ANGELS & ALIENS - VAN FRINGE 2018

Written by Jeff Leard and Sydney Hayduk, Angels & Aliens attempts to critically examine some of humanity's biggest questions. In this production they tackle religion, politics, environmental destruction, war, and awkward roommate sex. Leard and Hayduck offer an energetic and polished performance as well as a pleasantly critical and creative perspective on the human condition. This production consisted of three separate but related narratives, which Leard and Hayduck transitioned through neatly and effectively maintaining high energy levels throughout. Overall, a wonderful and entertaining piece of theatre.
 
Questions I am left with: I am interested in perspectives of people coming from a variety of backgrounds and belief systems and how they might respond to the narrative of this piece, as well as the critical stance Lead and Hayduck take against certain aspects of religion and politics. 

​Angels & Aliens by Peachy Keen Productions/Active Salad Productions is playing at Studio 1398 from the 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

~ reviewed by Madisen Steele

Click "read more" for the full  video transcript.

Welcome theatre addicts. My name is Madison Steel, and today I'm going to be reviewing a play called Angels and Aliens by Peachy Keen Productions, and Active Salad Productions at studio 1398, as a part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. I'm really looking forward to this show. It says that they're going to be answering some big questions, why do we exist? What is the universe? And that just sounds ... It doesn't sound fun, but it is a comedy, so I think it's going to be fun.
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And it's much easier to tackle all those kinds of questions under the guise of comedy rather than a serious play. So I think it's going to be maybe an excellent show. It is a local Vancouver company, which is also really exciting. They have done the Fringe Festival before. It says that they are Fringe favourites. So it's going to be a great time. I'm expecting big things from them. I'm not going to lie, I am. So I'll get back to you on how the show was, and the answers to those big universe questions.

Hey theatre addicts. I just saw Angels and Aliens. It was such an endearing show by two amazingly endearing performers. They were super funny, the show was very polished, very clever. Something that I thought they did really, really well specifically was the addition of audio, or I guess their use of audio in the show. They had an Alan Watts type soundtrack playing, and narration for most of it, and it was really, really fun.

It also just added a really nice layer to the piece that wouldn't have been there if it had just been them performing. It almost was its own character in a way, which was really quite clever. This was a super high energy show. It was well ... Like I said before, it was quite polished, and their transitions were pretty flawless to be honest with you. They had a lot of transitions because they were transitioning between three different narratives, and they did a really, really good job. You could tell that these are professional people who have done this before, which was great. That's not something you always see in the Fringe.
In terms of the actual content, there was some mature content, so this may not be a show for kids. However, they had some really interesting and funny perspectives on different big ideas. Big ideas in terms of, they had religious commentary, they had social and political commentary. The one thing that I did feel was that they were dealing with so much big subject matter, they could've taken a bit more time to let us settle in, unless they were doing that intentionally. And in that case, they did a great job.

But I, as an audience member, wanted a minute to catch up with everything that they were saying, and the way that they were saying it. And there was a lot of stuff that maybe this is a show that you go see twice, so you can catch everything. Because there was a lot of layers, and there was a lot to it that I feel like I maybe didn't get to digest fully. However, that's not always a bad thing. It just is what it is, right?

I'm actually really curious with this show about other people's perspectives, other people who ... I grew up Anglican-ish. They had a lot of religious commentary, a lot of social commentary, and that doesn't always sit well with everyone. So I'm really curious about other people's thoughts if they've seen the show, and Theatre Addicts would love to hear from you. If you've seen the show, and you have different thoughts than mine, or you thought that maybe some of the jokes were in bad taste, they may have been. It didn't strike me that way, but again, I come from a very specific perspective.

So we want to hear from you, and we want to hear your thoughts and your feelings about this show, and the subject matter. My name is Madison Steel. I just reviewed Angels and Aliens at studio 1398. Produced by Peachy Keen Productions, and Active Salad Productions, as a part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. Please follow Theatre Addicts. Like, subscribe, comment on the video. We want to hear your thoughts about this show, and all the other shows. And keep checking out the website, because there's going to be a lot more reviews posted after this one. All right, have an amazing Fringe, if you're taking part. Or if you're watching this video at a different time, have a great day. Take care, bye.