In “Bike Face” a very charming narrator takes her audience across Canada on a hair-raising adventure. Natalie Frijia’s writing is poetic and intelligent. She conjures up the scenery accurately as she recreates her journey from Halifax to Vancouver. Natalie’s storytelling is so vivid and uncliched that you feel like you’re on this epic bike trip with her in the flesh. She recounts quirky stories about experiences she has on the way and shares her encounters with birds, mosquitoes, and with the most peculiar creatures of all, humans! Natalie bases her story on challenging the overarching message girls receive from society about travel, sports, adventure, and exploration: a big fat NO! She follows in the footsteps of her favoruite explorer and seeks to defy all the odds people keep warning her about.
We get a heartfelt picture of the fear that creeps up on Natalie over the course of her trip and eventually takes hold of her despite her fighting it off so bravely for most of her life. She makes us understand just how vulnerable a woman is on the road. She tells us about the sexist attitudes that are routinely thrown at her. Not only is Natalie an exceptional athlete, she is also a Ph.D candidate in search of her thesis topic. She approaches the world with a rational mindset and the world, especially the world of humans, refuses to follow any rationality. I loved Natalie’s combination of poetic storytelling, academic discourse, and upbeat cycling playlist. She has a bike parked on stage which she rides in place, and then dismounts to tell stories. The story never gets boring and moves swiftly. Natalie’s personality shines in her performance. She comes across as a non-self-congratulatory person who is intelligent, trusting, and ambitious. Her love for exploration is something that I can’t relate to but the show did allow me to experience her passion closely. I can’t imagine overcoming the fear of riding alongside trucks on highways and camping alone in the dark. For women the consequences of taking a risk like this are exponentially greater than for a man.
I found it a little disappointing that while traversing the great expanse of Canada, Natalie doesn’t mention indigenous people at all or harken to them, even in passing. When speaking about the dangers faced by women on Canadian highways, she also misses the chance to talk about the highway of tears. The consequences of taking the risks that Natalie takes are exponentially detrimental for indigenous women. The privilege that Natalie enjoys keeps her from a lot of the harms that befall women of colour and especially indigenous women. “Bike Face” is about women going out and doing things that they are told not to do. For some women this is easier than for others.
“Bike Face” is also about riding across this beautiful country of ours and it is remiss to not make any references to the true ancestors of this land and instead surmise over the death of a boatfull of Irish immigrants by typhus. I also had trouble relating to the idea of exploration – marching into the unknown with blind confidence and conquering unknown lands, which strikes me as a very colonial sentiment.
Natalie’s play is heartwarming and inspiring. She has an eye for beauty and the heart of a poet. She has created a beautiful piece around an incredible feat. She does have a few blind spots here which could be easily fixed with a sprinkling of respectful historic and cultural acknowledgements. Having said that, this is a great show that makes you feel good and makes you fall in love with the authenticity of its storyteller. It’s a back to basics show – no props (except for the bike), no visuals, no gimmicks. Pure impassioned plot-based storytelling. I loved it.
“Crazy for Dick Tricks: A Dick Darrow Investigation” is a magic and comedy show based loosely on a film noir murder mystery. Tim Motley is a seasoned performer and you can tell he has done these magic tricks and almost scripted interactions with the audience before. The show has a lively street performance vibe which Motley admits is his background and that “lost [him] a star in a review”. He plays three characters in the show – a detective, a preacher, a professor and himself. Woven into the monologues of these individuals are interactive magic tricks with the audience that are more silly and tongue-in-cheek than technically impressive. Motley excels at cheesy humour and puts a smile on your face with puns and word play. However, there is little creativity in this show. Nothing is spectacular. The plot is predictable. The audience doesn’t really care about who killed whom, they are more interested in Motley’s playful antics. Motley’s characters and accents are very entertaining and one wishes he would have concentrated on showing us more of this rather than spending time on magic tricks that even children would not be fooled by. Motley has a great personality and does deliver a light-hearted and low mental investment entertainment piece but if you’re looking to be challenged with something fringe-y this is not the show for you.
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– Prachi Kamble