TREVOR & MARGARET - VAN FRINGE 2018

Trevor and Margaret is staged at XY, a nightclub with a small stage, made for intimate shows. And Trevor and Margaret get intimate while holding each other at bay. Is it love? Or is Trevor self-destructive? And when someone is self-destructive, will they go down alone, or will they take those closest with them? You may not find answers in this production but it will open up questions and give you and your theatre-going friends something to explore.
 
The cast made good use of a small stage and a limited set and lighting. They had nothing more than three black chairs on stage. However, as characters came in and out of a scene and switched from interacting to monologue, both the lights and the chairs clearly indicated to the audience what was happening on stage.
 
If you are in love, or think you might be, yet struggle with love and family dynamics and their interplay, this could be the play for you.

Trevor and Margaret by Tomosuru Productions is playing at XY 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

~ reviewed by Melody Owen

Click "read more" for the full video transcript.

Hey Theatre Addicts, it's Melody. I was just on Granville Island, and now I have a show at XY in downtown. And so I took the ferry over, so I thought I'd stop here and just do my little intro here just to remind you that if you do have show on Granville Island, and then a show downtown you can take the little ferry over; it's a great way to go venue to venue if you're going back and forth.

My next show is Trevor and Margaret at XY. I've been there before. It's got a great little stage, and I'm really looking forward to this. I'm just going to read you a little bit from their flyer. So they have this great flyer .... oops sorry guys. This great flyer.

I'm just going to read you a little bit from it. It says, Trevor is a man who has complex feelings around the idea of love, and is subsequently on a journey. I think we're all on a journey in that case. And the playwright Gerald Williams, says in there, in the description, you know he wants people to think about whether they prefer to be loved, or to love.

So I'm expecting this play to be about the journey to love and maybe in like finding yourself, lets you figure out what it is that love means to you and who you want to love, and who you are. So I'm really looking forward to this, and I will see you after the show.

Hey guys, so welcome back. So I just finished watching Trevor and Margaret. So the one word that I'm going to use to describe this is, unexpected. It was about love, it was about a journey of love, and I thought it was going to be about romantic love, but it wasn't. There was other aspects to it, and I don't want to give it away, so I won't say more than that. But it's more than just romantic love, and it was unexpected. I want to say that, it was really neat.

Another thing I would really like to talk about is the set. The entire set was three chairs. And because it's in a club, and although they have a stage and it's a great stage, it's not a full theatre. It is a club, so they don't have all the lighting options. But they use the lighting and the set quite well. Three chairs and limited in lighting, but they use the idea of sitting or standing, depending on whether they were thinking or talking, whether in scene or out of the scene.

And they used lighting to express whether they were, the actors were, in conversations with one another or whether they were in their own thoughts. And so they used, for this type of theatre, they used the lighting and the set, the limited set really well. I really enjoyed that part of it. That was probably my favourite part of it.

The dad character, I have to say, he was that dad. Or at least you thought he was that dad, but then he wasn't as that dad, as you thought he would be. And that was interesting, that was unexpected as well. And I don't want to spoil it, so I don't want to say more than that. But you know, there's more father son, there's more of a father son relationship than you might originally think there is when you read the synopsis of the play. And that was fun.

And then the one thing, the one thing that I found a little hard, I sat in the back, and I did find it a little hard to hear the actors sometimes. They were a little quiet at times. And I know that you do want to become quiet at certain times, and be louder at certain times. But when they were being quiet, I did sometimes have a little bit of trouble just hearing them. And they're not mic'ed, at least I don't think they were mic'ed. And so I guess it is a small intimate space, but I still had some trouble hearing them just every once in a while.

So this was an interesting story of love and reconciliation. So, you know if you're interested in love and reconciliation, and sexuality, and trying to figure out who you are and what your sexuality is, this is a show that would be for you. It's at XY, it is called Trevor and Margaret.
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One thing you should know about XY, it is 19 plus, so don't bring your kids. And I'm Melody and this is Theatre Addicts. So if you have a comment, if you see the show, comment and tell me what you thought of the relationship between the father and son. I'd be really interested to hear that. And subscribe to our YouTube channel, and we'll see you at the next performance.