Review: (Toronto) Radio :30 (Fringe)

Warm Not Hot
by Jason Booker

Chris Earle constructs a strong script for Radio :30 - craft is at the forefront. Deliberately (and with a lengthy prologue to introduce the character) the story unfolds, a voice actor (played by Earle) recording a radio advertisement in the studio, in front of the client company. The dialogue repeats itself until each joke can be laid before the audience, but the careful fine-tuning of this script is apparent as Earle launches his Fringe tour in Toronto. 


A well performed, virtually one-man show, Radio :30 is a pot of water on the stove - it gets warm, you anticipate what you might do with it but it just refuses to come to a boil. The award-winning script of a man's meltdown during a session intrigues but very little happens onstage itself - it is about an incident in the past that refuses to be named for a third of the show. The performance doesn't quite live up to the same standard and the direction from Shari Hollett is invisible. Why is this theatre and not a radio play as the live element - the aspect of having an audience to interact with - felt wasted. However Radio :30 is still work from a gifted artist.

Radio :30 is at the Toronto Fringe