Review: (Ottawa) The Day We Grew Wings (Fringe)

The Kids Are All Right
Lost Wings Notwithstanding
by Jim Murchison 
twitter@JimMurchison

I believe the Day We Grew Wings was written by Victoria Luloff and Stewart Matthews. The most consistent thing about the Fringe Festival is that is is limited by no funding, so sometimes programmes - if available - or information about a particular show is gleaned from multiple sources on the fly so I hope I make no errors in crediting.

The first thing that strikes me about the cast consisting of Zachary Counsil, Victoria Luloff and Nicholas Surges is their youth. The energy is one of the selling points of this show and although the cast is young they are not inexperienced.

The set is basically white cardboard boxes and a white tree. Other details are filled in by imagination and the cast themselves provide the flesh of the story, which has no particular time continuum. I brought my imaginary friend to the show and I asked him why and he told me time is not important.
The play is an open ended fable about dragons, fairies, magic, drunken elephants but mainly about the wise use of your wings if you’re lucky enough to have them. The teaser in the promotion of the show is a question about where imaginary friends go when they're done being imagined. I don't actually know if that question is answered or needs to be. 

The audience wasn’t 100% sure that the play had ended until the lights came up for the cast bows. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The first rule of performance is always leave them wanting more. The story has enough of that middle earth feel that we could be being set up for a sequel. It sure worked for Tolkien.

runtime: approximately 60 minutes with no intermission
The Day We Grew Wings runs until June 30