to feel about it. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the occasional deep and meaningful phrase, but the play was too weird, too modern perhaps, for me. I may even say too advanced – I am reluctant to say the play was bad just because I had problems understanding it, but let’s just say I wouldn’t see it twice.

- Ana Miranda and Jenna Marynowski