Review: (Toronto) The Oak Room (Fringe)

Tight Dialogue, but...
by Cassie Muise
@cassiemuise

The Oak Room won this year's Toronto Fringe New Play Contest, and one thing is clear; writers coming out of Toronto are increasingly slick. The fast-paced, relentless dialogue is well executed and Gilmore Girl-esque, albeit with significantly more profanity. It moves along at a fast clip which barely lets the audience process, let alone connect to the characters. This allows for some hilarious moments, and great zingers, which ultimately don't make up for the lack of tension and well...plot.

Despite a robust performance by Nigel Hamer, supported mostly by the (seemingly) affable Daniel Roberts, the play takes too long to establish their relationship - which, by the way, is never really clear - then gets into a Tarantino-style backwards story-telling tale that isn't about them, culminating with an awkward, abrupt finish. Many dramatic elements are out of place and don't make sense. For example: would you really believe that a man who walked into a bar during a blizzard with hypothermia who was given a free drink and a hot towel would tell the bar owner to fuck off? Yeah, didn't think so. 

First time playwright Peter Ganoway writes with panache that is a sure sign of better things to come, and The Oak Room's brashness will delight many Fringers. However, its stylistic strong points simply weren't enough to make up for its absence of character. 

The Oak Room is at the Toronto Fringe