Review from Winnipeg Fringe Festival
CBC Winnipeg, July 16, 2004
More Tales From A Dodo
Walking into the black theatre on the third floor of Artspace, I was almost blinded by the sparkling turquoise chair and blue sequin fabric snaking across the stage (floor). The backdrop was simple - black curtains and a shimmering gold tapestry. This was the setting for More Tales from a Dodo ("Audience participation welcome & encouraged!!"), sequel to last year's Fringe Fest critical success Told by a Dodo.
The two-hander show started off with feathery puppets, Audrey the White Chicken (Michelle Seton) and Coco the Dodo (Luan de Burgh), beak-synching to "There's No Business like Show Business", which the lady beside me kindly enough decided to sing-along to as loudly as she could. Audrey and Coco were our MCs, introducing each of the three myths, The Wishing Fish, Maui and the Fingers of Fire and Lakshmi and the Clever Washer Woman which were told through mime, narration and dialogue. The first tale was Russian and centered around a greedy wife, her poor fisherman husband and a magical golden fish (moral: be thankful for what you have or don't listen to your wife if she's greedy). The New Zealand legend was about life and knowledge and had a mythological character with ten fingers of fire. The final myth took place during the Indian festival Divali which is when people put small lamps outside of their homes to attract Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. The acting was excellent and this production company, Purple Fish, is also putting on another show at the Fringe (for adults this time) with Michelle and Luan, called Perseus.