50 FUN THINGS - VAN FRINGE 2018

Written and in part performed by Jeff Hoffman. The story of 50 Fun Things is a musical romantic comedy that explores life from both positive and pessimistic angles. Opening with a scene about the current state of their relationship, characters: Kelcie and Seth present to you scenes of the beginnings of their relationship and their quest to find 50 fun things to do.

This show is definitely a tear-jerker but it is also just so darn cute that you can’t help but smile. Filled with musical recordings and accompanied by live singing and ukulele, 50 Fun Things will take you on an emotional journey that you will appreciate. And you may even feel better about life after seeing this show. 

50 Fun Things​ by Maniac Productions is playing at the Cultch Historic Theatre 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

~ reviewed by Selene Dublanko

Click "read more" for the full video transcript.

Selene Deblanco:             Hi theatre addicts. My name is Selene Deblanco and I will be reviewing 50 Fun Things as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. 50 Fun Things is taking place here at the Cultch Historic Theatre and it is put on by the production company, Maniac Productions. This is my friend, Aninna, and we are excited to go see 50 Fun Things.

Aninna:                                    50 Fun Things! Ah!

Selene Deblanco:             I'm excited for this show because I think the idea of it is that you are ... Wherever you are in life, if you're in a traffic jam or something there are apparently 50 fun things that you can do in that situation. I'm hoping to laugh, and have fun, and enjoy it. And then Aninna met one of the stars of the show earlier tonight.

Aninna:                                    Yeah.

Selene Deblanco:             Do you want to tell us about him?

Aninna:                                    And he is also the writer.

Selene Deblanco:             We sat behind him in the last show.

Aninna:                                    We did!

Selene Deblanco:             And he was super excited that we were coming to his show, but just seems very energetic.

Aninna:                                    He's clearly very much into theatre. I think the energy he brings will suit this genre very well. He told me that it was kind of a romantic story. We'll let you know.

Selene Deblanco:             That's it for now.

Selene Deblanco:             We just finished watching 50 Fun Things.

Aninna:                                    50 Fun Things. And it was fun, and there were at least 50 things.

Selene Deblanco:             They did do a lot of things. Yeah, so we finished watching it and it was a lot more emotional than I thought it would be. It was very touching, though, and very, very cute.

Aninna:                                    We're not gonna tell you the story because we don't want to spoil it for you. We want you to go see it. This was ... It was so cute. We laughed. We almost cried, some of us may have cried.

Selene Deblanco:             Almost cried. I cried.

Aninna:                                    And it was just such a light-hearted, and at times very serious, play. It balanced it so beautifully and the characters felt sincere. It was ... It really was so cute.

Selene Deblanco:             Yeah. So there are two characters. Kelsey and Seth, and it is a love story. I would say it is. But it's also just about life and death and about what you do and what you can do as life comes at you. And I felt that it was a very touching way to present our lives. And so these two people meet, and they maybe fall in love.

Aninna:                                    Maybe.

Selene Deblanco:             I'm not giving that much away, really. And then they sing songs along the way that actually increase the plot and we find more about the characters. But I could definitely identify with Seth sometimes.

Aninna:                                    Yeah.

Selene Deblanco:             Yeah, so.

Aninna:                                    One thing I would say kind of drew back from it a little bit ... It was a very small thing, but really I felt like sometimes the music was so loud that we couldn't hear the words of the songs. Did you kinda feel that way, as well?

Selene Deblanco:             Yeah. That was true, yeah. Maybe because they had like a recording of the music and then then actors would sing. And play ukulele along with it, which was very impressive. But sometimes it was just a bit too loud. And so you couldn't quite hear the full robustness of their beautiful voices.

Aninna:                                    Exactly. But it was still ... Once you got used to the volume, you started to understand what they were singing about and I just think even the music had such beautiful lyrics that it would have been really, really nice to hear all of it.

Selene Deblanco:             Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.

Aninna:                                    And we got to meet the cast, which was really sweet.

Selene Deblanco:             Yeah. They seemed very sweet and Jeff Hoffman is the playwright. He wrote the play and-

Aninna:                                    And the lead actor.

Selene Deblanco:             And wrote all the music.

Aninna:                                    You can tell it was kind of definitely like a labour of love. He's been working on this play for six years, we found it.

Selene Deblanco:             It's very good, very touching. Very warm and fuzzy.

Aninna:                                    And you know what? You could probably even take your kids to it.

Selene Deblanco:             My name is Selene. I am reviewing 50 Fun Things by Maniac Production, which is taking place at the Cultch Historic Theatre as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. We'd love to hear what you think about this show or any other shows that are taking part at the festival, so please comment in the comment section below because we'd love to hear from you. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the Theatre Addicts YouTube channel and look out for more reviews and interviews as they come out. Hope your enjoy your Fringe.