87% True: The Lies That Bind

VUE Calls Us "Daffy" and "Sprightly"!

Two more chances to catch our "witty, zany and constantly offbeat" play! To help you include 87% True in your last Fringe-ing weekend, here's the info:

Sutton Stage 9, Walterdale Playhouse, 10322 - 83rd Ave

Sat, August 26          7:15 PM
Sun, August 27         2:15 PM

VUE Weekly came out today and we were pleased to find a lovely gem of a review between its sheets. If you know what we mean. And we think that you do. Thanks, VUE!! And thanks to good friend Cheryl, who sent the review to us via e-mail, thus saving Rose from having to type the thing out. Wooooo!

87% True: The Lies That Bind (Stage 9)

A daffy, sprightly little comedy about the stories that families need to believe in. Orson and Ursula, while going through things in the attic of the family homestead, discover that their grandmother has left “the house and farm ... to whichever one of you is not adopted.” The bear-named former twins try to figure out who’s the false sibling, even as they offer different takes on homespun histories, Ursula’s cheeriness and dry factual accounts jarring with slacker-hoser Orson’s colourful myths. From a stuffed bear head to a cat named Chairman Meow, this play is witty, zany, and constantly offbeat.

What do you do with a review that cute? You laminate it, of course! And then laugh over and over again at Orson being called a "slacker-hoser". Good one, VUE Weekly. Good one.

Slurpee count = 87

4 Stars! 4th Show Today! At 4 O'Clock!

There's nothing like wakin' up to coffee, fresh muffins and a four star review (and) photo in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. Wooooooooooo! Saskatoon, you are spoiling us. We may never leave!

The Star-Phoenix - Tuesday, August 8, 2006

87% TRUE: THE LIES THAT BIND
Quixotic Productions
Venue 1, Broadway Theatre
Today, Saturday, Sunday


As estranged twins Orson and Ursula cope with the death of their grandmother, they uncover the shocking news one of them is adopted. Only the true Brezic will inherit the family farm.

The siblings, along with Hugo, a stuffed bear's head, begin sorting through the facts and fiction of their family history. But who can tell them apart? Who can discern the truth from the lore as stories have been retold through the generations? Will the twins still be speaking when they find out who inherits grandma's land? Orson and Ursula relive several childhood memories and reconstruct the mystery of how their great-grandfather laid claim to the land in the early 1900s.

The script is both warm and witty -- never shying away from the characters' grief, nor becoming too sappy or sentimental -- but keeps all of the customary sibling rivalry and comedy.

Slides projected against a curtain add an air of authenticity to the play.

Created by Chris Gilpin and Rosemary Rowe, who also star in the production, 87% True will appeal to many fans of Prairie history.

At 45 minutes, the only audience complaint might be the light-hearted comedy ends too soon.

HA ha! Well, that's certainly a complaint we can live with. Thanks, Star-Phoenix! Woooooo!

Slurpee count = 72

EYE Review Part II - Electric Boogaloo

Kate and Rose did a show together at the SummerWorks Festival last year and had the misfortune of getting a less than stellar review. For the "Review" section of our website, however, we managed to cobble together a more favourable sounding review using lines from the original, crappy review. Our "edited" version looked something like this: "Comedy . . . satire . . . play." and then Rose used her blog to suggest that the critic in question, ah . . . had crabs. HA ha!!

Fortunately for Rose and Chris, our "long form" EYE review, which came out yesterday, contained a great quote that requires only MINOR editing (i.e. removing the qualifiers preceding it).

"The playwrights/actors capture the embroidered and contradictory nature of both family and personal narrative. And, like any good family tale, it's equal parts lambasting and laughter."

Part of that baby is goin' on the poster for Saskatoon, my friends. Wooooo!

Slurpee count = 36

EYE Review!

The great thing about having a reviewer at your show on opening night is that hopefully many of your friends are there, laughing in the right places and giving you the benefit of the doubt.

The bad thing about having a reviewer at your show on opening night is that perhaps you haven't hit your stride yet and the show, as we noted in our last post, still has room to improve.

The AMAZING thing about having a reviewer at your show on opening night instead of your second show is that at least the slide projector worked on opening night, UNLIKE TODAY, when it inexplicably died at the very beginning of the show and Chris and Rose nearly crapped with fear. So we are thankful that EYE Magazine's Buffy Childerhose was, in fact, there on opening night. Here is her short review:

87% True: The Lies That Bind (3 stars)

A charming but uneven excavation of familial relations, 87% True is the comic tale of two “twins” who discover that they’re not bound by blood but by family narrative and, through dueling recollections and absurd assertions, must divine which of the two is the last of their bloodline, and if that line divides them. BC

Hey - we have no bone to pick with this review. The show IS charming and also, at the moment, a little uneven. AND 3 is Rose's lucky number!!  Good times.

Reading some of the other EYE reviews ("It's a shitfest! 2 stars!"), we feel we got a pretty kind and gentle reviewer. Thank you, Buffy Childerhose! Thank you.

Slurpee count = 28

Rumball count = 6

"This the best play I've ever seen. And I've seen some good shit." Dirk Waddington, Picayune Herald