When my BFF Bob asked me if I was seeing Bremen Rock City at Fringe it caught me off guard. I had read positive reviews for the play but it was never on my radar since it's part of the Fringe Kids! program, which are productions intended for a 3-12 year old audience. And though it never occurred to me to see a Fringe Kids! play, I wasn't opposed to the idea in theory. I regularly pick movies at TIFF from the TIFF Kids program and it has yielded positive results in the past. Also, I thought it was hilarious that Bob clearly had no idea he had suggested a children's play. I mean, this is the guy who reviews movies by telling me exactly how much nudity I can expect to see. I decided to let this one play out (no pun intended), and off to Bremen Rock City we went.
It was... good but uneven. The execution was very no frills but very thoughtful, with the cast taking on the roles of many different animals in costumes that were more suggestive than literal, which was pretty cool. Some of the original music was quite catchy but I thought it odd that the clear show-stopping song happened around the mid-way point and was not saved for the finale (that the premise involved a battle of the bands and then proceeded to use a weak song as their "entry" was a misstep for sure). When it was clever it was very clever and it had a few jokes built-in for adults, which was appreciated. But despite its earnestness it felt somewhat wasted on the audience, who were either too old to need the lesson or too young to understand. This would have been a great play for an audience of 7-9 year olds but unfortunately all the kids I saw were probably in the 3-5 range. They were entertained but I doubt they left with its message in mind. Let's hope their parents took the time afterwards to walk them through it.
As for Bob, I can't say for sure if he enjoyed it or not but almost immediately after the play ended he started to claim that this whole thing was my idea so I suspect he wasn't blown away.
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