Review: (Ottawa) Wasteland Radio (Fringe))

Post Apocalyptic World

by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison

There is a lot of promise in the premise of Wasteland Radio. In the post apocalyptic world the landscape has little pips of lone survivors clinging to survival, not knowing if they might be the last person on earth, creating their own little universes to help them cling to sanity and hope.

There is more of a set for Wasteland Radio than most of the Fringe shows and Emily Soussana has done a good job representing a refuge of recycled mementoes. Scavenged items adorn the walls of the small radio station, scattered tapes and trinkets on the desk and in the large travel trunk are important links to the world when there was indeed a world.

Sam Dietrich does a credible job as a lone beacon broadcasting blindly into the wasteland looking for a voice back although I think I preferred the brief performance of Marc-Alexandre Hudson as the visitor. Things never seemed to completely connect with the audience however. It may have been that the balance between hope and desperation was a little off or perhaps an infusion of humour would have increased the empathy.

I don't think that the audience wasn't as surprised with the ending as what was hoped for and they were a little confused with the choice of an unconventional curtain call but that was just an exclamation on a piece that hasn't quite made it to its potential.

June 19 - 29